itpworld's - Rented List
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Standing tall alongside Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin as pioneers of cinematic comedy, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy are two of the most beloved comedians in the history of moving pictures. Having acted alongside each other for the first time in 1921, they officially teamed up later in the decade in a series of shorts made for producer Hal Roach - launching a wildly successful partnership that would survive into the sound era and last for another quarter of a century. This collection captures the duo's earliest (mis)adventures on screen, chronicling their journey from their first films together - 'The Lucky Dog' and the aptly titled '45 Minutes to Hollywood' - to the dawn of their official partnership in thirteen shorts produced throughout 1927. From 'Duck Soup' and 'Sailors Beware!' to 'Do Detectives Think?', 'Putting Pants on Philip' and 'The Battle of the Century' (once available only in incomplete versions until its missing scenes were rediscovered in 2015), these films show the development of two independent comedians into the most influential and celebrated comedy duo of all time. - Director:
- Clyde Bruckman
- Cast:
- Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Chester A. Bachman
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1976 (2022)Chile '76
It's 1976 in Chile, 3 years after Pinochet's military coup overthrew the socialist government of Salvador Allende, and opponents of the new regime are being hunted down. Carmen (Aline Küppenheim) heads off to her beach house to supervise its renovation. Her husband, children and grandchildren come back and forth during the winter vacation. When the family priest asks her to take care of a young man he is sheltering in secret, Carmen steps into unexplored territories, away from the quiet life she is used to. - Director:
- Manuela Martelli
- Cast:
- Aline Küppenheim, Nicolás Sepúlveda, Hugo Medina
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A mysterious new arrival disturbs the delicate balance of a remote monastery run by renegade nun (Cate Blanchett) in this captivating story of spiritual struggle and the cost of survival. The arrival of the new hoy (newcomer Aswan Reid) unsettles the monastery hut enlivens Sister Eileen's fervour for Christ to be his guide, and as his Indigenous spirituality clashes with Sister Eileen's teachings, she must make a choice: uphold tradition or embrace what comes next... - Director:
- Warwick Thornton
- Cast:
- Cate Blanchett, Aswan Reid, Deborah Mailman
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The Day of the Owl (1968)Mafia / Il giorno della civetta
The Day of the Owl stars Franco Nero (Django) as a police chief who, while investigating the death of a construction worker, goes up against corrupt officials and a ruthless mafia boss (Lee J. Cobb, On the Waterfront). Adapted from the celebrated novel by Leonardo Sciascia (Illustrious Corpses, Todo Modo), The Dag of the Owl was the first book to openly deal with organised crime in Sicily. - Director:
- Damiano Damiani
- Cast:
- Claudia Cardinale, Franco Nero, Lee J. Cobb
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Cherry Blossoms (2008)Kirschblüten - Hanami
Only Trudi knows that her husband Rudi is suffering from a terminal illness. It is up to her to tell him or not. The doctor suggests that they do something together, perhaps something they were long planning to do... Trudi decides not to tell her husband about the gravity of his illness and to follow the doctor's advice. She convinces Rudi to visit their children and grandchildren in Berlin. But once they arrive, they realize that their children are so busy with their own lives that they have no time for them. Then, suddenly, fate intervenes. A devastated Rudi has no idea what to do but learns from his daughter's girlfriend that Trudi's love for him had led her to forego the life that she had wanted to live. Rudi begins to see her with new eyes and embarks on his last journey - to Tokyo, in the midst of the cherry blossom festival, a celebration of beauty, impermanence and new beginnings... - Director:
- Doris Dörrie
- Cast:
- Elmar Wepper, Hannelore Elsner, Aya Irizuki
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About Dry Grasses (2023)Kuru Otlar Üstüne / On Barren Weeds
Longing to escape the isolation of his quiet Anatolian village, disenchanted art teacher Samet (Deniz Celiloglu) wrestles with narcissistic ideas of unfulfilled potential. While battling accusations of inappropriate behaviour at his school, he unexpectedly strikes up a friendship with Nuray (Merve Dizdar), a charismatic fellow teacher, which offers a welcome distraction. But when her affection moves to Samet's more affable colleague, he becomes jealous and begins to compete for her attention. - Director:
- Nuri Bilge Ceylan
- Cast:
- Deniz Celiloglu, Merve Dizdar, Musab Ekici
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Lianna (Linda Griffiths) is a thirty year-old mother of two. A former student, Lianna dropped out when she began a relationship with her former professor and now husband, Dick (Jon DeVries). A serial philanderer, Dick grows irate at his wife's plans to return to education, believing that her place is at home. After another of Dick's infidelities, Lianna's friendship with her professor (Jane Hallaren) blossoms into love, and so Lianna must come to terms with her sexuality and the new life that she must build. - Director:
- John Sayles
- Cast:
- Linda Griffiths, Jane Hallaren, Jon DeVries
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The Green Ray (1986)Le Rayon Vert / Summer
Delphine's travelling companion cancels two weeks before her holiday, so Delphine (Marie Rivière), a Parisian secretary, is at a loose end. She doesn't want to travel by herself, but has no means boyfriend and seems unable to meet new people. A friend takes her to Cerbourg; after a few days there, the weepy and self pitying Delphine goes back to Paris. She tries the Alps, but returns the same day. Next, it's the beach; once there, she chats with an outgoing Swede, a party girl, and a friendship seems to bud; then suddenly, Delphine bolts, heading back to Paris. On her way, a young man catches her eye; perhaps a sunset and the sun's green ray await. - Director:
- Eric Rohmer
- Cast:
- Marie Rivière, María Luisa García, Vincent Gauthier
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Love in the Afternoon (1972)L' Amour l'après-midi
The last of Rohmer's Six Moral Tales. Frederic (Bernard Verley) leads a bourgeois life; he is a partner in a small Paris office and is happily married to Helene (Françoise Verley), a teacher expecting her second child. In the afternoons, Frederic daydreams about other women, but has no intention of taking any action. One day, Chloe (Zouzou), who had been a mistress of an old friend, begins dropping by his office. They meet as friends, irregularly in the afternoons, till eventually Chloe decides to seduce Frederic, causing him a moral dilemma. - Director:
- Eric Rohmer
- Cast:
- Bernard Verley, Zouzou, Françoise Verley
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Fresh from an unceremonious dumping by her boyfriend of 10 years, Paula (Laetitia Dosch) finds herself wandering the streets of Paris - jobless, homeless, and single - who no idea of what life holds for her next. At 31 years old, with little to show for it but a kidnapped cat and a sense of adventure, she sets out to reinvent herself - new job, new friends, new life - and finds that these things never do come easily. - Director:
- Léonor Serraille
- Cast:
- Laetitia Dosch, Souleymane Seye Ndiaye, Grégoire Monsaingeon
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Paris, winter 1885. At the Salpetriere Hospital, Professor Jean-Marin Charcot, studies a mysterious disease which he calls 'Hysteria'. Home to thousands of seemingly catatonic women and run by only a handful of doctors, the isolated corridors of the hospital perfectly shadow the Professor's hypnotic tests on his patients. Augustine, a 19 year old girl, is admitted to the hospital and soon becomes the Professor's favourite subject; the star of his demonstrations of hypnosis. But from guinea pig, she soon evolves into something much more... - Director:
- Alice Winocour
- Cast:
- Vincent Lindon, Stéphan Wojtowicz, Soko
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Mother and Son (2022)Un petit frère
From Leonor Serraille, the director of Jeune Femme, "Mother and Son" is a vibrant portrait of a family told from multiple perspectives. After moving to France from the Ivory Coast in the 1980s, young mother Rose (Annabelle Lengronne) must work low-paying jobs to raise Jean and Ernest. Yet Rose seems an indomitable force of nature; her enthusiasm for life in her new country apparently inextinguishable, her trust that she will land on her feet and find love unshakable. Spanning 20 years and structured in chapters, "Mother and Son" is an impassioned and emotionally rich chronicle of a constantly evolving family. - Director:
- Léonor Serraille
- Cast:
- Annabelle Lengronne, Stéphane Bak, Kenzo Sambin
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One Deadly Summer (1983)L'été meurtrier
Isabelle Adjani plays Elle, a provocative 19-year-old whose move, with her mother and sick father, to a sleepy Provence village sets the locals afire with lust and gossip. She soon finds a suitor in gentle Pin-Pon (Alain Souchon), the local mechanic, and they marry shortly after. Then the tone shifts, when a dark secret emerges from her past, the film becomes more complex and Adjani's character reveals a disturbing side as she manipulates events and men in order to seek revenge for an outrage inflicted in her childhood... - Director:
- Jean Becker
- Cast:
- Isabelle Adjani, Alain Souchon, Suzanne Flon
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Paris Memories (2022)Revoir Paris
From acclaimed French filmmaker Alice Winocour comes an exceptional new drama."Paris Memories" follows Mia (Virginie Efira) as she struggles to make sense of her experience in the aftermath of a violent attack. Her isolation and confusion leads her to meet with others who were there, including Thomas (Benoit Magimel) who she forges a close relationship with. As Mia works through her fractured memories, she starts to rebuild her life and reconnect with the city she loves. Featuring outstanding performances, Winocour's new film is a powerful story of hope, humanity and compassion. - Director:
- Alice Winocour
- Cast:
- Virginie Efira, Benoît Magimel, Grégoire Colin
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Flowers of Shanghai (1998)Hai shang hua
An intoxicating, time-bending experience bathed in the golden glow of oil lamps and wreathed in an opium haze, this gorgeous period reverie by Hou Hsiao-hsien traces the romantic intrigue, jealousies, and tensions swirling around four late-nineteenth-century Shanghai "flower houses", where courtesans live confined to a gilded cage, ensconced in opulent splendor but forced to work to buy back their freedom. Among the regular clients is the taciturn Master Wang (Tony Leung Chiu-wai), whose relationship with his longtime mistress (Michiko Hada) is roiled by a perceived act of betrayal. Composed in a languorous procession of entrancing long takes, Flowers of Shanghai evokes a vanished world of decadence and cruelty, an insular universe where much of the dramatic action remains tantalizingly offscreen - even as its emotional fallout registers with quiet devastation. - Director:
- Hsiao-hsien Hou
- Cast:
- Tony Leung Chiu Wai, Michiko Hada, Michelle Reis
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