jill-from-london's - Rented List
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Perception: The Everyday World is Real. Reality: That World is a hoax, an elaborate deception spun by all-powerful machines of artificial intelligence that control us. Mind blowing stunts. Techno-slamming visuals. Megakick action. Keanu Reeves and Laurence Fishburne lead the fight to free humankind in 'The Matrix', the cyber thriller that you will watch again and again. - Director:
- Lilly Wachowski
- Cast:
- Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss
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From the writer/director of Jerry Maguire, Cameron Crow brings us Almost Famous, nominated for four Academy Awards and winner of Best Original Screenplay (2001). Set in 1973, it chronicles the funny and often poignant coming of age of 15-year-old music fanatic, William (Patrick Fugit). Having managed to land an assignment from Rolling Stone magazine to interview the up-and-coming band Stillwater - fronted by lead guitarist Russell Hammond (Billy Crudup) - and with the help of gorgeous "band aid" Penny Lane played by Oscar nominee Kate Hudson (Almost Famous, 2001), William finds himself drawn into the band's inner circle, despite the objections of his over-protective mother (Frances McDormand). As he becomes less an observer and more a participant in the band's dynamics, William learns a life-changing lesson about the importance of family - the ones we inherit and the ones we create. - Director:
- Cameron Crowe
- Cast:
- Billy Crudup, Patrick Fugit, Kate Hudson
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Bob Dylan: The Other Side of the Mirror (2007)The Other Side of the Mirror: Bob Dylan at the Newport Folk Festival
Few performances in history are as legendary - or as controversial - as Bob Dylan's 1965 appearance at the Newport Folk Festival. In a single, galvanizing instant, Dylan plugged an entire generation in, forever changing not only the way the music was made, but the way it was heard. By putting you in the audience for Dylan's Newport performances from 1963 through that pivotal set in 1965, Academy Award-winning director Murray Lerner's 'The Other Side of the Mirror' captures Dylan's metamorphosis from folk prodigy to rock's fiercely confrontational poet who would electrify and inspire an entire nation.
Performances 1963
- North Country Blues
- With God On Our Side
- Talkin' World War lll Blues
- Who Killed Davey Moore?
- Only a Pawn In Their Game
- Blowin' In the Wind
Performances 1964
- Mr. Tambourine Man
- It Ain't Me, Babe
- With God On Our Side
- Chimes of Freedom
Performances 1965
- All I Really Want To Do
- If You Gotta Go, Go Now
- Love Minus Zero / No Limit
- Maggie's Farm (electric)
- Like a Rolling Stone (electric)
- Mr. Tambourine Man
- It's All Over Now, Baby Blue- Director:
- Murray Lerner
- Cast:
- Joan Baez, Johnny Cash, Judy Collins
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The film tells the tale of shady pickpocket Skip McCoy (Richard Widmark) who steals a wallet belonging to Candy (Jean Peters) who, unbeknownst to her, is carrying microfilm containing government secrets. Anxious to recover the film, Joey, Candy's ex-lover and the man using her as courier, convinces her to find the thief. - Director:
- Samuel Fuller
- Cast:
- Richard Widmark, Jean Peters, Thelma Ritter
- Formats:
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There Is No Evil (2020)Sheytan vojud nadarad
Every society that enforces the death penalty needs people to kill other people. Four men are faced with an unthinkable but simple choice. Whatever they decide, it will directly or indirectly corrode themselves, their relationships, and their entire lives. In four thematically connected episodes, Mohammad Rasoulof tells their stories, which inevitably are also the stories of the people who surround them. - Director:
- Mohammad Rasoulof
- Cast:
- Baran Rasoulof, Zhila Shahi, Mahtab Servati
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After he steals money from the mob Nicky (John Cassavetes) finds out that they have put a contract out on him. He turns to lifelong friend Mikey (Peter Falk) for advice, and help. His friend, it transpires is more Judas than saviour as it becomes clear that he (Mikey) might just be the trigger man Nicky has been dreading. Directed with Cassavetes-style verite flair, this unusual gangster movie takes us 'Sopranos style' into the lives and pastimes of the gangsters we see. Elaine May (Ishtar), directs wonderful performances from Cassavetes and Falk with great back up from Ned Beatty, William Hickey and Sandford Meisner. Down those dark streets these men will tread! Film noir and gangster style meet head on. - Director:
- Elaine May
- Cast:
- Elaine May, Peter Falk, John Cassavetes
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New York, the middle of summer. A blonde ex-model is murdered in her bathtub and detectives Muldoon (Barry Fitzgerald) and Halloran (Don Taylor) assigned to the case. Their investigation will lead them through the entire city, from Park Avenue to the Lower East Side, culminating in a thrilling climax atop the Williamsburg Bridge. - Director:
- Jules Dassin
- Cast:
- Barry Fitzgerald, Mark Hellinger, Howard Duff
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New York 1988, Bobby Green (Joaquin Phoenix) has changed his name to conceal his family connection to a long line of distinguished New York cops in order to pursue ambitions as a Brooklyn nightclub owner. As he turns a blind eye to the drug dealers around him, he comes face to face with the family he abandoned when his brother (Mark Wahlberg) and father (Robert Duvall) crack down on the club. Now Bobby must choose a side. Is he going to turn informant or will he help run the biggest crime ring in New York history? - Director:
- James Gray
- Cast:
- Joaquin Phoenix, Mark Wahlberg, Eva Mendes
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A tender and undeniably powerful exploration of loneliness and love, 'Vortex' focuses on an elderly couple (played by Frangoise Lebrun and Dario Argento) who spend their days in a Paris apartment. Both love and care for each other, but are grappling with the early stages of dementia. We follow the couple as they go about their daily routines both together and alone. As everyday tasks become more challenging, forgetfulness shifts to something more troubling and their son (Alex Lutz) struggles to care for them as they enter a vortex of mental and physical degeneration. Compelling and moving in equal measure, this is a departure for Gaspar Noe - but in terms of scope and ambition, it is one of his finest works to date. - Director:
- Gaspar Noé
- Cast:
- Dario Argento, Françoise Lebrun, Alex Lutz
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The Small Back Room (1949)Hour of Glory
From the legendary filmmaking duo Powell and Pressburger, 'The Small Back Room' is the story of the troubled love affair between a tormented back room scientist and a beautiful secretary, told against a background of ministerial intrigue and empire building. Sammy Rice (David Farrar) was the army's finest bomb disposal officer until he was injured in the war and left with a false foot. Now part of a specialist 'back room' team, he dismantles the booby-trapped devices being dropped by Nazi bombers. He falls in love with Susan (Kathleen Byron), a colleague, and the two begin a secret affair. However, embittered by life, he feels inferior; inferior as a lover, inferior as a man unable to wear uniform; inferior in his work for, although a brilliant scientist, he allows himself to be exploited by his power-hungry boss. Haunted by his past, he drowns his sorrows in whiskey. Sammy's life is descending into disarray when the news comes; a bomb has exploded with catastrophic consequences, and another has been found. Faced with the biggest challenge of his career, Sammy must confront his demons and take his own life in his hands to solve the mystery of the bomb's lethal mechanism. - Director:
- Michael Powell
- Cast:
- David Farrar, Kathleen Byron, Jack Hawkins
- Formats:
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5 Broken Cameras (2011)Five Broken Cameras
Winner of audience prizes at festivals around the world, and long-listed for an Oscar, "5 Broken Cameras" is the story of Bil'in, a West Bank Palestinian village, whose inhabitants have long been mounting a resistance to the occupation and appropriation of their land for neighbouring Israeli settlements. It is told via the footage of local inhabitant Emad Burnat, who bought a camera to make home-movies about the growing years of his new-born son Gibreel, but soon started to document the daily acts of defiance against the provocations by the army, police and settlers. Over the course of several years his cameras are damaged, or even shot, but Emad, and Israeli film-maker Guy Davidi, have together shaped the hundreds of hours filmed into a compelling, stirring and moving document of the collective struggles that daringly meshes the personal essay with political cinema. - Director:
- Emad Burnat
- Cast:
- Soraya Burnat, Mohammed Burnat, Yasin Burnat
- Formats:
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Black Girl / Borom Sarret (1966)La noire de
Senegalese director Ousmane Sembene was the first Sub-Saharan African filmmaker to achieve international recognition, and is widely regarded as the father of African cinema. His first major work. Black Girl, is the uncompromising story of Diouana, a young Senegalese nanny whose hopes of an exciting life in France are dashed when her white employers expect her to work as their servant. Also included is Sembene's directorial debut, the short film Borom Sarret, the first ever indigenous Black African film. An allegorical tale exploring poverty and inequality, it charts a day in the life of a hard-up cart driver in Dakar, whose good deeds are rewarded with great injustice. - Director:
- Ousmane Sembene
- Cast:
- Mbissine Thérèse Diop, Toto Bissainthe, Robert Marcy
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Kings of the Road (1976)Im Lauf der Zeit
The final part of Wim Wenders' loose trilogy of road movies (following on from Alice in the Cities and Wrong Move), Kings Of The Road (aka in the course of time) has been hailed as one of the best films of the 1970s and remains Wenders' most remarkable portrait of his own country. After driving his car at high speed off road and into a river, losing all his worldly possessions, Robert Lander (Hanns Zischler) hitches a ride with Bruno Winter (Rudiger Vogler), who travels across Germany's hinterland repairing projectors in run-down cinemas. Along the way, the two men meet people whose lives are as at odds with the modern world as their own. In attempting to reconcile their past, the two men find themselves increasingly at odds with each other. - Director:
- Wim Wenders
- Cast:
- Rüdiger Vogler, Hanns Zischler, Lisa Kreuzer
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Wings of Desire (1987)Der Himmel über Berlin / The Sky Above Berlin / The Sky Over Berlin
The sky over Wenders' war-scarred Berlin is full of gentle, trenchcoated angels who listen to the tortured thoughts of mortals and try to comfort them. One, Damiel, (Bruno Ganz) wishes to become mortal after falling in love with a beautiful trapeze artist, Marion (Solveig Dommartin). Peter Falk, as himself, assists in the transformation by explaining the simple joys of a human experience. - Director:
- Wim Wenders
- Cast:
- Bruno Ganz, Solveig Dommartin, Otto Sander
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An artist and ceramist in Portland, Oregon is on the verge of an important show, but she's plagued with personal problems. Her neighbour-slash-landlady (a fellow or rival artist, as it happens) is failing to fix the hot water in her apartment. Her cat has almost killed a pigeon in their street and she feels obligated to look after the poor injured thing in a cardboard box, instead of working. Her mother (an administrator in the community arts centre where the artist works) is querulously estranged from her dad, who appears to have free loading house guests from Canada. And her bipolar brother, who also has artistic leanings is digging a huge hole in his back garden... - Director:
- Kelly Reichardt
- Cast:
- Michelle Williams, Hong Chau, André Benjamin
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