matti's - Rented List

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A modern retelling of the famous Greek legend where the god Zeus assumes human form to seduce a mortal woman by impersonating her husband. 'Helas Pour Moi' is a characteristically fascinating and profound work from director Jean-Luc Godard.

At a Swiss lakeside resort, a book publisher (Bernard Verley) investigates a mysterious tale about a god-like being who supposedly entered the body of a man, Simon (Gerard Depardieu) to experience physical love with his wife, Rachel (Laurence Masliah). Did this actually happen or is Rachel just covering up her infidelity to her husband? Exploring through a simple parable the meaning of human existence in a godless universe, the film is audacious in both its style and in its broaching of subjects essential to humanity.

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Earth is on the verge of extinction. To survive, mankind must find another place to live. And when three expeditions to Mars, headed by Col.

John Wilder (Rock Hudson), find suitable conditions for relocation, humans pour in by the shipload, bringing the old evils of Earth with them! As Wilder begins to heed the lessons of the dying Martian civilization, can he save humanity from repeating its doom?

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Domenico (Marcello Mastroianni) first meets 17-year-old prostitute Filumena (Sophia Loren) in a Neapolitan brothel in the 2nd World War. After the war they become lovers on and off for 22 years.

Domenico eventually rents an apartment for Filumena and even lets her run his shop but is always chasing other women. Finally Filumena asks Domenico to marry her on her deathbed, just before he had planned to marry his young cashier, and admits she had his legitimate child. Dominico uses different subterfuges trying to find which teenager might be his son...

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When college nostalgia inspires a group of middle-aged businessmen to match-make for the widow - played with measured dignity by Setsuko Hara (Tokyo Story) - of one of their friends and her daughter, they have no idea of the strife their careless interference will cause.

Late Autumn's examination of familial upheaval moves effortlessly from comedy to pathos and is amongst the finest of legendary director Yasujiro Ozu's post-war films.

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Set in a detention camp in Hungary 1869, at a time of guerrilla campaigns against the ruling Austrians, Jancso deliberately avoids conventional heroics to focus on the persecution and dehumanisation manifest in a time of conflict.

Filmed in Hungary's desolate and burning landscape, Jancso uses his formidable technique to create a remarkable and terrifying picture of war and the abuse of power that is still very relevant today.

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Garbo Talks!, proclaimed ads when silent star Greta Garbo debuted in talkies. Nine years and 12 classic screen dramas later, the gifted movie legend was ready for another change.

Garbo Laughs!, cheered the publicity for her first comedy, a frothy tale of a dour Russian envoy sublimating her womanhood for Soviet brotherhood until she falls for a suave Parisian man-about-town (Melvyn Douglas). Working from a cleverly barbed script written in party by Billy Wilder, director Ernst Lubitsch knew better than anyone how to marry refinement with sublime wit. "At least twice a day the most dignified human being is ridiculous", he explained about his acclaimed Lubitsch Touch. That’s how we see Garbo’s lovestruct Ninotchka: serenely dignified yet endearingly ridiculous. Garbo laughs. So will you.

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Set in 1799 whilst the Russian General Souvarof is invading Italy, this story centres around the beautiful, young widow the Marquis of O (Edith Clever).

Left alone as her father commands a zone in the thick of battle against the Russians, she is captured by a band of soldiers only to be rescued by a young Russian Count. Unconscious at the time of her attack, she has no recollection of events and only when she begins to experience strange feelings and sensations, does she realise that she could be carrying his child...

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Marcello Mastroianni stars in this classic Italian romp about Officer Andrea Rossi-Colombotti, a dashing army office attached to NATO.

Love and ladies are his sole pursuit as he blithely hops from bed to bed with Italy's most beautiful actresses; Virna Lisi, Marisa Mell, Liana Orfei and Michele Mercier. However, he has an unusual libido where he can only perform when his life is in danger. With the element of danger always close this is Marcello's answer to James Bond 007, but with even more ravishing women and incredible landscapes of Italy, France and the Swiss Alps. When he starts orchestrating his love life he has to avoid each of his lovers discovering the other, thus he finds himself in some hilariously embarrassing scenarios.

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Miklos Jancso is one of cinema's greatest visionaries and his Red Psalm is a formidable work of art from a master filmmaker at the peak of his powers. Depicting a series of peasant uprisings in Hungary in the late 19th century, the film celebrates the cause of revolutionary struggle.

Inspired by folklore and song, Jancso's camera travels amongst groups of moving figures in an elaborate cinematic ballet and his singular use of film form achieves a resonance and beauty that is extraordinary. Radical in execution and poetic in its achievement, Red Psalm reaches beyond political dogma to expose a more universal, and deeper, truth that remains relevant today.

Set in Hungary in the years following the end of WW2, a young boy concocts a fantasy ideal of his father who has been killed in the war. In the boy's fertile imagination, the father attains mythical and heroic qualities.

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Perhaps the crowning achievement of Bunuel's career, the film centres on an idealistic young nun named Viridiana (Silvia Pinal).

Before she is allowed to take her final vows, the Mother Superior requests that she visit her uncle Don Jaime (Fernando Rey), who has "selflessly" provided for the girl over the years. Having always considered him an unspeakable beast, she is surprised when he graciously welcomes her into his home. Just as graciously, he sets about to corrupt Viridiana beyond redemption - all because the girl resembles the wife that died on their wedding day.

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Set in Toledo in the early 1930s, Bunuel regular Fernando Rey stars as Don Lope, an aging figure of respectability who becomes the guardian of Tristana (Catherine Deneuve), a young woman with whom he is soon completely smitten.

Finally accepting Don Lope's proposal of marriage after having her tumorous leg amputated, Tristana chooses a passionless union rather than be subject to the harsh realities of society that refuses to change to the needs of women.

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A satirical romantic comedy 'Picnic on the Grass' is a playful and visually beautiful film inspired by the paintings of Renoir's father Auguste.

Stuffy presidential candidate Etienne Alexis is a scientist who believes the passion should be eliminated and that artificial insemination will be the world's salvation. To celebrate his engagement to a German scout mistress he hosts a picnic in the countryside. But soon Alexis is thrown together with Nenette, a beautiful farm girl who shows him that science is no substitute for love.

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When a younger boxer (Michael Madsen) accidently kills his friend in the ring he vows never to fight again. However, years later when he discovers his only son is dying of the same hereditary heart disorder, which has taken his wife, he is forced to break his promise.

Falling into a dark future he must decide whether to fight the most feared man around (Vinnie Jones) and risk it all for his son's future.

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Imagine Guy Ritchie's Snatch (with more balls); even more gypsies (who can actually be understood), more dogs (and faster and bigger at that), more sex (this could be connected to the fact, that there are more balls and bitches in this movie), more deals, cross deals and double deals and even more

racing (even if it of the 'doggie' kind). 'Man About Dog' is an irreverent, witty and fast paced comedy caper about a tale of 3 losers who leave their quaint town with a debt of £50k to a bookie, only to embark on a journey of self-debauchery courtesy of drink, greyhounds and hookers...