lyn's - Rented List
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Massacre in Rome (1973)Rappresaglia
Rome 1944 - The last days of the Nazi Occupation. A group of partisans plan an attack on a German Wehrmacht 'police' column. At German headquarters, Lt. Col, Herbert Kappler (Richard Burton), the Gestapo chief, warns his commanding officer General Kurt Maezler (Leo McKern) not to allow the column to march the next day for fear of an attack. Tension mounts as the partisans carry out their bomb attack with 32 Germans dead and then seek refuge with Father Antonelli (Marcello Mastroianni). The German High Command gives orders for one of the war's most unforgiveable acts of revenge - "The Massacre of Rome". - Director:
- George P. Cosmatos
- Cast:
- Richard Burton, Marcello Mastroianni, Leo McKern
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This three disc set contains three feature length episodes of the cutting edge television drama penned by Lynda La Plante. Amanda Burton returns in the role of Lynda la Plante's The Commander, featuring an outstanding supporting cast including Mark Lewis Jones, Paul Brightwell, Celia Imrie, Penny Downie And Gerard Kearns. - Director:
- Michael Whyte
- Cast:
- Amanda Burton, Matthew Marsh, Nicholas Jones
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Hollywood star Sean Bean heads an impressive cast in this poignant and powerful series centred around Father Michael Kerrigan, a Catholic priest presiding over an urban parish in northern England. Father Michael must be a confidant, counsellor and confessor to a congregation struggling to reconcile its beliefs with the challenges of daily life in contemporary Britain. With a chequered past and a complicated relationship with his own family, the priest is determined to help his parishioners through their troubles. But despite his best efforts, Father Michael can't always fix what's broken in their lives. - Director:
- Ashley Pearce
- Cast:
- Adrian Dunbar, Sean Bean, Fin Campbell
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Newly divorced journalist Dicte Svendsen (Iben Hjejle) has returned with daughter Rose to her hometown of Aarhus where she is trying to escape the past and build a new future. But working as a crime reporter, she soon finds herself caught up in a case that is destined to open old wounds when she discovers the body of a murdered young woman. Brash, quick-witted, and not afraid to put herself in danger, she will do what it takes to uncover the truth, throwing herself into each investigation, jeopardising not only her life, but sometimes the lives of those around her. These five gripping tales told over ten episodes are drawn from the crime novels of bestselling Danish author Elsebeth Egholm. - Director:
- Jannik Johansen
- Cast:
- Iben Hjejle, Lars Brygmann, Lærke Winther Andersen
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Starring Academy Award winner Helen Mirren, "The Hundred-Foot Journey" is an uplifting and feel-good comedy bursting with flavour, passion and heart. When the icy proprietress (Mirren) of a Michelin-starred French restaurant in the quaint village of Saint-Antonin-Noble-Val gets wind of the Kadam family opening an Indian restaurant just 100 feet from her own, her protests escalate to all-out war between the two establishments. But as these two worlds collide, despite their different tastes they find an unlikely source of compromise that will change both sides forever. - Director:
- Lasse Hallström
- Cast:
- Helen Mirren, Om Puri, Manish Dayal
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Queensland miner, Oliver Woodward (Brendan Cowell), undertrained and never having faced hostile fire before, finds himself on the Western Front leading a secret team of Australian tunnellers fighting to defend a leaking, labyrinthine tunnel system packed with high explosives. If Woodward and his men can hold out, the massive mines will produce the biggest explosion the world has ever known and could change the course of the war. But the Germans have discovered the Australians' underground activity and as zero hour approaches, the whole allied strategy could be in jeopardy... - Director:
- Jeremy Sims
- Cast:
- Brendan Cowell, Harrison Gilbertson, Steve Le Marquand
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Made to commemorate the 100th anniversary of his death in 1883, Wagner is the epic production of the life of one of the most extraordinary figures of the 19th Century. Richard Wagner remains an enigma. His was a rags-to-riches story with a fairytale end. He was loved yet hated, admired yet despised, a villain yet a hero who was worshipped, a man whose fame and exploits were the gossip of Europe. Above all, he as an incurable romantic whose love affair with Liszt's illegitimate daughter rivals that of Romeo & Juliet in excitement and drama. But he was also a dangerous political revolutionary whose influence penetrated the whole fabric of German society. He was a scoundrel, joker, philosopher, orator, con-man, poet, refugee, political orator, a legend in his own lifetime and one of then greatest composers who has ever lived. - Director:
- Tony Palmer
- Cast:
- Richard Burton, Vanessa Redgrave, László Gálffi
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In 1906, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, having lost his first wife, was overcome with grief; even Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson refused his call. It was only when his secretary, Woodie, presented him with an apparent real-life miscarriage of justice, that he could be roused to action. The case in question was that of George Edalji, a Parsee solicitor, who was imprisoned for writing obscene letters and killing livestock in Great Wyrley, Staffordshire. George needed Arthur's help to clear his name. However, as the twists and turns of the case unfold, Arthur himself questions George's innocence. It is only by finding the true culprit, that Arthur can finally put the case, and his grief, to rest; whilst simultaneously becoming influential in a major reform to the English judicial system. - Director:
- Stuart Orme
- Cast:
- Martin Clunes, Arsher Ali, Charles Edwards
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At the outbreak of the First World War three cousins reigned over Europe's greatest powers - Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany and King George V of Britain. This two-part series looks at the role played by the three monarchs, and their relationships with each other, in the outbreak of war, arguing that it is far greater than historians have traditionally believed.
A House Divided
'A House Divided' tells the story of the emerging divisions and rivalries between the inter-related royal houses of Europe and features the little known story of the two Danish sisters, Princess Alexandra and Princess Dagmar, who had pulled off the dynastic coup of the 19th century by marrying the heirs to both the British and Russian thrones. Following the invasion of their native Denmark by Prussia in 1864 during the Wars of German Unification, the sisters became the core of an anti-Prussian coalition that prefigured the great anti-German alliance of 1914. Their sons, King George V and Tsar Nicholas II were also close friends. It looks too at the tangled relationship between the German Kaiser and his English mother, Vicky -the oldest daughter of Queen Victoria. Disabled from birth, Kaiser Wilhelm had a complex love/hate attitude towards Vicky, which transferred itself to Britain as a whole, strongly influencing his foreign policy.
Into the Abyss
'Into the Abyss' looks at the realignment of the European powers and the emergence of the alliance system in the years following the death of Queen Victoria in 1901. It examines the key role played by royalty in smoothing the path to the Anglo-Russian entente of 1907, and at the part played by the Kaiser's erratic, unstable personality in the growing isolation of Germany in the years leading up to 1914. It explores the role played by each of the three monarchs in the frantic, desperate days of July and August 1914. And it tells the tragic story of King George's refusal to grant his cousin, and close friend, Tsar Nicholas asylum in Britain following the Russian Revolution of 1917 - a refusal that would lead directly to the brutal murder of the Tsar and his family by the Bolsheviks in the summer of 1918.- Director:
- Richard Sanders
- Cast:
- Princess Alexandra, Princess Dagmar, King George V
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Long before the FBI and the Secret Service, the Pinkertons were the most feared law enforcement organisation in the US. Experts of undercover operative and masters of disguise, no one ever saw them coming! Set in a wild and young America, original action adventure crime procedural series 'The Pinkertons' follows founder Allan Pinkerton, his son, William, and America's first female detective, Kate Warne, as they solve crimes throughout the 'Wild West' of the 1860s. William is the shoot-first-ask-questions-maybe kind of guy, while Kate is a brilliant forensics expert, and master of undercover work. The two of them mix like lantern oil and creek water. Where Kate believes thoughtful analysis and forensic technology is what it takes to solve crimes, William lives by the words his father taught him: to catch a criminal, you have to think like a criminal. Over the course of the first season, what they learn is that, to catch a criminal, it takes both brains and bravery. - Director:
- Paul Fox
- Cast:
- Jacob Blair, Martha MacIsaac, David Lawrence Brown
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Stephen Collins (David Morrissey) is an ambitious politician. Cal McAffrey (John Simm) is a well-respected investigative journalist and Stephen's ex-campaign manager. En route to work one morning, Stephen's research assistant mysteriously falls to her death on the London Underground. It's not long before rumours of an affair between Stephen and the assistant hit the headlines. Meanwhile a suspected teenage drug dealer is shot dead. Revelation upon revelation pile up in the aftermath of these two seemingly unconnected events, ultimately bringing to light shady dealings between the government and major corporate powers. Friendships are tested and lives are put on the line as an intricate , web of lies unfolds. - Director:
- David Yates
- Cast:
- John Simm, Kelly MacDonald, Bill Nighy
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Empresses in the Palace (2012)Zhen Huan Zhuan
Sun Li stars as Zhen Huan, a 17-year-old innocent introduced into the imperial court as the latest concubine of Emperor Yong Zheng (Chen Jianbin). Her dreams of a new life of love and prosperity are swiftly dashed as she enters a dog-eat-dog world of treachery and corruption. Her arrival sparks anger and resentment in Consort Hua (Jiang Xin), the highest-ranking concubine in the imperial harem and a powerful figure due to the authority of her brother, a prominent general. Zhen Huan must also do battle with the First Empress (Ada Choi), whose own elevated position in the court is under threat. Amidst all the bitter rivalries and deadly conspiracies, Zhen Huan must summon all her inner strength to protect herself - even from those she once counted as friends. But can she rise to wealth and glory in the Forbidden City without being tainted by corruption? Shown in China as 76 45-minute episodes across two seasons, the English version is presented as six sumptuous episodes of 90 minutes, with the drama and intrigue played out among fascinating insights into court etiquette, fashions, poetry, performance, Chinese medicine - and ageless human frailty and chicanery. - Director:
- Xiaolong Zheng
- Cast:
- Li Sun, Jianbin Chen, Qian Sun
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Dunkirk (2017)Bodega Bay
The story unfolds on land, sea and air, as hundreds of thousands of British and Allied troops are trapped on the beaches of Dunkirk with enemy troops closing in. RAF Spitfires engage the enemy in the skies above the Channel, trying to protect the defenseless men below. Meanwhile, hundreds of small boats manned by both military and civilians are mounting a desperate rescue effort, risking their lives in a race against time to save even a fraction of their army. - Director:
- Christopher Nolan
- Cast:
- Michael Caine, Fionn Whitehead, Barry Keoghan
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August 1962: the latest attempt on the life of French President Charles de Gaulle by the far right paramilitary organisation, the OAS, ends in chaos, with its architect-in-chief dead at the hands of a firing squad. Demoralised and on the verge of bankruptcy, the OAS leaders meet in secret to plan their next move. In a last desperate attempt to eliminate de Gaulle, they opt to employ the services of a hired assassin from outside the fold. Enter the Jackal (Edward Fox): charismatic, calculating, cold as ice. As the Jackal closes in on his target, a race against the clock ensues to identify and put a stop to a killer whose identity, whereabouts and modus operandi are completely unknown. - Director:
- Fred Zinnemann
- Cast:
- Edward Fox, Terence Alexander, Michel Auclair
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"Eddie the Eagle" follows the realisation of the childhood dream of Eddie Edwards (Taron Egerton) and his unflinching determination to become Great Britain's first Olympic ski-jumper. Reluctantly aided by former ski-jumper Bronson Peary, (Hugh Jackman), as his coach, Eddie is unwavering in his quest to reach the 1988 Calgary Winter Games. 'Eddie the Eagle' is an uplifting, inspirational story that celebrates human spirit, passion, and one man's refusal to accept defeat. - Director:
- Dexter Fletcher
- Cast:
- Taron Egerton, Hugh Jackman, Tom Costello
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