hgg's - Rented List

Captain James Marshall is commissioned to run a British blockade during the War of 1812. With a cargo that contains an unofficial war loan from France, it isn't long before the crew are plotting mutiny.

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Theodore Decker is 13 years old when his mother is killed in a bombing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The tragedy changes the course of his life, sending him on a stirring odyssey of grief and guilt, reinvention and redemption, and even love.

Through it all, he holds on to one tangible piece of hope from that terrible day... a painting of a tiny bird chained to its perch.

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November 1st, 1938, the Day of the Dead in Cuernavaca, Mexico. Geoffrey Firmin (Albert Finney), British Consul to Mexico, has just quit his job and takes solace with his best friend - a bottle of booze - in an effort to forget his problems, and that of the world.

Whilst the Spanish Civil War and the rise of Nazism in Germany have fuelled Mexican nationalism, he is also still bitter after the divorce from his actress wife,Yvonne (Jacqueline Bisset). Despite writing to him several times, without any reply, about her intentions to rekindle their marriage,Yvonne decides to return to Cuernavaca on the Day of the Dead. But Geoffrey's younger half-brother, Hugh (Anthony Andrews) also arrives in order to help his brother get sober and live his life again. But a self-destructive drunk is not an easy man to reclaim...

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Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood visits 1969 Los Angeles, where everything is changing, as TV star Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his longtime stunt double Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt) make their way around an industry they hardly recognize anymore.

The ninth film from the writer-director features a large ensemble cast and multiple storylines in a tribute to the final moments of Hollywood's golden age.

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Based on Eugene McCabe's modern Irish classic, 'Death and Nightingales' is a riveting story of love, betrayal, deception and revenge, set in the beautiful haunting countryside of Fermanagh in 1885.

Set over a desperately tense 24-hour period, it's Beth Winters' (Ann Skelly) 23rd birthday - the day she has decided to join the charming Liam Ward (Jamie Dornan) and escape from her limited life and difficult and complex relationship with her Protestant landowner stepfather Billy (Matthew Rhys). As decades of pain and betrayal finally build to a devastating climax, 'Death and Nightingales' is a powerful and gripping drama that follows a woman struggling to control her own destiny and will illuminate tensions that tear both families and nations apart.

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It's 1938 and Rome comes to a standstill as Hitler visits Mussolini for the first time. Antonietta is left in her tenement home whilst her fascist husband and the rest of her family leave to attend the historic event.

The whole building is empty apart from one man, Gabriele, a radio announcer sacked because of his homosexuality and his political views. Unaware of this Antonietta flirts with Gabriele as they meet by chance in the empty building. They strike up a conversation and the rather naive housewife is surprised by his opinions and shocked when she finally realises his sexual orientation. As the day progresses they develop a very special relationship that will radically alter both their outlooks on life forever...

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Tom Hanks and Emma Thompson bring to life the untold true story about the origins of one of the most treasured Disney classics of all time. John Lee Hancock (The Blind Side) directs this acclaimed film, which reveals the surprising backstory behind the making of Mary Poppins.

Determined to fulfill a promise to his daughters, Walt Disney (Tom Hanks) tries for twenty years to obtain the rights to author P. L. Travers' (Emma Thompson) beloved book. Armed with his iconic creative vision, Walt pulls out all the stops, but the uncompromising Travers won't budge. Only when he reaches into his own complicated childhood does Walt discover the truth about the ghosts that haunt Travers, and together, they set Mary Poppins free!

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Ada (Holly Hunter) - mute since birth - her nine year old daughter and her piano arrive to an arranged marriage in the remote bush of nineteenth century New Zealand. Of all her belongings her husband refuses to transport the piano and it is left behind on the beach.

Unable to bear its certain destruction, Ada strikes a bargain with an illiterate tattooed neighbour (Harvey Keitel). She may earn her piano back if she allows him to do certain things while she plays; one black key for every lesson.

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Joan Stanley (Judi Dench) lives in contented retirement until her tranquil life is suddenly disrupted. The dark secrets she's been hiding since her university days have been uncovered by M15. She finds herself in their custody, accused of providing intelligence to the KGB.

Cut to 1938 where Joan is a promising physics student at Cambridge University. There she falls for a young communist named Leo Galich (Tom Hughes) and through him, begins to see the world in a new light. After graduation, Joan secures a job in a weapons research facility where she comes to the realisation that the world is on the brink of nuclear disaster. Now Joan is forced to answer an impossible question: exactly what price would she pay for peace?

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Living a life of leisure on the sun-drenched coast of Italy, young Dickie Greenleaf (Jude Law) has it all: friends, the love of a beautiful woman (Gwyneth Paltrow) and the best things his father's money can buy.

Tom Ripley (Matt Damon) on the other hand, has nothing but charm, good looks and a deadly obsession to take over this rich man's life. In another landmark motion picture from Academy Award-winning directory Anthony Minghella a riveting game of stolen identity unfolds with Ripley's desperate attempts to stay one step ahead of ever-growing suspicion.

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Though Vincent van Gogh never visited Japan it is the country that had the most profound influence on him and his art.

Through journeying from the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, to Van Gogh's adopted home of Provence, France and eventually to Japan itself, this film provides a fascinating look at just how profound this influence proved to be. One cannot understand Van Gogh without understanding how Japanese art arrived in Paris in the middle of the 19th century and the huge impact it had on artists like Monet, Degas and, above all, Van Gogh. Seeing Japanese art in art shops and small Parisian galleries and then creating his own perception of Japan through in-depth research, print collecting and detailed discussions with other artists - Van Gogh's encounter with Japanese artworks gave his work a new and exciting direction. Featuring Van Gogh's personal letters, written accounts from friends and contemporaries as well as insights from artists and experts, 'Van Gogh and Japan' provides a fresh and revealing understanding of this extraordinary artist.

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Yesterday strangers, today inseparable soulmates. But separate they must in just a few hours. Jesse and Celine are making every moment count, pouring as much living as they can into the time 'Before Sunrise'. From Richard Linklater comes another smartly observed tale of young people at a crossroads.

Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy play twenty-somethings who meet on a train in Europe, sense a connection and explore after-hours Vienna together. The people, places and allure of the city become their sudden itineraries. Love is their destination. On the way there's the mutual sharing of hopes, jokes, dreams, worry and wonder. It's a day to linger in their memories. And a valentine to young love forever.

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Roald Amundsen (Pål Sverre Hagen) had an all-consuming, boundless drive as a polar explorer, and was obsessed with the idea of discovering lands in the last uncharted area of the world - the North Pole.

This film reveals the tragedy he brought on himself and others by sacrificing everything in these icy wastelands to achieve his dream - only to find out there was nothing on the North Pole to discover.

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Armed with the ruthless, streetwise tactics and a strict sense of honour, crime boss Frank Lucas (Denzel Washington) rules Harlem's chaotic drug underworld.

When outcast cop Richie Roberts (Russell Crowe) sets out to bring down Lucas's multi-million dollar empire, it plunges both men an into a legendary confrontation.

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Described as 'a perfect film' by Susan Sontag, Jean-Luc Godard's compelling fourth feature presents 12 episodes in the life of Nana (wonderfully played by Godard's muse, Anna Karina), a young Parisian who turns to prostitution after becoming disillusioned by poverty and her failing marriage.

Stylistically innovative and boasting several of both the director's and star's most memorable moments, 'Vivre Sa Vie' is an undiminished classic of the French New Wave that is by turns both playful and sad, and which borrows the aesthetics of cinema verite to present a captivating vision of 1960's Parisian street life and pop culture.