matti's - Rented List

1815. A soldier becomes the governor of St. Helena and jailer of Napoleon. War and women were his passions... and no island fortress could cage his lust for power!

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Co-written by a young Federico Fellini and directed by Alberto Lattuada, this awardwinning film from the earlier years of Italian Neo-realist cinema stars John Kitzmiller as a black G.l. who vows to escape both the chaos of post-War Italy and an enforced return to a racially segregated U.S.

after falling in love with an impoverished local girl. While its groundbreaking theme of inter-racial love made 'Without Pity' one of the most significant and daring films of the immediate post-War period, it was banned in the United States and, as such, has never received wider recognition for its frank, sensitive handling of a subject that for many years was still controversial.

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The Crazy Gang have been jacks-of-all-trades with Joe Winter's Monster Circus for almost as long as Joe (Joseph Tomelty) has been on the road, and they're still hoping for a big break.

But Joe has hit hard times: his equipment is mortgaged, most of his acts have deserted him and even the elephants have walked out. So the Gang set about finding a way to save the circus...and come up with a typically novel solution!

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During World War II, when their combat aircraft is shot down by the Germans, three English airmen (including Terry-Thomas as Sir Reginald) parachute to the comparative safety of Nazi occupied France. One lands on the scaffold of an amiable painter and decorator, Augustin (Bourvil).

Another lands on top of a concert hall and is rescued by the irascible but patriotic conductor Stanislas Lefort (Louis de Funes). The third ends up in the otter enclosure of a Parisian zoo. When they try to help the airmen keep a rendez-vous at the Turkish baths in Paris, Augustin and Stanislas quickly find that they themselves have become targets for the German soldiers. Assisted by the daughter of a puppeteer and an anti-German nun, the two reluctant heroes accompany the three airmen on a reckless trek across France towards the safety of the neutral zone.

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Jacques Tati's last - and least known - film, Parade, sees his return to the boisterous music hall world in which he began his career as a mime artist in the 1930s.

Ostensibly nothing more than a series of circus acts hosted by Tati and preformed for a family audience, Parade is in fact a brilliantly conceived spectacle which blurs all distinctions between performers and audience, accomplished acrobats and children at play. Offering gloriously funny visual gags that flow beautifully from one act to another - including several of his most famous pantomimes - Parade is the perfect stage for Tati's comic genius.

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"The Outsiders", Godard's playful reimagining of the Hollywood crime films of the 1940s, follows young misfits Franz (Sami Frey), Arthur (Claude Brasseur) and Odile (Anna Karina) as their plan to burgle a rich old lady goes tragicomically wrong.

Shot in just 25 days on the wintry streets of suburban Paris, "The Outsiders" remains one of Godard's most loved films and is often remembered for its exhilarating cafe dance sequence and famous race through the Louvre.

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Another literary adaptation - this time of a story by one of Japan's modern literary masters, novelist Tanizaki Jun'ichiro - Mizoguchi's Oyu-sama (Miss Oyu) is a poignant and contemplative tale of two sisters and their ill-fated relationship with the same man.

At the core is Mizoguchi-regular Tanaka Kinuyo as the eponymous Oyu, the older sister who allows marital customs to dictate the lives of those caught up in this complex love triangle...

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In the mid-sixties, famed producer Dino De Laurentiis brought together the talents of five celebrated Italian directors for an anthology film. Their brief was simple: each filmmaker would create an episode centred on a witch, to be played in all episodes by Silvana Mangano (Bitter Rice, Ludwig).

Luchino Visconti (Ossessione, Death in Venice) and screenwriter Cesare Zavattini (Bicycle Thieves) open the film with 'The Witch Burned Alive', about a famous actress and a drunken evening that leads to unpleasant revelations. Civic Sense is a lightly comic interlude from Maura Bolognini (The Lady of the Camelias) with a dark conclusion, and 'The Earth as Seen from the Moon' sees Italian comedy legend Toto team up with Pier Paolo Pasolini (Theorem) for the first time for a tale of matrimony and a red-headed father and son. Franco Rosso (The Woman in the Painting) concocts a story of revenge in The Sicilian's Wife, while Vittorio De Sica (Shoeshine) casts Clint Eastwood as Mangano's estranged husband in 'An Evening Like the Others', concluding 'The Witches' with a stunning homage to Italian comic books.

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When a wealthy foundry owner decides to move his entire family from Tokyo to Brazil to escape the nuclear holocaust which he fears is imminent, his family, afraid of losing their status and inheritance, tries to have him declared mentally incompetent.

Made at the height of the Cold War, with the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki still a recent memory, this blazing attack on complacency stemmed from the same H-Bomb paranoia that gave birth to the Godzilla films. Kurosawa regular Toshiro Mifune delivers an extraordinary performance, as does Takashi Shimura, who two years before had starred as the cancer-stricken clerk in Ikiru. I Live In Fear, though one of Kurosawa's least commercially successful films, was the picture he expressed himself proudest of having made.

When a travelling kabuki troupe brings their show to a seaside port, Komajuro (Ganjiro Nakamura), an ageing actor, is reunited with his former lover, sake bar owner Oyoshi (Haruki Sugimura), and his illegitimate son Kiyoshi (Hiroshi Kawaguchi), to the distress of his current mistress Sumiko (Machiko Kyo).

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The worldwide phenomenon, 'Downton Abbey', returns in a spectacular motion picture, as the beloved Crawleys and their intrepid staff prepare for the most important moment of their lives.

A royal visit from the King and Queen of England unleashes scandal, romance and intrigue that leave the future of Downton hanging in the balance. Written' by series creator Julian Fellowes and starring the original cast, this grand cinematic experience will have you cheering for your favourite characters all over again.

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Parisian police commissioner Coleman (Alain Delon) is not a happy man, but he does what he can to get through each day. Coleman finds solace in his affair with Cathy (Catherine Deneuve), who also happens to be the girlfriend of Coleman's friend Simon, the head of a gang of daring criminals.

As the commissioner's pursuit of the gang intensifies, so does the rivalry between the two men.

Featurete is a surreal, comic vision of modern life in which the director's much-loved character, Monsieur Hulot - accompanied by a cast of tourists and well-heeled Parisians - turns unintentional anarchist when set loose in an unrecognisable Paris of steel skyscrapers, chrome-plated shopping malls and futuristic night spots.

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Conniving businessman Paul Blake (Steve Cochran) and his right-hand man Frank Hudson (Hugh O'Brian) brutally murder a native man, stealing his maps and attacking his dog.

Meanwhile, valliant Captain Peter Keith (Rock Hudson) and his wife Dolores (Marcia Henderson) arrive in the town's dock with a hefty cargo of furs, hoping to return home to North America before winter hits. The two villains are determined to destroy their plans, conspiring to keep their boat docked until conditions are too icy to sail in. What's more, Blake's leering stare has moved to the innocent captain's wife...

In wartime London, Vera Baker (Vera Lynn) gets mistaken for the girlfriend of a famous composer and invited to sing at a charity gala - but criminals chasing a precious Rembrandt painting might just spoil her big night!