jwc's - Rented List
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Force Majeure (2014)Turist
The sun is beaming and the ski slopes are spectacular for Tomas, his wife Ebba and their two children. However, during a lunch at a mountainside restaurant an avalanche suddenly bears down upon the happy diners. As the wall of snow gets ever closer, Tomas makes a split-second decision in a moment of panic that will engulf and shake his relationship with his wife and children and leave him struggling to reclaim his role as the family patriarch. - Director:
- Ruben Östlund
- Cast:
- Johannes Kuhnke, Lisa Loven Kongsli, Clara Wettergren
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Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow (1963)Ieri, oggi, domani
Adelina (Sophia Loren) sells black-market cigarettes on the streets of Naples to support her unemployed husband Carmine (Marcello Mastroianni). Caught by the police, and with a jail sentence hanging over her head, desperation sets in. She learns that she can avoid prison as long as she's pregnant. Several years and seven children later, Carmine is exhausted, so jail looks inescapable as does Adelina's contempt for Carmine. In Milan, our second protagonist, Anna (Loren), is bored and wealthy, drives a Rolls Royce, and is having an affair with a writer (Mastroianni). She talks dreamily of running off with him, that is until one day he crashes her car... In the third and final vignette, Loren plays Mara, a call girl from Rome, who turns the head of a naive young man training to become a Priest, prompting a run-in with his self-righteous grandmother and a vow of abstinence. Features Loren's notorious striptease, which was recreated years later by Robert Altman in Prêt-à-Porter. - Director:
- Vittorio De Sica
- Cast:
- Sophia Loren, Marcello Mastroianni, Aldo Giuffrè
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On the occasion of his fifth wedding anniversary, Nick Dunne (Ben Affleck) reports that his beautiful wife, Amy (Rosamund Pike), has gone missing. Under pressure from the police and a growing media frenzy, Nick's portrait of a blissful union begins to crumble. Soon his lies, deceits and strange behaviour have everyone asking the same dark question: Did Nick Dunne kill his wife? - Director:
- David Fincher
- Cast:
- Ben Affleck, Rosamund Pike, Neil Patrick Harris
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It's only a state of mind. Jonathan Pryce stars as Sam Lowry in this surrealistic spectacle about a daydreaming bureaucrat trapped in a future dystopia where love is forbidden from interfering with efficiency. But with the help of an underground superhero (Robert De Niro) and a beautiful mystery woman (Kim Greist), Sam learns to soar to freedom on the wings of his untamed imagination, or so he thinks. - Director:
- Terry Gilliam
- Cast:
- Jonathan Pryce, Kim Greist, Robert De Niro
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Leviathan (2014)Leviafan
The new film from Andrey Zvyagintsev, the visionary director of "The Return" and "The Banishment", tells the tragic tale of Kolya, who employs a lawyer friend to help fight his case for ownership of the land on which he and his family live when the nefarious town mayor attempts to seize it. But standing up against such men begins a whirlwind of dire consequences, infusing every area of Kolyas life and all he holds dear. A visually arresting epic which takes an unflinchingly direct look at modern day Russia and the corruption that seethes in even its quietest corners, "Leviathan" will not only open your eyes but also stay in your mind for years to come. - Director:
- Andrey Zvyagintsev
- Cast:
- Aleksey Serebryakov, Elena Lyadova, Roman Madyanov
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Judi Dench mesmerizes as Barbara Covett, a teacher who rules over her classroom with an iron fist, yet leads a desperate, solitary life outside it. That is, until she meets radiant new art teacher Sheba Hart (Cate Blanchett). Although at first overjoyed with her newfound kindred spirit, when Barbara discovers that Sheba is having an affair with a teenage student, her jealously and rage spiral out of control. - Director:
- Richard Eyre
- Cast:
- Cate Blanchett, Judi Dench, Andrew Simpson
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The Physician (2013)Der Medicus
A sweeping epic about the quest for knowledge in a violent world full of superstition and prejudice, 'The Physician', follows Rob Cole (Tom Payne), from medieval England where he first discovers his terrifying gift, to the far flung corners of Persia. There he becomes apprenticed to the Barber (Stellan Skarsgard), and learns more how his unique ability to foresee impending death can be used to heal. Academy Award-winner Ben Kingsley stars as Ibn Sina, the "doctor of all doctors", who inspires Rob to accept his gift no matter what grave consequences he faces. - Director:
- Philipp Stölzl
- Cast:
- Tom Payne, Stellan Skarsgård, Olivier Martinez
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Our Little Sister (2015)Umimachi Diary
Sachi, Yoshino and Chika are three sisters living happily together in a relaxed seaside town south of Tokyo. When their long-estranged father passes away they meet their shy teenage half-sister at his funeral. Bonding quickly, they invite the orphaned Suzu to live with them and she eagerly agrees, sparking a journey of self-discovery for all four sisters, looking back into painful pasts in order to reach forward to more hopeful futures. - Director:
- Hirokazu Koreeda
- Cast:
- Haruka Ayase, Masami Nagasawa, Kaho
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Set in a military hospital during World War I, the film tells of a real life encounter between army psychologist Dr William Rivers and the poet Siegfried Sassoon, who has been institutionalised in an attempt to undermine his public disapproval of the war. It also concerns young poet Wilfred Owen who, with support from Sassoon, begins to write his great war poems. Rivers, whose duty it is to return shell-shocked officers to the trenches, is tormented by the morality of what is being done in the name of medicine, especially the treatment of working-class officer Billy Prior who has been struck dumb by the carnage he has witnessed. - Director:
- Gillies MacKinnon
- Cast:
- Jonathan Pryce, James Wilby, Jonny Lee Miller
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A box-office sensation in France, comic star Jean Dujardin stars as secret agent Hubert Bonisseur de la Bath, a.k.a. OSS 117 who in the tradition of Maxwell Smart and Inspector Clouseau somehow succeeds in spite of his ineptitude. After a fellow agent and close friend is murdered, Hubert is ordered to take his place at the head of a poultry firm in Cairo. This is to be his cover while he investigates Jack’s death, monitors the Suez Canal, checks up on the Brits and Soviets, burnishes France’s reputation, quells a fundamentalist rebellion and brokers peace in the Middle East. A blithe and witty send-up not only of spy films of that era and the suave secret agent figure but also neo-colonialism, ethnocentrism and the very idea of Western covert action in the Middle East - Director:
- Michel Hazanavicius
- Cast:
- Jean Dujardin, Bérénice Bejo, Aure Atika
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Rural England, 1865. Katherine (Florence Pugh) is stifled by her loveless marriage to a bitter man twice her age, and his cold unforgiving family. When she embarks on a passionate affair with a young worker on her husband's estate, a force is unleashed inside her so powerful that she will stop at nothing to get what she wants. - Director:
- William Oldroyd
- Cast:
- Florence Pugh, Cosmo Jarvis, Christopher Fairbank
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Best friends Anthony (Luke Wilson), Dignan (Owen Wilson), and Bob (Robert Musgrave) stage a wildly complex, mildly successful robbery of a small bookstore, then go "on the lam". During their adventures, Anthony falls in love with a South American housekeeper, Inez (Lumi Cavazos), and they befriend local thief extraordinaire Mr. Henry (James Caan). 'Bottle Rocket' is a charming, hilarious, affectionate look at the folly of dreamers, shot against radiant southwestern backdrops, and the film that put Anderson and the Wilson brothers on the map. - Director:
- Wes Anderson
- Cast:
- Luke Wilson, Owen Wilson, Ned Dowd
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‘City Lights’ begins with an uproarious skewering of pomp and formality, ends with one of the most famous last shots in movie history and, from start to finish, so completely touches the heart and tickles the funny bone that in 1998 it was named one of the American Film Institute’s Top-100 American Films. Talkies were well entrenched when Charles Chaplin swam against the filmmaking tide with this forever classic that’s silent except for music and sound effects. The story, involving the Tramp’s attempts to get money for an operation that will restore sight to a blind flower girl, provides a star with an ideal framework for sentiment and laughs. The tramp is variously a street sweeper, a boxer, a rich 0poseur, and a rescuer of a suicidal millionaire. His message is unspoken, but universally understood: love is blind. - Director:
- Charles Chaplin
- Cast:
- Charles Chaplin, Virginia Cherrill, Florence Lee
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Never Look Away (2018)Werk ohne Autor / Work Without Author
"Never Look Away" tells the story of a young art student, Kurt (Tom Schilling) who falls in love with fellow classmate, Ellie (Paula Beer). Ellie's father, Professor Seeband (Sebastian Koch), a famous doctor, is dismayed at his daughter's choice of boyfriend, and vows to destroy the relationship. What neither of them knows is that their lives are already connected through a terrible crime Seeband committed decades before... - Director:
- Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
- Cast:
- Tom Schilling, Sebastian Koch, Paula Beer
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The Band's Visit (2007)Bikur Ha-Tizmoret
A fading Egyptian police band arrives in Israel to play at the Arab Cultural Centre. When they take the wrong bus, the band members find themselves in a desolate Israeli village. With no other option than to spend the night with the local townspeople, the two distinctly different cultures realise the universal bonds of love, this cross-cultural comedy proves that getting lost is sometimes the best way to find yourself. - Director:
- Eran Kolirin
- Cast:
- Sasson Gabai, Ronit Elkabetz, Saleh Bakri
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