jwc's - Rented List

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Double bill featuring two of the films produced by the acclaimed partnership of composer Philip Glass and filmmaker Godfrey Reggio.

Koyaanisqatsi (1983)

Prepare to experience a truly remarkable film - a cinematic masterpiece so extraordinary that it regales the senses, stimulates the mind and actually redefines the potential of filmmaking. Celebrated director Godfrey Reggio, innovative cinematographer Ron Fricke and Golden Globe-winning composer Philip Glass have created a spellbinding film so rich in beauty and detail that with each viewing it becomes a new and different film. Unique, profound, mesmerizing, and thought-provoking, Koyaanisqatsi contrasts the tranquil beauty of nature with the frenzied hum of contemporary urban society. Uniting breathtaking imagery with a hauntingly evocative, award-winning score, it is original and fascinating.
Powaqqatsi (1988)
Hailed by audiences and critics around the world as mesmerizing, this second instalment of writer/director Godfrey Reggio's apocalyptic "qatsi" trilogy is quite simply one of the most magnificent visual and aural spectacles ever made. Combining stunning cinematography with the exquisite music of award-winning composer Philip Glass, Powaqqatsi is a breathtaking experience working on many levels - emotional, spiritual, intellectual and aesthetic! Bold, haunting and epic in scale, this extraordinary film calls into question everything we think we know about contemporary society. By juxtaposing images of ancient cultures with those of modern life, Powaqqatsi masterfully portrays the human cost of progress. It is a film that engages the soul as well as the mind - it is truly an absorbing experience.

LucasFilm and director J.J. Abrams join forces once again to take viewers on an epic journey to a galaxy far, far away with 'Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker', the riveting conclusion of the seminal Skywalker saga, where new legends will be born and the final battle for freedom is yet to come.

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In a deserted Macedonian village, Hatidze, a 50-something woman, trudges up a hillside to check her bee colonies nestled in the rocks. Serenading them with a secret chant, she gently manoeuvres the honeycomb without netting or gloves.

Back at her homestead, Hatidze tends to her handmade hives and her bedridden mother, occasionally heading to the capital to market her wares. One day, an itinerant family installs itself next door, and Hatidze's peaceful kingdom gives way to roaring engines, seven shrieking children, and 150 cows. Yet Hatidze welcomes the camaraderie, and she holds nothing back - not her tried-and-true beekeeping advice, not her affection, not her special brandy. But soon Hussein, the itinerant family's patriarch, makes a series of decisions that could destroy Hatidze's way of life forever.

A troubled woman living in an isolated community finds herself pulled between the control of her oppressive family and the allure of a secretive outsider suspected of a series of brutal murders.

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To her friends, Halla (Halldóra Geirharðsdóttir) leads a quiet and routine life. But her happy and upbeat exterior hides a secret double life as a committed environmental activist.

Known to others as "The Mountain Woman", she wages a one-woman-war on the local aluminium industry to protect the stunning highland landscape that is under threat. Just as she begins planning her biggest and boldest operation yet, she receives an unexpected letter that will change everything. She will be forced to choose between her environmental crusade and the chance of fulfilling her dream of becoming a mother. Funny, moving and utterly unique, 'Woman at War' follows Halla as she juggles the adoption of a beautiful little girl whilst planning her final act of industrial sabotage.

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Cabaret brings 1931 Berlin to life inside and outside the Kit Kat Klub. There, starry eyed American Sally Bowles (Liza Minnelli) and an impish emee (Joel Grey) sound the call for decadent fun, while in the street the Nazi party is beginning to grow into a brutal political force.

Into this heady world arrives British language teacher Brian Robert (Michael York) who falls for Sally's charm and soon, the two of them find themselves embroiled in the turmoil and decadence of the era.

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When Tony Lip (Viggo Mortensen), a bouncer from an Italian-American neighborhood in the Bronx, is hired to drive Dr.

Don Shirley (Mahershala Ali), a world-class Black pianist, on a concert tour from Manhattan to the Deep South, they must rely on "The Green Book" to guide them to the few establishments that were then safe for African-Americans. Confronted with racism, danger as well as unexpected humanity and humor - they are forced to set aside differences to survive and thrive on the journey of a lifetime.

Eastwood and Morgan Freeman play retired outlaws who pick up their guns one last time to collect a bounty. Richard Harris is an ill-fated killer-for-hire. And Hackman is a lawman of sly charm...and chilling brutality

This true life story follows the struggles of T.E.Lawrence (Peter O'Toole) in uniting the hostile Arab factions and leading them to victory over the ruling Turkish Empire during the First World War.

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When a young Amish woman (Kelly McGillis) and her son (Lukas Haas) are caught up in the murder of an undercover narcotics agent, their unlikely savior proves to be the worldly and cynical Philadelphia detective John Book.

Harrison Ford is sensational as Book, the cop who runs head-on into the non-violent world of a Pennsylvania Amish community. The end result is an action-packed struggle of life and death, interwoven with a sensitive undercurrent of caring and forbidden love.

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London-based military intelligence officer Colonel Katherine Powell (Helen Mirren) is remotely commanding a top secret drone operation to capture a group of dangerous terrorists in Nairobi, Kenya.

When the mission suddenly escalates from a "capture" to a "kill" operation and innocent lives are put at risk, the impossible decision of whether to strike gets passed up the chain of command. With the clock ticking, the brutal realities of modern warfare play out among the military, politicians and lawyers thousands of miles away from the front line.

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Cesar award-winner Agnes Jaoui gives an intelligent and affecting performance as Aurore; fifty, flirty and not-so-thriving, her world is turned upside down when a past flame returns, reigniting her lust for life and love.

A witty and wonderful ode to embracing age whilst staying young, 'I Got Life!' is a timely and uplifting film celebrating womanhood.

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Thirty years ago, Andrei Simoniovich Filipov (Aleksei Guskov) was the celebrated conductor of the renowned Bolshoi Orchestra. But during the communist era, he was fired at the height of his fame.

Demoted to the position of cleaner at the Bolshoi, he learns by chance that the Chatelet Theatre in Paris has invited the Orchestra to perform. In a moment of inspiration, Andrei intercepts the invitation and reunites his orchestra to perform in the place of the current Bolshoi Orchestra. He wants Anne-Marie Jacquet (Melanie Laurent), a young virtuoso with a mysterious past, as the solo violinist to accompany his old Jewish and gypsy musicians. As the night of the performance approaches, tensions rise as the stakes grow higher. If Andrei succeeds in pulling off this grand deception, it will be the greatest triumph of his career.

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Maxine Peake stars as the Funny Cow, a female comedian who rises to stardom on the male-dominated stand-up comedy circuit of the North of England in the 1970's and 80's.

From her troubled childhood to her turbulent adult relationships, the Funny Cow uses the raw material of her life experiences to bring her unique style of comedy to the stage.

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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...