david-3's - Rented List

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A dramatic anti-war romantic comedy set on the northern border between Russia and Finland during World War II a few weeks before the Finnish surrender in 1944, 'The Cuckoo' tells the compelling story of two runaways - a Russian captain (Victor Bychkov) and a Finnish sniper (Ville Haapasalo) - who

find refuge with a young Lapp widower (Anni-Kristiina Juuso). Naturally, there arc cultural and linguistic barriers between them, not to mention war rivalries. Yet they slowly get to know each other and their very separate worlds come together in both comic and tragic ways.

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Like a brand, the letter M has made it's mark on film history; it's disturbing theme having lost none of its impact or relevance. Sinister, dark and foreboding, M tells the story of Hans Beckert (Peter Lorre) - child molester and murderer. Tension builds - a child late home - another child missing.

Posters reveal the fate of earlier victims, and the Police seem to have few clues as to the perpetrator of the crimes. Gangsters, beggars and petty criminals, incensed by both the crimes and the Police crackdown, track the killer themselves. Cornered, caught and dragged off to face an equally barbaric form of justice, Beckert endures his own personal torment.

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Part poetry, part journalism, part philosophy, Jean-Luc Godard's Notre Musique is a meditation on war as seen through the prisms of cinema, text and image.

Largely set at a literary conference in Sarajevo, the film draws on the conflagration of the Bosnian war, the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, the brutal treatment of Native Americans and the legacy of the Nazis. Structured into the three Kingdoms of Dante's Divine Comedy - Hell, Purgatory and Heaven - Notre Musique sees real-life literary figures intermingle with actors and documentary mesh with friction. The film also follows the parallel stories of two Israeli women, Judith Lerner (Sarah Adler) who is drawn to the light and Olga Brodsky (Nade Dieu), who is drawn towards darkness. Through evocative language and images, Godard spins an elaborate piece which shows forces moving in eternal opposition and confirms his position as one of cinema's greatest directors.

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"Emily" tells the imagined life of one of the world's most famous authors, Emily Brontë. The film stars Emma Mackey as Emily, a rebel and misfit, as she finds her voice and writes the literary classic Wuthering Heights.

"Emily" explores the relationships that inspired her – her raw, passionate sisterhood with Charlotte (Alexandra Dowling) and Anne (Amelia Gething); her first aching, forbidden love for Weightman (Oliver Jackson-Cohen) and her care for her maverick brother (Fionn Whitehead) whom she idolises. Frances O'Connor makes her directorial debut with "Emily," from her own original screenplay.

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Los Angeles, city of angels. Amnesiac and wounded, a mysterious femme fatale wanders on the sinuous road of Mulholland Drive. She finds a shelter at Betty's house (Naomi Watts). an aspiring actress just arrived from her hometown and in search of stardom in Hollywood.

First of all intrigued by the stranger who calls herself Rita (Laura Elena Harring), Betty discovers that her handbag is dull of dollar bundles. The two women get to know each other better and decide to investigate in order to discover Rita's true identity....

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Winner of the Golden Bear at the 2006 Berlin Film Festival, Jasmila Zbanic's striking debut film focuses on the Balkan War's painful aftermath on a Bosnian woman and her daughter.

Esma (Mirjana Karanovic) is living with her 12-year-old daughter Sara (Luna Zimic Mijovic) in Grbavica, a quarter of the Bosnian capital Sarajevo. When Sara wants to participate in a school trip, Esma tries to find a way to pay the full price, although a certificate proving Sara's father is a war hero would allow her a discount...

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For more than 50 years, Ingmar Bergman produced groundbreaking works of cinema that established him as one of the world's acclaimed, enduring and influential filmmakers.

The Silence (1963)

The final film in Bergman's religious triptych proved the most controversial, despite its narrative seeming more removed from direct questions of faith. Sisters Anna (Gunnel Lindblom) and Ester (Ingrid Thulin), along with Anna's young son, break their train journey in a foreign city because of Ester's ill health. The local language feels incomprehensible, the country seems on the brink of war and the hotel they reside in becomes the locus of sexual tension, humiliation and mortal anxiety. God, as the title suggests, is not even an absence in this desolate landscape.
All These Women (1964)
Bergman's first colour film brings together his favourite female leads in an ensemble satire that pokes fun at the vanity of artists and those who enable their pomposity. The women are the lovers of a lauded cellist, Felix, with whom they share a grand country estate and carefully divide his time between them. Having both indulged and infantilised Felix, they then set about humiliating a pretentious music critic who comes to visit - a narrative strand that the director seems to enjoy almost as much as his fictional harem.

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When Chicago musicians Joe (Tony Curtis) and Jerry (Jack Lemmon) accidentally witness a gangland shooting they quickly board a southbound train to Florida, disguised as Josephine and Daphne, the two newest and homeliest members of an all-girl jazz band. Their cover is perfet...

until a lovelorn singer (Marilyn Monroe) falls for "Josephine", an ancient play-boy (Joe Brown) falls for "Daphne", and a mob boss (George Raft) refuses to fall for their hoax!

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A tale of miraculous resurrection brought about by human love, Ordet is an extraordinary expression of spiritual optimism without being either sentimental or pious.

Religious intolerance and family tensions lie at the heart of the film, which explores the clash between orthodox religions and true faith. Dreyer achieves its powerful effects in deceptively simple ways, and has produced, in its closing moments, one of the most extraordinary scenes in all cinema.

Licorice Pizza is the timeless story of Alana Kane and Gary Valentine growing up, running around and falling in love in the San Fernando Valley, 1973.

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Gillo Pontecorvo's multi-award winning picture 'The Battle of Algiers' has perhaps never been as pertinent as it is now. Set from 1954 to 1962, the movie uses documentary-style black and white photography to recreate real events.

Algerian liberation fighters use terrorist techniques against the French colonial occupiers; the French retaliate with brutal military force. Brilliantly directed set-pieces and remarkable crowd scenes make the film a masterpiece; the ominous familiarity of its subject makes it a must-see" - The Times How to win battle against terrorism and lose the war of ideas. Children shoot soldiers at point blank range. Women plant bombs in Cafes. Sounds familiar? The French have a plan. It succeeds tactically, but fails strategically. To understand why, come to a rare showing of this film.'' - Pentagon tlyer for their in-house screening of Battle Of Algiers All the armies of the world - including the Pentagon - will never, but never, be able to conquer a country which wants to control its own destiny" - Saadi Yacef

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Among the most highly praised titles in all contemporary film, this singular masterpiece of Taiwanese cinema, directed by Edward Yang, was unavailable for years and much sought after. Set in the early 1960s, 'A Brighter Summer Day' is based on the true story of a crime that rocked Taiwan.

A film of both sprawling scope and tender intimacy, this novelistic, patiently observed epic centers on the gradual but inexorable fall of a young teenager (Chang Chen, in his first role) from innocence to delinquency, and is set against a simmering backdrop of restless youth, rock and roll, and political turmoil.

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Inseparable sisters raised in a small town on the Irish border, Lauren (Nora-Jane Noone) and Kelly's (Nika McGuigan) lives were shattered with the mysterious death of their mother.

Left to pick up the pieces after her sister abruptly disappeared, Lauren is suddenly confronted with the family's dark and traumatic past when Kelly returns home after being reported missing for a whole year. With the intense sisterhood reignited, Kelly's desire to unearth their history is not welcomed by all in the small town, as rumours and malice spread like wildfire, threatening to push them over the edge.

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Two women, Janis (Penélope Cruz) and Ana (Milena Smit), meet in a hospital where they are about to give birth. Both are single and became pregnant by accident. Janis, middle-aged, has no regrets and is exultant. The other, Ana, an adolescent, is scared and repentant.

Janis tries to encourage her as they move like sleepwalkers through the hospital corridors. The few words they exchange in these hours will create a very close link between them, which by chance will develop and complicate, changing their lives in a decisive way.

When elderly mother Edna (Robyn Nevin), inexplicably vanishes, her daughter Kay (Emily Mortimer) and granddaughter Sam (Bella Heathcote) rush to their family's decaying country home. When Edna returns her behaviour is strangely volatile.