lyn's - Rented List
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The life and times of Britain's king-in-waiting, from his debauched youth and two marriages to his father's madness and his belated ascent to the throne. George, Prince of Wales (1762-1830) waited almost 60 years to become King, despite his father George Ill's long battle with mental illness. In his youth the prince (Peter Egan) is a notorious womaniser, gambler and drinker, who runs up huge debts with extravagant renovations of his private palace, Carlton House. At 21 he falls for the charms of Maria Fitzherbert (Susannah York), a twice-widowed Catholic commoner six years his senior. Despite her unsuitability on almost every count, he rushes into a secret marriage. But his father the King (Nigel Davenport), insists he make a 'proper' marriage with his cousin Princess Caroline of Brunswick (Dinah Stabb), in exchange for support in clearing his debts. That marriage is a disaster as young George refuses to give up Maria - and takes a series of other lovers. When George III succumbs to his first bout of madness in 1788, there's a constitutional crisis. Without a King's Speech, there can be no State Opening of Parliament, and plans are drawn up for a Regency. Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger (David Codings) reluctantly agrees with the prince's staunch ally and his own fierce rival Charles James Fox (Keith Barron) that there is only one suitable candidate to assume the duties of the living King. But the King recovers his wits, and the Regency is delayed for another 20 years. Not till our own times would an heir to the British throne wait so long for his coronation. - Director:
- Michael Simpson
- Cast:
- Peter Egan, Bosco Hogan, Nigel Davenport
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The Bureau: Series 3 (2017)Le Bureau des Légendes
In Series 3 of the critically-acclaimed French series 'The Bureau', Malotru (Mathieu Kassovitz) has been taken hostage by the Islamic State. Moved from camp to camp, tortured and weakened, he's close to despair. In Paris, the Directorate-General for External Security (DGSE) faces a dilemma: should they use all their resources to save Malotru, who betrayed the service, his country and friends when he became a double agent working for the CIA? - Director:
- Samuel Collardey
- Cast:
- Mathieu Kassovitz, Christèle Baranzelli, Jean-Pierre Darroussin
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Big landscapes and stunning scenery, this is the Australian outback, specifically the town of Patterson. When two farmhands - Marley, a local Indigenous boy and Reese, a backpacker - go missing from a cattle station, Indigenous detective Jay Swan (Aaron Pederson) is sent to this remote town to investigate. Loner Jay must work with smart, tough local cop Emma James (Judy Davis). He also has to deal with the arrival of his daughter Crystal, who's run away from her own trouble at home, and his ex-wife Mary who comes after her. As Jay and Emma investigate Marley and Reese's relationships and secrets they soon find themselves unpeeling the hidden layers of the town's dark history, becoming embroiled in a deep mystery that will send shockwaves through the community. - Director:
- Rachel Perkins
- Cast:
- Aaron Pedersen, Judy Davis, Deborah Mailman
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Written by award-winning screen-writer and novelist Frederic Raphael, "The Glittering Prizes" is the critically acclaimed series of six teleplays chronicling the changing lives of friends who first meet at Cambridge University. Tom Conti (Shirley Valentine) stars as would-be novelist Adam Morris with Mark Wing-Davey and Nigel Havers among his college peers. Barbara Kellerman, Malcolm Stoddard, Connie Booth, Miriam Margolyes and Tim Pigott-Smith also feature among the cast. Meeting as undergraduates in the early fifties, the drama explores the hopes and dreams of a group of idealistic young students, following their intertwining lives into the turbulent sixties, and on through the successes and disillusionments of the seventies as they achieve contrasting levels of worldly success. - Director:
- Waris Hussein
- Cast:
- Tom Conti, Barbara Kellerman, Mark Wing-Davey
- Formats:
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Gomorrah: Series 1 (2014)Gomorra - La serie 1
A new event series from Stefano Sollima ('Romanzo Criminale'), based on Robert Saviano's best-selling book and the subsequent Cannes Golden Palm winning film of the same name. 'Gomorrah' is the inside story of fierce Neapolitan crime organisation the Camorra, as seen through the eyes of Ciro (Marco D'Amore), the obedient and self-confident right-hand man of the clan's godfather, Pietro Savastano (Fortunato Cerlino), whose loyalty is tested to its limits over twelve blood-drenched episodes. Ciro knows better than anyone what it means to be a loyal clan member. But when Pietro decides to sacrifice many of his own men only to make a bloody statement to rival clan boss Salvatore Conte, something dies in Ciro - for one of the many victims of the bloodshed is his foster father Attilio, himself an ever-loyal clan member. - Director:
- Stefano Sollima
- Cast:
- Marco D'Amore, Fortunato Cerlino, Maria Pia Calzone
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The Favourite (2018)Favorite
In early 18th-century England, a frail Queen Anne (Olivia Colman) occupies the throne, and her closest friend, Lady Sarah (Rachel Weisz), governs the country while tending to Anne's ill health and volatile temper. When new servant Abigail (Emma Stone) arrives, Sarah takes Abigail under her wing as she cunningly schemes to return to her aristocratic roots, setting off an outrageous rivalry to become the Queen's favourite. - Director:
- Yorgos Lanthimos
- Cast:
- Olivia Colman, Emma Stone, Rachel Weisz
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This atmospheric drama based on a chilling true story sees a determined detective taunted by an arrogant serial killer as he fights to bring him to justice. The trial and execution of Peter Manuel in 1958 was a media sensation and attracted worldwide press attention. Never before had one man been tried simultaneously for eight murders. This gripping series dramatises the real-life story of Detective William Muncie's dogged battle to prove Manuel's guilt - and the killer's personal vendetta against the policeman on his trail. - Director:
- John Strickland
- Cast:
- Alana McDowall, Martin Compston, Gilly Gilchrist
- Formats:
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Breakheart Pass (1975)Nevada Pass
At the height of the frontier era, a locomotive races through the Rocky Mountains on a classified mission to a remote Army post. But one by one, the passengers are being murdered. Their only hope is John Deakin (Charles Bronson), a mysterious prisoner-in-transit who must fight for his life - and the lives of everyone on the train - as he uncovers a deadly secret that explodes in a torrent of shocking revelations, explosive brawls and blazing gun battles. - Director:
- Tom Gries
- Cast:
- Charles Bronson, Paul Frees, Ben Johnson
- Formats:
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La Grande Illusion (1937)The Grand Illusion
Set in the German prison camps of WW1, the film stars Jean Gabin as Marechal, and Marcel Dalio as Rosenthal. Like the charming aristocrat Captain de Boeldieu (Pierre Fresnay), these two French aviators were shot down and now spend most of their time escaping from German prison camps before inevitably being recaptured. Between escapes, they do what they can to amuse themselves, but after a tunnel they've dug is discovered, the three are sent to Wintersborn, a forbidding fortress of a prison commanded by former ace pilot Von Rauffenstein (Erich Von Stroheim). Von Rauffenstein cannot help but strike up a friendship with Captain de Boeldieu, a kindred spirit from the doomed nobility. - Director:
- Jean Renoir
- Cast:
- Jean Gabin, Dita Parlo, Pierre Fresnay
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The Rules of the Game (1939)La règle du jeu
Denigrated by the public, vilified by the critics, re-cut at the insistence of its producers, and finally banned by the French government as 'demoralising' and unpatriotic, La Regle du jeu was a commercial disaster at the time of its original release. On the surface, a series of interlinked romantic intrigues taking place at a weekend shooting party in a country chateau, the film is in fact a study of the corruption and decay within French society on the eve of the outbreak of World War II. - Director:
- Jean Renoir
- Cast:
- Marcel Dalio, Nora Gregor, Paulette Dubost
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DI Richard Poole is sent to the paradise island of Saint-Marie in the Caribbean to solve an impossible murder. He hates sun, sea and sand, but no matter - once he's solved the murder he'll be heading back to wonderful, cold, drizzly London. He does so, with brilliance and tenacity - only to discover his boss back home has conspired to keep him there. He's trapped on an island he hates and people just keep getting murdered. - Director:
- Charlie Palmer
- Cast:
- Sean Maguire, Danny John-Jules, Lenora Crichlow
- Formats:
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The Great Silence (1968)Il Grande Silenzio
On an unforgiving, snow-swept frontier, a group of bloodthirsty bounty hunters, led by the vicious Loco (Klaus Kinski) prey on a band of persecuted outlaws who have taken to the hills. Only a mute gunslinger named Silence (Jean-Louis Trintignant) stands between the innocent refugees and the corrupt killers. But, in this harsh, brutal world, the lines between right and wrong are not always clear, and good does not always triumph. - Director:
- Sergio Corbucci
- Cast:
- Jean-Louis Trintignant, Klaus Kinski, Frank Wolff
- Formats:
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Cefalonia (2005)Kefallonia 1943
8 September 1943 proved to be a fateful day for the Acqui Division,part of the predominantly Italian force occupying Cefalonia: it was the day the Allies concluded an armistice with Italy. Confusion now reigned between the Italian and German troops stationed on the island. The Italians longed to return peacefully to their homeland, but the Germans - now their enemies - feared that the Italians might use their munitions in a hostile act. As Nazi reinforcements invaded the island, the Italian troops did something extraordinary. Following a democratic referendum involving soldiers of all ranks, rather than surrender to the Germans they elected to fight. - Director:
- Riccardo Milani
- Cast:
- Luca Zingaretti, Luisa Ranieri, Roberto De Francesco
- Formats:
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The 12th Man (2017)Den 12. mann
"The 12th Man" is a breath-taking war thriller about an incredible true-life story of heroism and a man's unbreakable will to live. Norway, 1943: after a failed anti-Nazi sabotage mission leaves his eleven comrades dead, Norwegian resistance fighter Jan Baalsrud (Thomas Gullestad) finds himself on the run from the Gestapo through the snowbound Arctic reaches of Scandinavia led by Kurt Stage (Jonathan Rhys Meyers). It's a harrowing journey across unforgiving, frozen wilderness that will stretch on for months - and force Jan to take extreme action in order to survive. The legendary story of Jan Baalsrud's escape remains one of the wildest, most unfathomable survival stories of World War II. - Director:
- Harald Zwart
- Cast:
- Thomas Gullestad, Jonathan Rhys-Meyers, Marie Blokhus
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Berlin, 1940. Working class couple Otto (Brendan Gleeson) and Anna (Emma Thompson) Quangel receive the news that their only son has lost his life in the battlefield and decide to resist the Nazi regime in their very own way. Soon their campaign comes to the attention of the Gestapo and a murderous game of cat-and-mouse begins. - Director:
- Vincent Perez
- Cast:
- Emma Thompson, Daniel Brühl, Brendan Gleeson
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