chris-5's - Rented List
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Blame It on Fidel (2006)La faute à Fidel!
Adapted for the screen and directed by Julie Gavras, Blame it on Fidel focuses on feisty Parisienne girl Anna whose cosy bourgeois life is turned upside down when her parents discover radical socialism. Suddenly thrown into a world of contradictory ideologies, Anna must adjust to her new life and find a way to internalise the well meaning intentions of her parents. It is 1970 and nine-year old Anna (Kervel) is not amused. Seemingly overnight her bourgeois family have decided to abandon their middle class life and transform into leftist radicals. Gone is the grand family pad, gone are the new clothes and, humiliatingly, gone are Anna's beloved Catechism lessons. In their place is a cramped apartment filled with bearded revolutionaries, demonstrations and refugee nannies with strange cooking habits. Meanwhile Anna decides to rebel in her own way. - Director:
- Julie Gavras
- Cast:
- Nina Kervel-Bey, Julie Depardieu, Stefano Accorsi
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The Taste of Others (2000)Le Gout Des Autres
Castella is a rich but lonely man. He has built up a successful business but has lost sight of himself, his wife and his family in the process. Clara is a middle-aged actress who lives for the theatre but craves for a family and some security in her life. Clara teaches English in her spare time and this is how she meets Castella. There is no obvious attraction at first but when he just happens to see her perform in the theatre she triggers something inside him. Castella begins to pursue her aggressively, attempting to break into her social circle and even shaving off his moustache. But it into her social circle and even shaving c is only when he leaves his wife and becomes more considerate and sensitive to the people around him that Clara begins to have feelings for him. - Director:
- Agnès Jaoui
- Cast:
- Anne Alvaro, Jean-Pierre Bacri, Alain Chabat
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The Girl of Your Dreams (1998)La Nina De Tus Ojos
The year is 1938 and in the midst of the Civil War in Spain, the film industry has split into two opposing sides. As one of the many collaborations between Hitler and Franco, Germany invites a group of young filmmakers, who sympathise with the Nazi regime, to Berlin. They are there to shoot two versions of the Andalucian musical drama 'A Girl Of Your Dreams' one in German, one in Spanish. However, the hospitality extended to them by the German Minister for Propaganda, Joseph Goebbles, has more to do with the young charms of the actress Marcrena Granada (Penelope Cruz). What's more, the only Andalucian-looking extras they can find in Germany are Gypsies in a concentration camp. The seed of doubt starts to germinate in all of them, that maybe life itself is more important than a film. - Director:
- Fernando Trueba
- Cast:
- Penélope Cruz, Antonio Resines, Jorge Sanz
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The Chorus (2004)Les Choristes
1948. Clement Mathieu (Gerard Jugnot), an unemployed music teacher, finds a job as proctor in a correctional boarding school for minors. He is stunned by the harsh reality of the school's routine - particularly the extreme, largely ineffectual policies of the school's director Rachin (Francois Berleand). Mathieu sets out to change the pupils' lives by acquainting them with the magic and power of music... - Director:
- Christophe Barratier
- Cast:
- Gérard Jugnot, François Berléand, Jean-Baptiste Maunier
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Stars of "Strictly Come Dancing" Vincent Simone and Flavia Cacace have dazzled TV and stage audiences for years with their stunning Tango routines. Now they have created their own live show - Midnight Tango - a breathtaking evening bringing all the drama, sensuality and elegance of this most exciting of dance forms to life. Set in a late night bar in downtown Buenos Aires, feature takes you on a journey into the heart of this intoxicating city. As danger and excitement, joy and jealousy, pain and passion all combine... - Director:
- Colin Fay
- Cast:
- Flavia Cacace, Vincent Simone, Arlene Phillips
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Same Old Song (1997)On Connait La Chanson
Adventurous Camille and married Odile are sisters living in Paris. Through her part-time job as a tour guide Camille meets Simon, a radio playwright, who by pure coincidence works for the estate agent from whom Odile is buying her dream apartment It's when Simon's boss, Marc, sees Camille and falls hopelessly in love and Odile's ex-boyfriend Nicolas suddenly turns up that affairs for the sisters get hilariously complicated. - Director:
- Alain Resnais
- Cast:
- Pierre Arditi, Sabine Azéma, Jean-Pierre Bacri
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Orchestra Seats (2006)Fauteuils d'orchestre
Orchestra Seats is charming romantic comedy which centers around Jessica a beautiful young woman from the provinces who comes to Paris and lands a job waiting tables at a chic bistro on fabled Avenue Montaigne, the city’s nexus for art, music, theater and fashion. Jessica’s customers include a popular TV actress who is courting a major Hollywood director for her first serious film role; a wealthy art collector who is about to liquidate a lifetime’s worth treasures at auction; and an illustrious classical pianist who is at odds with his wife as to where his career is headed. Precisely because Jessica doesn’t know how celebrated these people are, her guileless and completely unintimidated engagement in their lives has a transforming effect on them – and ultimately her. - Director:
- Danièle Thompson
- Cast:
- Cécile De France, Valérie Lemercier, Albert Dupontel
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Ludo lives with his loving family in a candy coloured Paris suburb. Life is sweet. But there's a problem. Ludo knows what he wants. He has a dream. Ludo wants to be a girl... Hilarious and heart-rending, a beautiful bittersweet story of magic, desire and difference, the award-winning 'Ma Vie En Rose' features a truly stunning performance from the extraordinary Georges Du Fresne. - Director:
- Alain Berliner
- Cast:
- Georges Du Fresne, Michèle Laroque, Jean-Philippe Écoffey
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Ayiva is a young single father living in Burkina Faso, West Africa, who dreams of a better life in Europe. After traveling a dangerous route on foot through the North African desert and by boat across the Mediterranean Sea from Libya, he arrives in the Italian town of Rosarno with his best friend Abas, determined to reap the economic rewards of their new life abroad. But what they find in Italy does not match the glittering images they have seen. Whilst Ayiva finds a sympathetic employer, who welcomes him into his home, Abas grows increasingly disillusioned with hi! hardscrabble reality. As tensions flare between local thugs and the migrant community, a vicious attack erupts into a full-blown riot and Ayiva is faced with the ultimate choice. - Director:
- Jonas Carpignano
- Cast:
- Koudous Seihon, Alassane Sy, Annalisa Pagano
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Bread and Tulips (1999)Pane e Tulipani
A Woman's Fairy Tale of Hope - a day trip just to get away is the starting point of a new life. Life's little turning points often come in the plainest forms. A casual encounter, a little oversight, a strange coincidence, a twist of fate. When a tour bus leaves without bored housewife and dutiful mother, Rosalba (Licia Maglietta), during a family holiday and not even her husband or children notice until it is too late, see sees an irresistible opportunity for freedom. 'Bread and Tulips' isn't so much about the difficult decisions we make in life, but the ones we make almost out of instinct...the wonderful, crazy spontaneity that makes us human. - Director:
- Silvio Soldini
- Cast:
- Licia Maglietta, Bruno Ganz, Giuseppe Battiston
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In James L. Brooks' quirky, romantic comedy, three ambitious workaholics are set loose in a network TV newsroom where their professional and personal lives become hopelessly cross-wired. Tom (William Hurt) is the modern anchorman, smooth, handsome and a bit dumb. Jane (Holly Hunter) is his driven, brilliant producer, determined to turn Tom into a real newsman. And Aaron (Albert Brooks) is a seasoned, totally uncharismatic reporter who can't stand Tom's instant success on-camera or with Jane. It all adds up to one explosively funny romantic triangle. - Director:
- James L. Brooks
- Cast:
- William Hurt, Albert Brooks, Holly Hunter
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Dante, a hind but somewhat naive school bus driver, falls in love with the beautiful and sophisticated Maria. Strangely, Maria seems equally enamoured of Dante and asks him to join her in Palermo. There's only one problem, Maria is married to the Mafioso, Johnny "The Toothpick" Stecchino, who bears an uncanny resemblance to the hapless bus driver... - Director:
- Roberto Benigni
- Cast:
- Roberto Benigni, Nicoletta Braschi, Paolo Bonacelli
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Marriage Italian Style (1964)Matrimonio all'italiana
Domenico (Marcello Mastroianni) first meets 17-year-old prostitute Filumena (Sophia Loren) in a Neapolitan brothel in the 2nd World War. After the war they become lovers on and off for 22 years. Domenico eventually rents an apartment for Filumena and even lets her run his shop but is always chasing other women. Finally Filumena asks Domenico to marry her on her deathbed, just before he had planned to marry his young cashier, and admits she had his legitimate child. Dominico uses different subterfuges trying to find which teenager might be his son... - Director:
- Vittorio De Sica
- Cast:
- Sophia Loren, Marcello Mastroianni, Aldo Puglisi
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Wayne left home because of an argument about pies. Cyril would like to machine gun the Royal family. Rupert and Laetitia Boothe-Brain play yuppie sex games, while deep in suburbia Valerie fails to arouse her husband Martin with a suggestion that he be Michael Douglas and she a virgin. Mrs Bender gets locked out of her house and is criticised by her neighbour for selfishly occupying a whole house in an increasingly fashionable area. And Cyril's girlfriend Shirley wants to start a family, but gets no encouragement from Cyril, who feels that the world should be spared more babies until everyone already here has a job, a place to live and enough to eat. - Director:
- Mike Leigh
- Cast:
- Phil Davis, Ruth Sheen, Edna Doré
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