jjb's - Favourites List

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Film recounts the adventures of Gustave H., a legendary concierge at a famous European hotel between the wars; and Zero Moustafa, the lobby boy who becomes his most trusted friend.

The story involves the theft and recovery of a priceless Renaissance painting; a raging battle for an enormous family fortune; a desperate chase on motorcycles, trains, sleds, and skis; and the sweetest confection of a love affair - all against the backdrop of a suddenly and dramatically changing Continent.

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His Majesty was all powerful and all knowing. But he wasn't quite all there. 1788 - King George IIl (Nigel Hawthorne) is almost 30 years into his reign and is once again preparing for the Opening of Parliament.

Queen Charlotte (Helen Mirren) skillfully divides her role as both devoted wife and mother to their 15 children. Yet, despite the apparent veneer of respectability, something is going sadly awry within the walls of Windsor Castle. The King's behaviour is becoming increasingly irrational, he is babbling ceaselessly, spewing obscenities and attacking the Queen's Mistress of Robes, Lady Pembroke (Amanda Donohoe). Has the King of England gone...mad? As the King's condition deteriorates, his son, the Prince of Wales (Rupert Everett) sets out to have his father declared unfit in order that he should be proclaimed Regent. The Queen is denied access to her husband and the King consequently becomes an isolated figure at the mercy of his own inept physicians. Not until he is persuaded to engage a new doctor, Dr Willis (Ian Holm) does the King show any signs of improvement. Yet the King's only true salvation relies on the support of the most potent of medicines - the Queen herself.

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Director Ang Lee's follow-up to his surprise box-office hit 'The Wedding Banquet', and nominated for 11 Academy Awards including Best Foreign Film, "Eat Drink Man Woman" is an unrivalled bitter sweet comedy about food, the senses and gender politics in modern China.

Senior Master Chef Chu lives in a large house in Taipei with his three unmarried daughters; Jia-Jen, an unmarried chemistry teacher cynical about men; Jia-Chien, who has ambitions to become a great chef in a male dominated world and Jia-Ning, a sexually expressive college student who falls pregnant. Life in the house revolves around the ritual of an elaborate dinner each Sunday, lovingly cooked by Chef Chu but may be all too traditional for the next generation of the family. As each meal passes the relationships between the daughters and the family as a whole evolve and change in many unexpected ways.

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Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Celine (Julie Delpy) first met in their twenties in 'Before Sunrise'; Reunited in their thirties in 'Before Sunset'; and, now, in director Richard Linklater's amazing 'Before Midnight', they face the past, present and future; family, romance and love.

Now on a writer's retreat in Greece, the couple looks for a night of passion, but instead their idyllic night turns into a test of their relationship and a discussion of what the future holds for them.

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After a successful shoplifting spree, Osamu (Lily Franky) and his son rescue a little girl in the freezing cold and invite her home with them. Osamu's wife Nobuyo (Sakura Ando) reluctantly agrees to shelter her.

Although the family is poor, they live happily together until an unforeseen incident upsets the delicate balance they have created, revealing long-buried secrets...

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Set in the glamour of 1950's post-war London, renowned dressmaker Reynolds Woodcock (Daniel Day-Lewis) and his sister Cyril (Lesley Manville) are at the centre of British fashion, dressing royalty, movie stars, heiresses, socialites, debutants and dames with the distinct style of The House of

Woodcock. Women come and go through Woodcock's life until he comes across a young, strong-willed woman, Alma (Vicky Krieps), who soon becomes a fixture in his life as his muse and lover. Once controlled and planned, he finds his carefully tailored life disrupted by the scariest curse of all...love. And so begins a Gothic Romance of twists, turns and power struggles of "pure, delicious pleasure" that is "devilishly funny and luxuriantly sensuous".

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Series 2 of the gritty drama series - featuring an acclaimed ensemble cast led by Oscar nominees James Franco and Maggie Gyllenhaal - finds its protagonists living at the apex of the Golden Age of Porn, when the dream of a mainstream X-rated film business is a credible reality and late-'70s Times

Square is at its gaudiest and most unrestrained. From executive producers David Simon and George Pelecanos, 'The Deuce' brilliantly captures this volatile world in the midst of seismic change.

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Oscar nominees James Franco and Maggie Gyllenhaal star in a gritty new drama from David Simon and George Pelecanos that traces the evolution of the porn industry in NYC's Times Square in the 1970s, as the business of pleasure begins its climb to become a billion-dollar industry.

'The Deuce' features a vivid assortment of characters - barkeeps, prostitutes, pimps, police and nightlife regulars - as they swirl through a world of sex, crime and high times.

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Hoping she will lead them to her fellow assassins, two captains Jin and Leo (Takeshi Kaneshiro, Andy Lau) hatch a plan to capture and trick Mei (Ziyi Zhang) a beautiful dancer suspected of having ties to the House of the flying daggers, a powerful revolutionary faction.

From there begins a long trail of dangerous encounters, impossible love triangles and plot twists, in which people are rarely as they seem…

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A deaf-mute (Kang-ho Song) is desperate to save his sister's life, but can't raise the money for the kidney transplant.

Out of desperation, he and his terrorist girlfriend kidnap a wealthy businessman's daughter in order to raise the cash, only to find that the cost of their actions will have to be paid in torture and pain.

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'Three Colours White', a very funny and ironic black comedy, is the second in Krzysztof Kieslowski's acclaimed trilogy based on the ideals of the French Revolution.

Karol (Zbigniew Zamachowski), a Polish hairdresser, is divorced by his beautiful French wife Dominique (Julie Delpy) and thrown onto the streets of Paris, penniless and with no passport. All seems lost until he meets a fellow Pole who ingeniously smuggles Karol back to Warsaw in a suitcase. Once there, Karol is determined to take revenge against his ex-wife. He deals successfully on the black market until he has enough money to put his plan into action, but he hasn't counted on love getting in the way of its perfect execution.

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Failed comedian Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix) encounters violent thugs while wandering the streets of Gotham City dressed as a clown.

Disregarded by society Fleck begins a slow descent into madness as he transforms into the criminal mastermind known as Joker in director Todd Phillips' thrilling origin story.

Everyone's a suspect when a murder is committed on a lavish train ride, and a brilliant detective must race against time to solve the puzzle before the killer strikes again.

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When renowned crime novelist Harlan Thrombey (Christopher Plummer) is found dead at his estate just after his 85th birthday, the inquisitive and debonair Detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) is mysteriously enlisted to investigate.

From Harlan's dysfunctional family to his devoted staff, Blanc sifts through a web of red herrings and self-serving lies to uncover the truth behind Harlan's untimely death.

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Four teenagers in detention discover an old video game console with a game they've never heard of. When they decide to play, they are immediately sucked into the jungle world of Jumanji in the bodies of their avatars (Dwayne Johnson, Jack Black, Kevin Hart, and Karen Gillan).

They'll have to complete the adventure of their lives filled with fun, thrills and danger or be stuck in the game forever!