marco's - Favourites List

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Jacques Rivette's award-winning, critically acclaimed film stars Michel Piccoli in one of his finest performances as an artist who, ten years previously, abandoned his masterpiece entitled 'La Belle Noiseuse' (The Beautiful Troublemaker), a painting of his wife (Jane Birkin).

When he encounters the beautiful and fascinating Marianne (Emmanuelle Beart), he is inspired to return to the unfinished canvas, using her as his new model. But disturbing tensions develop as the work progresses and the reasons for the painting's original rejection begin to surface.

Maddalena (Anna Magnani) is a screenstruck mother convinced of her daughter Maria's (Tina Apicella) star potential. Dreaming of a better life for her family she invests everything, including her last penny, into the dream that her daughter will be discovered at an open casting.

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A genuine lost gem of 7o's American cinema, 'The Iceman Cometh' has rarely been seen since 1973. This is one of the definitive film translations of a stage play.

Eugene O'Neill's masterpiece is often referred to as the greatest work of 20th century American theatre, centring on a crowd of wastrels, misfits, anarchists, alcoholics, whores and barflies, drinking away their troubles, and making grandiose plans. When Hickey arrives, for his yearly drunken bender to celebrate landlord Harry Hope's birthday, each character's dreams and aspirations melt away with a heartbreaking poignancy, exposing the human need for illusion and fantasy as an antidote to self-delusion and despair.

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One heaves rocks through windows. The other happens by in the nick of time to offer his services as an expert window repairman. It's a system that works.

So does everything else about this beloved Charlie Chaplin classic whose blend of laughs and pathos changed the notion of what a screen comedy could be. For the first time as a filmmaker, Chaplin stepped into feature-length storytelling with this tale of the down-but-never-out Tramp (Chaplin) and the adorable ragamuffin (6-year-old Jackie Coogan) who, rescued as a foundling and raised in the School of Hard Knocks by the Tramp, is this inseparable sidekick. Memorable scenes include a lesson in table manners, the bully brawl and the Tramp's angelic dream.

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Safe their picturesque chateau behind the front lines, the French General Staff passes down a direct order to Colonel Dax (Kirk Douglas): take the Ant Hill at any cost. A blatant suicide mission, the attack is doomed to failure.

Covering up their fatal blunder, the Generals order the arrest of three innocent soldiers, charging them with cowardice and mutiny. Dax, a lawyer in civilian life, rises to the men's defense but soon realizes that, unless he can prove that the Generals were to blame, nothing less than a miracle will save his clients from the firing squad.

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In a town in the French Alps during the Occupation, Barny (Emmanuelle Riva) is a young, wayward, sexually frustrated widow, living with her little girl. She is also a communist militant who long ago decided that the easiest way was the best.

One day she enters a church, randomly chooses a priest (Jean-Paul Belmondo) to confess to and, while in confessional, attempts to provoke him by criticizing Catholicism. Instead of being affronted, the priest engages her in an intellectual discussion regarding religion. The priest is Leon Morin, young, handsome, smart and altruistic. He invites Barny to continue the conversation outside of confessional. She begins regularly seeing him and is impressed by his moral strength, while he makes it his mission to steer her onto the right path.

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In a magnificent performance. Tatsuya Nakadai stars as Hanshiro Tsugumo. a masterless down-and-out samurai who enters the manor of Lord lyi. requesting to commit ritual suicide on his property.

Suspected of simply fishing for charity, Hanshiro is told the gruesome tale of the last samurai who made the same request - but Hanshiro will not be moved...

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After a young teenage mother dies during childbirth, midwife Anna resolves to try to trace the baby's relatives.

Guided by the girl's personal diary she meets Seymon, the charming proprietor of a plush Trans-Siberian restaurant who impeccably masks his cold and brutal acts as the head of one London's most notorious Eastern European crime families. Seymon's volatile son Kirill, who is also part of the Vory V Zakone criminal brotherhood, and the family's mysterious driver, Nikolai, soon cross her path as Anna accidentally unleashes the full fury of the Vory...

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In 16th century Japan, amidst the pandemonium of civil war, potter Genjuro (Mori Masayuki) and samurai-aspirant Tobei (Ozawa Sakae) set out with their wives in search of wealth and military glory, respectively.

Two parallel tales ensue when the men are lured from their wives: Genjuro by the ghostly charm of Lady Wakasa (Kyo Machiko); Tobei by the dream of military glory.

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Cumbria, 1348 - the year of the Black Death. Griffin (Hamish Gough), a young boy, is plagued by apocalyptic visions which he believes could save his village.

Encouraging a small band of men to tunnel into the earth, they surface in 1980's New Zealand and a future beyond their comprehension but must complete their quest.

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They are fast friends and worse foes. One is Billy the Kid (Kris Kristofferson), a law unto himself. The other is the law: Sheriff Pat Garrett (James Coburn), who once rode with Billy.

Set to a bristling score by Bob Dylan (who also plays Billy's sidekick Alias) and with a Who's Who of iconic Western players, Sam Peckinpah's saga of one of the West's great legends is now restored to its intended glory. For the first time since it left the cutting room, the film has the balance of action and character development Peckinpah wanted, a mix of fury and elegy based on the director's notes and the insights of colleagues. The difference is profound, as different as an untouched target and a bull's-eye.

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'Resurrection' is a critically acclaimed story of love and devotion in which Ellen Burstyn delivers a tour-de-force performance as a woman who experiences clinical death and returns to life with the amazing ability to heal others.

Attributing her powers to human love rather than divine intervention, she begins to aid the residents of her childhood town. After healing a zealous young farmer (Sam Shepherd), she starts to fall in love with him, but as their affair develops, he tries to make her confess that her powers come from God and not from within. Her refusal leads to a violent climax that will change the healer and all who touch her forever...

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Cassavetes' most commercially successful feature and a benchmark of American independent cinema, 'A Woman Under the Influence' is a devastating drama starring Gena Rowlands as Mabel Longhetti, a mother of three whose blue collar husband Nick (Peter Falk) toils as a construction worker.

Their simmering differences lead to a series of domestic dramas that eventually culminate in Mabel's nervous breakdown and six-month stay in a psychiatric hospital. Once released, Mabel and Nick must confront their uncertain futures.

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Gillo Pontecorvo's multi-award winning picture 'The Battle of Algiers' has perhaps never been as pertinent as it is now. Set from 1954 to 1962, the movie uses documentary-style black and white photography to recreate real events.

Algerian liberation fighters use terrorist techniques against the French colonial occupiers; the French retaliate with brutal military force. Brilliantly directed set-pieces and remarkable crowd scenes make the film a masterpiece; the ominous familiarity of its subject makes it a must-see" - The Times How to win battle against terrorism and lose the war of ideas. Children shoot soldiers at point blank range. Women plant bombs in Cafes. Sounds familiar? The French have a plan. It succeeds tactically, but fails strategically. To understand why, come to a rare showing of this film.'' - Pentagon tlyer for their in-house screening of Battle Of Algiers All the armies of the world - including the Pentagon - will never, but never, be able to conquer a country which wants to control its own destiny" - Saadi Yacef

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Grizzly Man is Werner Herzog's breathtaking feature documentary which combines his own work with original footage by Timothy Treadwell, the intrepid bear expert who for thirteen summers risked his life living with Grizzly Bears in Alaska, until eventually he got killed by one of the bears he sought

to protect. Whilst Treadwell perhaps paid the inevitable price for his work, the one hundred hours of footage he shot over this period is among the most incredible, stunning and moving ever committed to film. Grizzly Man is a modern day masterpiece which uncovers as much about human nature as it does the bears Treadwell set out to study.