jik's - Rented List

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After his inevitable arrest (and almost immediate release), Michel (Martin LaSalle) reflects on the morality of crime, developing a vague theory that exceptional individuals are above the law.

Lost in another world, he rejects his friends in favour of a life of crime and is seemingly set on finding his place in the world by engineering a head-on collision with society.

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'Paris, Texas' is probably Wim Wenders' most well known, critically acclaimed, and successful movie, winning a number of international prizes including the Cannes Palm D'Or for best film in 1984.

This unusual road movie, with screenplay by acclaimed playwright Sam Shepard, tells the tale of Travis, a man lost in his own private hell. Presumed dead for four years, he reappears from the desert on the Mexico border, world-weary and an amnesiac. He traces his brother Walt who is bringing up Hunter, his seven-year-old son, his ex-wife Jane having abandoned him at Walt's door several years before. As virtual strangers, Hunter and Travis begin to build a wary friendship and conspire to find Jane and bring her back to be a real family. With extraordinary performances from Harry Dean Stanton as Travis and Nastassja Kinski as Jane, the film also boasts a soundtrack by Ry Cooder, ideally suited to the film's sunbleached landscapes and melancholy undertones.

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In the wake of his parents' murders, disillusioned heir Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) travels the world seeking the means to fight injustice and turn fear against those who prey on the fearful.

With the help of his trusted butler Alfred (Michael Caine), detective Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman) and his ally Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman), Wayne returns to Gotham City and unleashes his alter ego: Batman, a masked crusader who uses strength, intellect and an array of high-tech weaponry to fight the sinister forces that threaten the city.

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When a freak accident wipes out the entire royal family, a surviving heir to the throne must be found, and turns up in the unlikely form of Ralph Jones (John Goodman), a good-natured Las Vegas lounge singer.

But when his private secretary (Peter O'Toole) can't prepare Ralph for the trouble he gets into when he runs afoul of the fiendish Lord Graves and falls for a shy stripper (Camille Coduri).

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Roger Thornhill (Cary Grant) is not a spy. And he's certainly no murderer. Nevertheless, Thornhill's a wanted man: enemy agents want him dead, the police want him arrested, and a cool, mysterious blonde (Eva Marie Saint) just plain wants him.

A victim of mistaken identity, Thornhill can't afford to make any mistakes of his own - so he embarks on a death-defying run for his life. Relentlessly pursued by plane, train and automobile, Thornhill's cross-country chase finally ends atop Mt. Rushmore where, if he doesn't watch his step, he could be in for a terrible fall.

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The Jedi Knights have been exterminated and the Empire rules the galaxy with an iron fist. A small group of Rebels have dared to fight back by stealing the secret plans to the Empire's mightiest weapon, the Death Star battle station.

The Emperor's most trusted servant, Darth Vader (David Prowse), must find the plans, and locate the hidden Rebel base. Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher), a captive Rebel leader, sends out a distress signal that is intercepted by a simple farm boy, Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill). Seizing his destiny, Luke takes up the challenge to rescue the princess and help the Rebellion overthrow the Empire, along with such unforgettable allies as the wise Obi-Wan Kenobi (Alec Guinness), the cocky Han Solo (Harrison Ford), the loyal Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew), and the droids R2-D2 (Kenny Baker) and C-3PO (Anthony Daniels).

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They are fast friends and worse foes. One is Billy the Kid (Kris Kristofferson), a law unto himself. The other is the law: Sheriff Pat Garrett (James Coburn), who once rode with Billy.

Set to a bristling score by Bob Dylan (who also plays Billy's sidekick Alias) and with a Who's Who of iconic Western players, Sam Peckinpah's saga of one of the West's great legends is now restored to its intended glory. For the first time since it left the cutting room, the film has the balance of action and character development Peckinpah wanted, a mix of fury and elegy based on the director's notes and the insights of colleagues. The difference is profound, as different as an untouched target and a bull's-eye.

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Gil (Owen Wilson) is a successful Hollywood screenwriter struggling with his first novel whilst on holiday in Paris with his fiance Inez (Rachel McAdams).

As he starts to fall in love with the city he also discovers that after midnight, Paris is magical and it could be the ultimate source of inspiration for his writing.

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Released in 1971 to critical acclaim and public controversy, Peter Bogdanovich's 'The Last Picture Show' garnered eight Academy Award nominations (including Best Picture) and was hailed by many as the most important work by a young American director since Citizen Kane.

A surprisingly frank, bittersweet drama of social and sexual mores in small-town Texas, the film features a talented cast led by Jeff Bridges, Cybill Sheperd and Timothy Bottoms.

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Bloody and brutal, the Crusades were meant to be the religious wars to end all others. Except they didn't, their history has been hijacked by politics and religious fervour, with both Muslim and Western world's misunderstanding the truth.

This series sets out to shed new light on these legendary wars, and re-analyse the romanticised, idealised history to find out what really happened eight centuries ago. Through archaeological research, fresh scrutiny of the ancient battle sites and by re-examining the eyewitness accounts: this fascinating series presented by Dr. Thomas Asbridge takes us through a sequence of brutal events that define the Crusades and is changing the way we think them.

1. Holy War
Traces the epic journey of the first crusaders, as they marched 3,000 miles from Europe to recapture the city of Jerusalem from Islam, enduring starvation, disease and a bloodthirsty battle to reach their sacred goal, and then unleashed an appalling tide of barbaric violence upon their Muslim enemies.
2. The Clash of the Titans
The Clash of the Titans examines the Third Crusade and the two renowned figures who have come to embody Crusader war: Richard the Lionheart, king of England, and the mighty Muslim sultan Saladin, unifier of Islam. Almost perfectly matched as adversaries, these two titans of holy war clashed during a year-long campaign that raged across Palestine. Both were willing to commit appalling atrocities in pursuit of victory and the ultimate prize: Jerusalem.
3. Victory and Defeat
Victory and Defea reveals that the outcome of these epic holy wars was decided not on the hallowed ground of Jerusalem, but in Egypt. As trade blossomed between Christians and Muslims and the Mongol hordes arrived from Asia, a saintly French king - afire with crusading zeal - and the most remarkable Muslim leader of the Middle Ages fought for ultimate victory in the East. Asbridge also challenges the popular misconception that the medieval crusades sparked a clash of civilisations between Islam and the West that continues to this day.

New York City detectives "Popeye" Doyle (Gene Hackman) and Buddy Russo (Roy Scheider) hope to break a narcotics smuggling ring and ultimately uncover 'The French Connection'. But when one of the criminals tries to kill Doyle, he begins a deadly pursuit that takes him far outside the city limits.

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Originally released in 1902, this legendary 16-minute film is widely considered to be one of the most important works in film history. Created just six years after the invention of cinema this is where narrative cinema truly began.

George Melies' masterpiece features six members of the Astronomers' Club, fired into space by a giant cannon, on a strange and wonderful journey to the moon to meet its inhabitants. The colour version of A Trip to the Moon, hand-painted frame by frame, was considered lost for many years, until a print, in a desperate condition, was found in Spain in 1993. It is this version which has been meticulously restored by Lobster Films, the Groupama Gan Foundation for Cinema and the Technicolor Foundation for Cinema Heritage - one of the most sophisticated and expensive restorations in the history of cinema. The luminous resulting film is accompanied by a new original soundtrack by French duo AIR. Accompanying the film is an hour long documentary, The Extraordinary Voyage, detailing the restoration process and featuring words from esteemed directors such as Michel Gondry, Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Costa-Gavras and Michel Hazanavicius.

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One of the most popular screen Western ever made, this Academy Award-winning classic blends adventur, romance and comedy to tell the true story of the West's most likeable outlaws.

No-one is quicker then Butch Cassidy (Paul Newman) when it comes to get rich quick schemes, and his sidekick Sundance (Robert Redford) is a wizard with a gun. When these two bungling bank and train robbers tire of running from the law, they set out for Bolivia with Sundance's girlfriend (Katherine Ross). Though they can barely speak enough Spanish to communicate: "This is a stick-up!", that's only a minor detail to the two nicest "bad-guys" who ever rode the West.

The film is set against the impressive backdrop of Monument Valley in Utah and tells the story of a mixed group of travellers who are making their way across the country to Arizona. They are endangered by an Indian War Party and this, along with their personal histories, results in difficulties.

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On April 20, 2011, shortly after the release of his documentary 'Restrepo' - and only six weeks after attending the Oscar ceremony as a nominee - photographer and filmmaker Tim Hetherington was killed by mortar fire in the city of Misrata, Libya, where he'd been covering the civil war.

He bled out in the back of a pick-up truck while being raced to the hospital, comforted by a Spanish photojournalist who was holding his hand and trying to keep him awake. Those moments ended a brilliant ten-year career in which Hetherington not only covered such dramatic front-line stories such as Liberia and Afghanistan, but also transcended the conventional boundaries of image-making to become one of the most important journalists of his generation. Sebastian Junger ('The Perfect Storm', 'War'), Hetherington's 'Restrepo' co-director, traces his close friend's work across the world's battlefields to reveal what made him such a singular talent. The moving and powerful film also illuminates the incredible risks of the combat journalist's profession, at a time when they are dying with greater and greater frequency in war zones.