dspc's - Rented List
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Mississippi Mermaid (1969)La sirène du Mississipi / Waltz Into Darkness
This enthralling, erotic tale of a young millionaire and his mysterious bride is bewitching, exciting and beautiful. Written and directed by legendary cinematic genius Francois Truffaut and featuring European superstars Catherine Deneuve and Jean-Paul Belmondo, 'Mississippi Mermaid' is nothing less than breathtaking. Beauty is by no means rare on the lush, tropical Isle de Reunion. yet when island resident and tobacco tycoon Louis Mahe first meets Julie Rouselle - his mail order fiancée - he's completely enraptured by her radiance. But it soon becomes clear that Julie is hiding a dark secret. And when she disappears without a trace, Louis vows to stop at nothing to find her - a resolution that lures him into a tangled web of relentless obsession, uncontrollable passion, and ultimately...cold-blooded murder! - Director:
- François Truffaut
- Cast:
- Catherine Deneuve, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Nelly Borgeaud
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The South (1983)El Sur
Recalling her youth in 1950s northern Spain, Estrella revisits her relationship with her beloved father Agustin, raised in the south, and realises how little she knew of him and his secrets. Victor Erice's delicate and mysterious film reveals his abiding fascination with memory and loss, missed opportunities and the links between private dreams and political realities. The performances, like the meticulously lit compositions and evocative soundtrack, are superb; Omero Antonutti is a charismatic Agustin, while Sonsoles Aranguren and Iciar Bollain shine as, respectively, the young and teenaged Estrella. Exquisitely beautiful, profoundly moving. - Director:
- Víctor Erice
- Cast:
- Omero Antonutti, María Massip, Sonsoles Aranguren
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Oscar Winners Marlon Brando, Anna Magnani, Joanne Woodward and Maureen Stapleton lead the stellar cast of this Southern gothic "sizzler" based on the Tennessee Williams play Orpheus Descending. Valentine "Snakeskin" Xavier (Brando) is a handsome drifter with a guitar...and a past. Taking a job as a stored clerk in Two Rivers, Mississippi, his strong am silent demeanor attracts not only the local party girl (Woodward), but also the shopkeeper's exotic wife (Magnani). Soon, this explosive love triangle will ignite a powder keg of fury that could rock this small town to its very core. - Director:
- Sidney Lumet
- Cast:
- Marlon Brando, Joanne Woodward, Anna Magnani
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Set in a small West German town in 1957, where, with the help of the Economic Miracle, a booming economy is generating a new sense of optimism. In the town brothel, "Villa Fink", Lola (Barbara Sukowa), a young high-class prostitute with a zest for life, is the star of the show. Her favorite client is the influential developer Schuckert (Mario Adorf), who enjoys spending time at Villa Fink with city officials important to his construction business. When Von Bohm (Armin Mueller-Stahl), an upright, energetic building commissioner with a liberal, social-democratic outlook, arrives in the town, he falls in love with Lola without being aware where she works by night. Although he is shocked when he learns of her true identity, he nevertheless marries her to the satisfaction of all concerned. Ultimately neither Lola, Von Bohm nor Schuckert are really concerned with what has happened in the past or the morality of their decisions - the main thing is that they get what they want. - Director:
- Rainer Werner Fassbinder
- Cast:
- Barbara Sukowa, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Mario Adorf
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Cria Cuervos (1976)Raise Ravens
Shot in the summer of 1975 as General Franco lay dying, Saura's masterpiece takes its title from a sinister Spanish proverb: 'Raise ravens and they'll pluck out your eyes'. A subtle yet unmistakable indictment of the family as a repressive force in Spanish society, 'Cria cuervos' centres on an eight-year-old orphan (the spellbinding Ana Torrent) who believes herself to have poisoned her cold, authoritarian father (Hector Alterio), a high-ranking military man whom she blames for the death of her adored mother (Geraldine Chaplin). - Director:
- Carlos Saura
- Cast:
- Geraldine Chaplin, Mónica Randall, Florinda Chico
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The Damned (1969)La Caduta degli dei / Luchino Visconti's the Damned
The most savagely subversive film by the iconoclastic auteur Luchino Visconti employs the mechanics of deliriously stylized melodrama to portray Nazism's total corruption of the soul. In the wake of Hitler's ascent to power, the wealthy industrialist von Essenbeck family and their associates - including the scheming social climber Friedrich (Dirk Bogarde), the conniving matriarch Sophie (Ingrid Thulin), and the cruelly deviant heir Martin (Helmut Berger) - descend into a self-destructive spiral of decadence, greed, perversion, and allconsuming hatred as they vie for power, over the family business and over one another. - Director:
- Luchino Visconti
- Cast:
- Dirk Bogarde, Ingrid Thulin, Helmut Griem
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The Great Beauty (2013)La Grande Bellezza
Jep Gambardella, a 65-year-old journalist and once promising novelist, lives his easy life among Rome's decadent high society in a swirl of rooftop parties and late-night soirees. But when he learns of the death of his friend's wife - a woman he once loved as an 18-year-old - his life is thrown into perspective and he begins to see the world through new eyes... - Director:
- Paolo Sorrentino
- Cast:
- Toni Servillo, Christine Aubry, Carlo Verdone
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The Watchmaker of St. Paul (1973)L'Horloger de Saint-Paul
Adapted from a Simenon novel and written in collaboration with legendary screenwriters Aurenche and Bost, The Watchmaker Of St. Paul was Tavernier's debut feature. An ordinary man, the watchmaker of the title, finds his well ordered life blown apart by the discovery that his son is wanted for murder. Deeply shocked, The Watchmaker is forced to explore his own actions and ideals in a search for answers. His journey leads him to question old relationships, as well as forging new ones, as a wary understanding begins to form between him and the police inspector investigating the crime. - Director:
- Bertrand Tavernier
- Cast:
- Philippe Noiret, Jean Rochefort, Jacques Denis
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Based on the autobiography of Gavino Ledda (Saverio Marconi), it tells the story of a boy born into abject poverty in rural Sardinia whose father (Omero Antonutti) intends that he will follow in his footsteps as a shepherd, ruthlessly cracking down (often violently) on the expression of any other interest, even something as fundamental as basic literacy. Ledda's eventual triumph over adversity is what gives this film its powerful human drama, but it's also one of the most riveting examples of the Tavianis' uncanny feeling for the poetry and potency of Italian landscapes, and their respect for all their characters' viewpoints, no matter how alien they might seem to modern sensibilities. - Director:
- Paolo Taviani
- Cast:
- Omero Antonutti, Saverio Marconi, Marcella Michelangeli
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Bob the Gambler (1956)Bob Le Flambeur
In Melville's self-confessed 'love letter to Paris', the world-weary hero weaves his way through a stylised Parisian underworld, a failed gambler wearing a trench coat and a gentleman's code of honor. His pursuit of the ultimate heist takes him on a journey from the Sacre Coeur to Montmartre and Pigalle. Encountering betrayal, secrets and a dangerously seductive young girl, Bob Le Flambeur seeks to carry out his one final crime, despite warnings from L'inspecteur, his loyal friend yet adversary. - Director:
- Jean-Pierre Melville
- Cast:
- Roger Duchesne, Isabelle Corey, Daniel Cauchy
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The Milky Way (1969)La voie lactée
Religious pilgrims Pierre (Paul Frankeur) and Jean (Laurent Terzieff) journey to a shrine in the north of Spain. Their faith is severely tested by some of the irreverent characters they confront in the course of their pilgrimage. Even chance meetings with Jesus Christ, the Virgin Mary and the Devil are not quite what Pierre and Jean have been prepared for in their religious training. - Director:
- Luis Buñuel
- Cast:
- Paul Frankeur, Luis Buñuel, Laurent Terzieff
- Formats:
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Broken Embraces (2009)Los Abrazos Rotos
Harry Caine is a successful writer but a man who writes, lives and loves in darkness. Fourteen years ago Harry was in a brutal car crash on the island of Lanzarote, resulting in not only the loss of his sight, but of something much greater. However Harry Caine is a pseudonym and only a few people know Harry's real identity, and of the life he led before the accident. Now Harry has decided to tell the moving and terrible story of his former self, a story of "amour foil*, dominated by love, jealously, treachery and fatality. - Director:
- Pedro Almodóvar
- Cast:
- Penélope Cruz, Lluís Homar, Blanca Portillo
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The ingenious dual narrative exerts a powerful and emotional grip, as inspector Erlendur’s crime investigation reveals a far darker and more sinister case. Within the small Icelandic community Orn is mourning the death of his four-year-old daughter, lost to rare congenital disease with fierceness that borders on obsessions. These seemingly unrelated story lines wave tighter with calculated precision. - Director:
- Baltasar Kormákur
- Cast:
- Ingvar Eggert Sigurðsson, Ágústa Eva Erlendsdóttir, Björn Hlynur Haraldsson
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Le Trou (1960)The Night Watch / The Hole
1947. A young man, Gaspard Claude (Marc Michel), is convicted for the attempted murder of his wife, although he is innocent of the crime. He is sent to the notorious Sante Prison in Paris and is placed in a cell with four hardened criminals. The latter have decided to escape from the prison by digging their way out of their cell. Reluctantly, they take Gaspard into their confidence and labour digging their way out of their cell. Then, just when escape appears certain, Gaspard is called away to see the prison governor... - Director:
- Jacques Becker
- Cast:
- André Bervil, Jean Keraudy, Michel Constantin
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The Battle of Algiers (1966)La Battaglia di Algeri
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 - Director:
- Gillo Pontecorvo
- Cast:
- Brahim Hadjadj, Jean Martin, Yacef Saadi
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