carls-5-films's - Rented List

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In the aftermath of a 1990 earthquake that left at least thirty thousand dead, Abbas Kiarostami returned to Koker, where his camera surveys not only devastation but also the teeming life in its wake.

Blending fiction and reality into a playful, poignant road movie, 'And Life Goes On' follows a film director who, along with his son, makes the trek to the region in hopes of finding out if the young star of 'Where is the Friend's House?' is among the survivors, and discovers a resilient community pressing on in the face of tragedy. Finding beauty in the bleakest of circumstances, Kiarostami crafts a quietly majestic ode to the best of the human spirit.

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The film that brought Jacques Tati international acclaim also launched his on-screen alter ego: the courteous, well-meaning, eternally accident-prone Monsieur Hulot with whom Tati would from now on be inseparably associated.

As with Jour de fete, Vacances is set in a sleepy French coastal resort which is seasonally disrupted by holidaymakers in energetic pursuit of fun. At the centre of the chaos is the eccentric Hulot, struggling at all times to maintain appearances, but somehow entirely divorced from his immediate surroundings. There is little plot in Tati's beautifully orchestrated 'ballet' of comic action: it's a series of incidents, a seamless succession of gently studies of human absurdity.

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Sold by her impoverished mother to Zampano (Anthony Quinn), a brutish fairground wrestler, waif-like Gelsomina (Giulietta Masina) lives a life of drudgery as his assistant.

After taking to the road with a travelling circus, a budding relationship with II Matto/The Fool (Richard Basehart), a gentle-natured, tightrope walking clown, offers a potential refuge from her master's clutches. Trapped by her own servile nature, Gelsomina waivers, and Zampano's volcanic temper erupts with tragic consequences. Characteristically mingling elements of biography with metaphor and symbolism, 'La Strada' also combines an easygoing charm with a far harder edged realism in the form of domestic violence and decaying, desolate towns. Masina - Fellini's wife - is astonishing in the central role and what with the evocative Nino Rota score and Otello Martelli's ravishing photography, it's little wonder that 'La Strada' was the winner of the first official Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

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Gloria Swanson as Norma Desmond, an ageing silent film queen, and William Holden as the struggling writer who is held in thrall by her madness, created two of the screen's most memorable characters in Sunset Boulevard.

Winner of three Academy Awards, director Billy Wilder's orchestration of the bizarre tale is a true cinematic classic. From the unforgettable opening sequence through the inevitable unfolding of tragic destiny, the film is the definitive statement on the dark and desperate side of Hollywood. Erich von Stroheim as Desmond's discoverer, ex-husband and butler, and Nancy Olson as the bright spot in unrelenting ominousness, are equally celebrated for their masterful performances.

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On the eve of World War I, the quiet order of a small protestant village in Northern Germany is disturbed by a series of mysterious and inexplicable accidents.

To the mounting concern of the villagers, the events persist, becoming increasingly sinister and taking on the character of a perverse punishment ritual. But who is responsible.

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‘City Lights’ begins with an uproarious skewering of pomp and formality, ends with one of the most famous last shots in movie history and, from start to finish, so completely touches the heart and tickles the funny bone that in 1998 it was named one of the American Film Institute’s Top-100 American

Films. Talkies were well entrenched when Charles Chaplin swam against the filmmaking tide with this forever classic that’s silent except for music and sound effects. The story, involving the Tramp’s attempts to get money for an operation that will restore sight to a blind flower girl, provides a star with an ideal framework for sentiment and laughs. The tramp is variously a street sweeper, a boxer, a rich 0poseur, and a rescuer of a suicidal millionaire. His message is unspoken, but universally understood: love is blind.

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In this gently probing family drama, 40-year-old Ryota (Hiroshi Abe) arrives with his wife and stepson at the home of his elderly parents to commemorate his older brother, who drowned some years earlier.

Hirokazu Koreeda's most Ozu-influenced film is a subtle, moving account of family tensions that delves deep into the differing assumptions and value systems of its generations. This was the director's first film to feature veteran actress Kirin Kiki, who would become a regular collaborator.

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One heaves rocks through windows. The other happens by in the nick of time to offer his services as an expert window repairman. It's a system that works.

So does everything else about this beloved Charlie Chaplin classic whose blend of laughs and pathos changed the notion of what a screen comedy could be. For the first time as a filmmaker, Chaplin stepped into feature-length storytelling with this tale of the down-but-never-out Tramp (Chaplin) and the adorable ragamuffin (6-year-old Jackie Coogan) who, rescued as a foundling and raised in the School of Hard Knocks by the Tramp, is this inseparable sidekick. Memorable scenes include a lesson in table manners, the bully brawl and the Tramp's angelic dream.

Armed with only one word - Tenet - and fighting for the survival of the entire world, the Protagonist journeys through a twilight world of international espionage on a mission that will unfold in something beyond real time.

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"The Legend of the Stardust Brothers" descended to earth from the brains of director Macoto Tezka, then a 22-year-old film student, and musician and TV star Haruo Chicada, who had just made a concept album about a fake band called the Stardust Brothers.

Together, they would join brainwaves to produce a 'Phantom of the Paradise' - inspired feature-length comedy set to the album. Two rival bandleaders - the punk Kan (Kan Takagi) and the new wave Shingo (Shingo Kubota) - are fused into a synth-pop duo by a shady record promoter with the stare of a Bond villain and the grease of a casino manager. The odd couple climb the charts alongside their fan club manager, a former groupie with star aspirations of her own. Together they soar into the stratosphere, dodging laser-beams and robots like they're in a futuristic Hard Day's Night, cozying up with white girls and snorting coke from kiddie pools like a Rolling Stone. But the higher the climb, the steeper the fall, especially as the film starts ripping the record industry for its soul-sucking exploitation, its conversion of joy into briefcases of cash, and its susceptibility to government interference.

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Iconic film maker Agnes Varda and photographer JR share a passion for images and how they're created, displayed and shared; Varda through cinema. JR through his emotionally arrested outdoor installations.

Inspired by this connection, they set out in JR's photo booth-enhanced truck, exploring the villages and small towns of rural France and meeting its humble residents - all the while creating large-scale portraits plastered across unconventional locations. What follows is a heart-warming insight into unnamed communities, documented here in Varda's typically playful and tender manner. A Cannes Film Festival award-winner and Oscar nominee, 'Faces Places' is a deeply charming and life-affirming look at not only the subtle power of community, but the inspiration that comes from the most cross-generational of friendships.

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13-year-old Antoine (Jean-Pierre Leaud) can't seem to do anything right. His dysfunctional parents yell at him, his spiteful schoolteacher picks on him and luck just never goes his way.

Despite his efforts at patience, one day it all becomes too much and Antoine throws in the towel, choosing to take his chances on the Paris streets. At times joyous and at others bitterly hard, his new life brings a newfound freedom - one that Antoine will follow up to its painful, poignant and beautiful conclusion...

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Charles Chaplin's Limelight is a glimmering homage to what was, a proud look at a bygone entertainment era and a bittersweet tale of an artist passing the torch to a new generation.

Chaplin portrays Calvero (the "tramp comedian" per an old theatrical poster in his room), who rescues a distraught ballerina from suicide and mentors her to success. Among the film's comedy highlights is a musical routine that's anything but routine in the hands of legend Chaplin and stoney-faced Buster Keaton. The extraordinary score by Chaplin, Raymond Rasch and Larry Russell earned the screen legend his only competitive Oscar.

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Two classics from famous Finish director Aki Kaurismäki.

Hamlet Goes Business (1987)

An irresponsible playboy finds himself involved in a vicious boardroom power struggle with his uncle who plans to sell off his company's assets in order to corner the market on Swedish rubber ducks. In this wicked and hilarious satire of the corporate world, Kaurismaki liberally updates Shakespeare's tragedy as a hard-boiled noir B-movie.
La Vie de Bohème (1992)
A painter, a playwright and a composer become friends in Paris as they constantly fight to survive and get enough money to make it through the week.

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When beautiful straight - A high school student Kanako goes missing, her mother asks ex-husband Akikazu - a drifting, irresponsible former cop - to find their daughter. He embarks on a desperate search in the hope of reuniting his 'perfect family' by any means necessary.

But as his investigation progresses, Akikazu starts to discover the darkness that lies behind his daughter's impeccable facade. Glue by clue, revelation by revelation, he starts his descent into the hellish underworld of Kanako's secret life...