graham-willis's - Films of the Year 1946-Present Day List

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The enigmatic samurai in Yojimbo is played by the great Toshiro Mifune as a scruffy, scratching, itinerant warrior who wanders into a strange town and right into the middle of two warring clans.

Showing his skills with the samurai sword within minutes of his arrival, he soon has the town's rival factions competing for his services.Kurosawa's genius for storytelling combines with thrilling swordplay, a healthy dose of black humour, a soundtrack every bit as atmospheric and amusing as Ennio Morricone's, and a towering performance from Mifune, to make Yojimbo an irresistible widescreen action movie.

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Two icons from the golden age of Hollywood, Oscar winners Bette Davis and Joan Crawford, take their famous feud onscreen in Robert Aldrich's newly restored thriller.

In fierce, no-holds-barred performances, Bette Davis portrays aging ex-child star Baby Jane Hudson while Joan Crawford plays Blanche, the crippled sister Jane torments psychologically. As the sisters descend into madness, the tension builds to a shocking ending...

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Based on the Ed McBain novel, High and Low is a gripping police thriller starring Toshiro Mifune.

Wealthy industrialist Kingo Gondo (Mifune) faces an agonising choice when a ruthless kidnapper, aiming to snatch his young son, takes the chauffeur's boy by mistake - but still demands the ransom, leaving Gondo facing ruin if he pays up. An anatomy of the inequalities in modern Japanese society, High and Low is a complex film noir, where the intense police hunt for the kidnapper is accompanied by penetrating insight into the kidnappers state of mind. Kurosawa's virtuoso direction provides no easy answers, and in short, intense sequences, he portrays the businessman, the police and the criminal as equally brutal but nonetheless human.

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Bette Davis delivers a powerhouse performance as Charlotte Hollis, a reclusive spinster still mourning the savage murder of the man she loved some 37 years ago.

When the state wants her property in order to construct a new highway, to help her resist Charlotte turns to her worldly cousin, Miriam (Olivia de Havilland), and an old friend, Drew (Joseph Cotten). That's when the scares and shocks start in this expertly paced chiller.

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When Susy (Angharad Aubrey) drowns in the bath, Joey (William Dix) is blamed for her death. Virginia (Wendy Craig) suffers a breakdown and Joey is sent to a special school where he is analysed by psychologists.

Shunned by her exasperated husband, the grief-stricken Virginia needs Nanny (Bette Davis) more than ever. Unfortunately Joey's stay in the institution has done little to mellow him. When he returns he insists that he was not involved in Susy's death, and maintains that his sister was actually murdered by the evil Nanny. After a further 'accident' in the house. Penny arrives to look after the obnoxious Joey. Soon, however, Penny begins to suspect that the boy may have been telling the truth all along...

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Clint Eastwood returns as the invincible "Man With No Name", this time teaming with two gunslingers (Lee Van Cleef and Eli Wallach) to pursue a fortune in stolen gold.

But teamwork doesn't come naturally to such strong-willed outlaws, and they soon discover that their greatest challenge may be to stay focused - and stay alive - in a country ravaged by war.

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Now two are left: Susy, recently blinded and still learning how to live in a sighted world, and Roat, a psychopathic killer. Roat wants a heroin-stuffed doll he thinks Susy has. All Susy wants is to survive.

Dim the lights, check the door's chain lock, and brace yourself for a chiller as polished as the steel of Roat's blade.

A bewildered astronaut (Charlton Heston) crash-lands on a strange planet ruled by apes who use a primitive race of humans for experimentation and sport.

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Written by Dennis Hopper, Peter Fonda and Terry Southern, Fonda produced the low-budget production whilst Hopper took on Directing duties, receiving an award at Cannes for his first work.

Since its release, Easy Rider has been regarded as a symbol of free-spirited reaction against society, and even for those too young to remember its original release, it maintains its status as a classic film which characterises the attitude of a decade. Now, after 30 years, Easy Rider has been remastered and is presented here in High Definition with both clearer picture and sound quality.

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Cinema verite pioneers David and Albert Maysles and Charlotte Zwerin's groundbreaking documentary follows the Rolling Stones on their 1969 U.S. tour. From New York to California in ten days, the filmmakers set out to record the raw sweat and swagger of the world's greatest rock band.

By the time the tour ends at the infamous free concert at the Altamont Speedway, the filmmakers have chronicled a combustive mix of violence, chaos and counterculture that has since come to define the end of the Love Generation.

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In seventeenth-century France, Father Urbain Grandier (Oliver Reed) uses his power to protect the city of Loudun from destruction at the hands of the establishment.

Soon, he stands accused of the demonic possession of Sister Jeanne (Vanessa Redgrave), whose erotic obsession with him fuels the hysteria that sweeps through her convent.

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In rural Sweden around the turn of the century, three sisters reside in a vast manor house with their housekeeper. Agnes (Harriet Andersson) lives out the last days of her life in pain, hoping for companionship and affection.

Surrounded by her sisters, Karin (Ingrid Thulin) and Maria (Liv Ullmann), Agnes takes comfort in the fact that her remaining time can be spent with those close to her. However, dissatisfaction in their day-to-day-lives, and the estrangement that they feel from one another, causes the sisters to become increasingly self-absorbed.

The belief in evil - and that evil can be cast out. From these two strands of faith, author William Peter Blatty and director William Friedkin wove The Exorcist, the frightening and realistic story of an innocent girl inhabited by a malevolent entity.

Five friends travelling through rural Texas stumble across what appears to be a deserted house, only to discover something sinister within. The group soon find themselves picked off, one by one, by a masked madman with a chain saw.

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Pasolini's final and most controversial film has been banned censored and reviled the world over since it's first release. The film is based on the Marquis de Sade's novel '120 Days of Sodom', with the setting transposed to Mussolini's miniature Fascist Republic of Salo, Italy in 1944.

The film's content and imagery is extreme, and it retains the power to shock, repel and distress a quarter of a century on. 'Salo' remains a cinematic milestone - culturally significant, politically vital and visually stunning.