debster's - Rented List

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In November, 1959, the shocking murder of a smalltown Kansas family captures the imagination of Truman Capote (Philip Seymour Hoffman), famed author of "Breakfast at Tiffany's.

" Capote sets out to investigate with his childhood friend Harper Lee (Catherine Keener), winning over the locals despite his flamboyant appearance and style. When he forms a bond with the killers and their execution date nears, the writing of "In Cold Blood," a book that will change the course of American Literature, takes a drastic toll on Capote, changing him in ways he never imagined.

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Filmed by great Russian director Mikhail Kalatozov during 1963 - 1964, I am Cuba (or Soy Cuba) is an epic poem to Communist Kitsch - a dramatic journey through the decadence of Batista's Havana and the grinding poverty and oppression of the Cuban people.

In the four stories showing the rise of the revolution, Kalatozov's astonishing, acrobatic and groundbreaking camera work takes the viewer on a sweeping ride encompassing bathing beauties, landless peasants and student revolutionaries. The film was rediscovered and presented by directors Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorses at the Sundance and Cannes film festivals to critical acclaim.

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Velma (Courtney Love), a young newly wed, shares a working honeymoon with Norwood (Sy Richardson), a hit-man and bank robber. Norwood and his parents Sims (Joe Strummer) and Willy (Dick Rude) fail in the murder they have been hired to commit, pull a bank heist instead, and flee town.

When their misfueled car breaks down, they bury the stolen loot and hike into an almost deserted oilfield settlement. Unfortunately, this nameless village is a hideout of the coffee-addicted McMahon Bandit gang (Kathy Burke, Elvis Costello, Bif Yeager and The Pogues). Tension, fuelled by copious amounts of coffee, mounts as the bank robbers try to keep a low profile and the sultry Velma falls for two of the McMahons. Norwood tries to keep his cool and almost manages... until Dr Farben (Dennis Hopper) and his bodyguard (Grace Jones) arrive...

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Psychologically unfit for life as a child, Virgil Starkwell (Woody Allen) begins a life of compulsive petty crime. Before reaching the age of 25, he has become an extremely inept criminal who is known to police by five aliases.

For a while, however, his life seems to change when he meets and falls in love with the beautiful Louise (Janet Margolin). But it's not long before his compulsive ways return and he sets out to rob banks and fail in increasingly fascinating and hilarious ways.

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A comic series of short vignettes built on one another to create a cumulative effect, as the characters discuss things as diverse as caffeine popsicles, Paris in the '20s, and the use of nicotine as an insecticide-all the while sitting around sipping coffee and smoking cigarettes.

As director Jim Jarmusch delves into the normal pace of our world from an extraordinary angle, he shows just how absorbing the obsessions, joys and addictions of life can be, if truly observed.

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Based on the journals of the man who would later become the revolutionary Che Guevara, The Motorcycle Diaries follows the story of two young Argentines, Ernesto Guevara and Alberto Granado on a road trip to discover real Latin America.

The two friends leave their familiar surrounding in Buenos Aires on a rickety 1939 Norton 500. Although the bike breaks down in a course of their eight month journey, they press onward, hitching rides along the way. They begin to see a different Latin America in the people they meet on the road, and the diverse geography they encounter begins to reflect their own shifting perspectives. This is a start of a journey of self-discovery, tracing the origins of a revolutionary heart.

Willie (John Lurie), a Hungarian emigre living in New York City, is disgruntled by the arrival of his sixteen-year-old cousin Eva (Eszter Balint). Along with his pal Eddie (Richard Edson), they take a journey through the American landscape, never really settling on a direction.

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Ken Loach's acclaimed 1936-set film about the Spanish Civil War stars Ian Hart as a disillusioned Liverpudlian who decides to follow his principles and join the fight against fascism in Spain.

Taking up with a poorly armed Republican alliance, he soon becomes enmeshed in the desperate struggle to protect the country's democratic government from General Franco's advancing armies. David bonds deeply with his comrades, especially the beautiful Blanca (Rosana Pastor), but is dismayed as political infighting threatens to plunge the whole resistance movement into turmoil. Epic in scope and brilliantly acted, 'Land and Freedom' is one of the most unique, powerful and moving war films ever made.

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After the critical triumphs of Stranger Than Paradise and Down By Law, director Jim Jarmusch was heralded as one of the most arresting filmmaker to surface in the American cinema.

Mystery train is a smart and curiously affecting comedy, that is funny and thoroughly satisfying! Named after the Elvis Presley hit, 'Mystery Train'interweaves three engrossing stories, all centering around the Elvis Presley legend and his beloved hometown of Memphis. As the characters' path collide - through laughter, fear and fate - you can practically feel the presence of the King himself in every scene...and his legacy impressed on a generation of equally lost souls in this wry, brilliantly structured comedy.

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Stanley Kubrick's classic black comedy about a group of war-eager military men who plan a nuclear apocalypse is both funny and frightening - and seems as relevant today as ever. Through a series of military and political accidents, two psychotic generals - U.S. Air Force Commander Jack D.

Ripper (Sterling Hayden) and Joint Chief of Staff "Buck" Turgidson (George C. Scott) - trigger an ingenious, irrevocable scheme to attack Russia's strategic targets with nuclear bombs. The brains behind the scheme belong to Dr Strangelove (Peter Sellers), a wheelchair-bound nuclear scientist who has bizarre ideas about man's future. The President (also Sellers) is helpless to stop the bombers, as is Captain Mandrake (Sellers once again). Dr. Sstrangelove is truly a classic film.

Meantime centres on an East End family, the Pollacks - Mavis, Frank and their sons Mark and Colin — and their experience of unemployment, poverty and life in early 1980s Britain. When Colin (Tim Roth) comes under the influence of skinhead Coxy (Gary Oldman), family tensions erupt into conflict-

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Alvin's eyesight is poor, he has little money and he can't stand the thought if being driven anywhere. So when he discovers his estranged brother has suffered a stroke he decides to make the journey by the only means of transport available to him - a John Deere lawnmower.

Hundreds of miles, six weeks and several breakdowns later Alvin Straight (Richard Farnsworth) finally pulls up at his destination, where the fate of his brother awaits him.

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Cliff Stern (Woody Allen) is an idealistic filmmaker…until he is offered a lucrative job shooting a flattering profile of a pompous TV producer (Alan Alda).

Judah Rosenthal (Martin Landau) is the pillar of his community…until he learns that his ex-mistress (Anjelica Huston) plans to expose his financial and extramarital misdeeds. As Cliff chooses between integrity and selling out, and Judah decides between the counsel of his Rabbi (Sam Waterson) and the murderous advice of his mobster brother (Jerry Orbach), each man must examine his own morality, and make an irrevocable decision - that will change everyone's lives forever.

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Leonard Zelig (Woody Allen) is a man so introverted and insecure that he has developed the ability to blend perfectly into the background of any given situation, regardless of the personality or even ethnicity of the people around him.

But when he inadvertently becomes famous as "the human chameleon" after the media takes too keen an interest in his therapy sessions with Dr. Eudora Fletcher (Mia Farrow), Zelig is faced with an unprecedented challenge: how do you fade into the background when the spotlight is firmly upon you?

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Diane Keaton stars as Carol Lipton, a bored Manhattan housewife who becomes convinced that her next-door neighbour has committed a murder. When her sceptical husband Larry (Woody Allen) rejects the idea, Carol turns to a flirtatious friend (Alan Alda) to help her search for clues.

And as their enthusiasm for the case grows, so does their interest in each other. Spurred on by jealousy - and by a seductive writer (Anjelica Huston) who's also excited by the mystery - Larry reluctantly joins the chase, only to learn that much more than his marriage is at stake. A comic romp bursting with wry one-liners and inspired sight gags.