furnivk's - Rented List

Amid the azure waters and sunbaked desert landscapes of Djibouti, a French Foreign Legion sergeant (Denis Lavant) sows the seeds of his own ruin as his obsession with a striking young recruit (Gregoire Colin) plays out to the thunderous, operatic strains of Benjamin Britten.

Show moreShow less

Edward Yang's multi-award-winning film looks at several turbulent weeks in the life of the Jian family. Husband and father NJ (Nien-Jen Wu) is a partner in a failing software company, which might just save itself by teaming up with an innovative Japanese games designer.

Meanwhile his wife Min-Min (Elaine Jin) has gone off to a mountain retreat with a dubious guru, his teenage daughter Ting Ting (Kelly Lee) is getting her first, rough lessons in love, his young son Yang-Yang (Jonathan Chang) is asking difficult questions and getting into trouble at school - and his mother-in-law has suffered a stroke and lies in a coma. In the middle of all the confusion NJ runs into his childhood sweetheart Sherry, the girl he jilted twenty years earlier, and starts to wonder about starting over.

Show moreShow less

Released within months of Fellini's 'La Dolce Vita' and Antonioni's 'La Notte', Elio Petri's dazzling first feature 'L'Assassino' also stars Marcello Mastroianni, this time as dandyish thirtysomething antiques dealer Alfredo Martelli, arrested on suspicion of murdering his older, far wealthier

lover Adalgisa (Micheline Presle). But as the increasingly Kafkaesque police investigation proceeds, it becomes less and less important whether Martelli actually committed the crime as his entire lifestyle is effectively put on trial.

Show moreShow less

When veteran LAPD detective Erin Bell (Nicole Kidman) receives an ink-marked bill in the office mail, she is forced to confront her past, and her connection to murderer and gang leader Silas (Toby Kebbell).

Still haunted by an undercover FBI sting gone horribly wrong, Bell is flooded with painful memories of her old partner Chris (Sebastian Stan) and becomes hell bent on closing the case, whatever it takes.

Show moreShow less

From acclaimed director Mike Leigh comes this epic portrayal of events surrounding the infamous 1819 'Peterloo Massacre' in Manchester, when armed government forces charged into a crowd of 60,000 peaceful protesters who were desperate for greater democracy and improved working conditions.

Featuring stellar performances from Maxine Peake and Rory Kinnear, 'Peterloo' is an explosively visceral retelling of a defining moment in British history.

Show moreShow less

Slipstream is set in a world where nature has gone mad and flying, fuelled by the wind, is the principal means of travel. A runaway fugitive, being taken to prison by two law officers, is kidnapped by a young adventurer intent on collecting a reward.

They head off down the Slipstream - a river of wind - in a small solar-powered craft with the law officers in pursuit. The changing relationship of these four characters is played out within a series of strange and threatening adventures, leading to an exciting climax in the turbulent winds of the Slipstream.

Show moreShow less

Drawn from his own family memories, 'Distant Voices, Still Lives' is a strikingly intimate portrait of working class life in 1940's and 1950's Liverpool.

Focusing on the real-life experiences of his mother, sisters and brother whose lives are thwarted by their brutal, sadistic father (a chilling performance by Pete Postlethwaite), the film shows us beauty and terror in equal measure. Davies uses the traditional family gatherings of births, marriages and deaths to paint a lyrical portrait of family life - of love, grief, and the highs and lows of being human, a 'poetry of the everyday' that is at once deeply autobiographical and universally resonant.

Show moreShow less

The sun is beaming and the ski slopes are spectacular for Tomas, his wife Ebba and their two children. However, during a lunch at a mountainside restaurant an avalanche suddenly bears down upon the happy diners.

As the wall of snow gets ever closer, Tomas makes a split-second decision in a moment of panic that will engulf and shake his relationship with his wife and children and leave him struggling to reclaim his role as the family patriarch.

Show moreShow less

Inspired by true events, 'Play' is an acute observation based on real cases of bullying.

In a city, a group of boys aged between 12-14 robbed other children on about 40 separate occasions between 2006 and 2008, but instead of physical force used the 'brother trick' involving role play and psychological manipulation. A fascinating and disturbing account of how children can subvert a situation and by sheer authority lead others more vulnerable into dangerous territory.

Show moreShow less

A young bank clerk (Flavio Bucci), denied a loan by his employer, decides to exact his revenge on the local butcher (Ugo Tognazzi) who is not only a nasty, violent, greedy piece of work but also one of the bank's star customers.

Quitting his job, the clerk devotes all of his time to tormenting the butcher, stealing his possessions one by one, including his mistress (Daria Nicolodi).

Show moreShow less

Jacques Rivette's masterful film tells the tale of an ill-fated love affair between a Parisian socialite and a Napoleonic war hero.

Their story unfolds amidst the extravagant balls of restoration-era Paris where the handsome General Armand de Montriveau (Guillaume Depardieu) encounters the beautiful, coquettish but married Antoinette de Langeais (Jeanne Balibar). Vowing that she will be his lover, Montriveau pursues the alluring Antoinette who in turn orchestrates a calculating game of seduction but repeatedly rebuffs his advances. Humiliated, Montriveau seeks revenge just as Antoinette's passion for him awakens, and a perverse romantic power struggle ensues. Once again adapting Balzac - the source of his acclaimed 'La Belle Noiseuse' - Rivette's subtle and superbly acted drama is a riveting exploration of the intricacies of love and desire.

Show moreShow less

This dark suburban satire tells the story of a man who is accused of adultery by his ex-fiancée and forced to move in with his parents.

While he fights for custody of his four-year-old daughter, he is gradually sucked into a bitter dispute between his parents and their neighbours regarding an old and beautiful tree that casts a shadow on the neighbours deck. As the dispute intensifies property is damaged, pets mysteriously go missing, security cameras are being installed and there is a rumour that the neighbour was seen with a chainsaw.

Show moreShow less

Patricio Guzman travels 10,000 feet above sea level to the driest desert on earth for this hugely-praised documentary. Here, the sky is so translucent that it allows astronomers to see the boundaries of our universe.

Yet Chile's Atacama Desert climate also keeps human remains intact: pre-Columbian mummies; explorers and miners; and the remains of disappeared political prisoners from the years of the Pinochet regime. Women sift the desert soil for the bones of their loved ones, while archaeologists uncover traces of ancient civilizations and astronomers examine the most distant and oldest galaxies. Melding celestial and earthly quests, feature is a gorgeous, deeply moving, and personal odyssey into astronomy, archaeology, geology and human rights.

Show moreShow less

Dr. Goldfoot (Vincent Price) is back and determined to conquer the world yet again! This time, Dr. G. intends to undermine America by unleashing an army of voluptuous, exploding female robots.

He sends these beautiful weapons of mass destruction out into the world, each one programmed to seduce high-ranking generals of NATO countries and then blow them up! The bad doctor's plan is nefarious: start a war between the US and the USSR. Fortunately for the citizens of the globe, suave secret agent Bill Dexter (Fabian) is out to foil Goldfoot's plans, which involve kidnapping a prominent American general who bears a striking resemblance to Goldfoot...

Show moreShow less

Red Beard, the last and most ambitious of Kurosawa's collaborations with Toshiro Mifune, marks the end of one of the most remarkable actor-director relationships in the history of cinema. Toshiro Mifune plays a commanding but humane doctor in a rural clinic in late 19th-century Japan.

An idle and socially ambitious intern (Yuzo Kayama) arrives at the clinic and discovers the meaning of responsibility, first to oneself and then to others. This intimate epic - and offbeat social drama - boldly mixes the styles of soap opera and the action movie, and rewards the viewer with a detailed reconstruction of a feudal era, a warmly humanitarian message and a powerhouse performance by Mifune.