matti's - Rented List
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Jet LI plays Liu Jiuan China's top government agent, who arrives in Paris from Shanghai to assist Richard (Tcheky Karyo), a corrupt French police inspector, with a top secret mission to uncover an international drugs conspiracy. The mission goes horribly wrong, as the man Liu came to help, betrays him. Accused of a murder he did not commit and on the run in a city he doesn't know, Liu befriends an American woman, Jessica (Bridget Fonda), who Richard has forced into prostitution. As Jessica and Liu go up against their cunning and ruthless adversary, Liu makes a promise to Jessica that could compromise his career - and even his life. - Director:
- Chris Nahon
- Cast:
- Jet Li, Bridget Fonda, Tchéky Karyo
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The Comedy of Innocence (2000)Comedie De L'Innocence
On the day of his ninth birthday, Camille announces to his mother, Ariane (Isabelle Huppert), that he wants to go home to his "real" mother. Realising that her son isn't playing games, Ariane agrees to take Camille to an address he gives her, an apartment on the far side of Paris she doesn't know. There lives an enigmatic woman called Isabella (Jeanne Balibar), whose own son, born the same time as Camille, drowned two years ago. Ariane looks helplessly on as Camille throws himself into Isabella's waiting arms. Huppert and Balibar are both outstanding as the competing mothers in Raoul Ruiz's eerie and engrossing mystery which blurs the boundaries between psychological thriller and ghost story. - Director:
- Raoul Ruiz
- Cast:
- Isabelle Huppert, Jeanne Balibar, Charles Berling
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Nightcap (2000)Merci pour le Chocolat
The spider at the center of a murderous web of deception, Isabelle Huppert stars as Mika, wife of virtuoso pianist Andre Polonski (Jacques Dutronc) and stepmother to his son, Guillaume, whose mother died in a car wreck on his sixth birthday. When a young pianist, Jeanne (Anna Mouglalis), learns that she and Guillaume were almost exchanged at birth, she takes the opportunity to introduce herself, believing she might in fact be Andre's daughter. Welcomed into the Polonski home, Andre makes her his pupil. But behind the facade of perfection, something is not quite right. Jeanne becomes suspicious of the seemingly benevolent Mika and the hot chocolate that she prepares each night for the whole family. - Director:
- Claude Chabrol
- Cast:
- Isabelle Huppert, Jacques Dutronc, Anna Mouglalis
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Jean & Pauline first meet at a ball when she is twenty but have no idea what they must endure in order to stay together for the rest of their lives. Jean's first calling in life is to be a clergyman. But with his marriage dissolving he flees his wife and child and a disapproving conservative community. Free to now be with Pauline (Emmanuelle Beart), they establish a new life in Switzerland where their love prospers and they start a family of their own. Jean travels full circle when his family requests he takes over the porcelain business. He feels compelled to accept, despite predicting the struggle ahead and the strain it will put on him and Pauline. Family rivalry, the Great War and modern industrialism are just some of the obstacles that are sent to determine whether their love is destined to survive the ultimate test of time. - Director:
- Olivier Assayas
- Cast:
- Emmanuelle Béart, Charles Berling, Isabelle Huppert
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Anne and Pierre have been together for several years and have a young son. One night, Anne announces that she is in love with someone else. Surprisingly, Pierre is not angry and he avoids asking her the questions that are obviously burning inside him. Pierre outwardly appears to accept her affair, but as they attempt to carry on as normal, tensions begin to build. Soon Pierre is unable to hide his now violent emotions. - Director:
- Christian Vincent
- Cast:
- Isabelle Huppert, Daniel Auteuil, Jérôme Deschamps
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Susana (1951)Carne y demonio
The film's opening scene finds our anti-heroin, Susana (a wayward and salacious girl), incarcerated in a girls' reformatory, on her knees in prayer; appealing to God to deliver her from her frightening surrounds - and pointing out that it was, in fact, him who made her "the way she is". Her prayers are answered when, after being temporarily granted Herculean strength (or a spot of luck), she manages to bend the bars of her cell and escape into the rainy night. Susana eventually happens upon a horse ranch run by Don Guadalupe and his stand-up, catholic wife Dona Carmen. Her portentous arrival coincides with Guadalupe's favourite mare giving birth to a stillborn foal. Nonetheless, the flustered escapee is taken in and duly adopted as a surrogate daughter by Carmen. Susana's presence amongst the ranch-folk soon begins to become corrosive when, after learning of her escape from the reformatory, farmhand Jesus successfully bargains his silence in exchange for her 'company'. Lives are further unsettled when Susana begins to fall for both Don Guadalupe and his bookish son, Alberto. Susana's voracious and devilish nature eventually pushes Dona Carmen to breaking point as she frantically whips the "bitch of bad breeding" for "poisoning her family". - Director:
- Luis Buñuel
- Cast:
- Rosita Quintana, Fernando Soler, Víctor Manuel Mendoza
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The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939)Victor Hugo's Immortal Classic The Hunchback of Notre Dame
The lecherous Chief Justice Frollo (Sir Cedric Hardwicke) gazes on a beautiful, gypsy girl, Esmeralda (Maureen O'Hara), and sends the deformed bellringer of Notre Dame Cathedral Quasimodo (Charles Laughton) to catch her. But Quasimodo himself is captured by Phoebus, Captain of the Guards, who frees Esmerelda and sentences Quasimodo to be flogged. Whilst Quasimodo is tied up in the square, only Esmeralda takes pity on him and gives him water. Later, at a party of nobles, Esmeralda again meets both Frollo, who is bewitched by her, and Phoebus; but when Phoebus is found stabbed to death, Esmeralda is accused of his murder, convicted by the court and sentenced to hang. Only Quasimodo, can save her from the gallows... - Director:
- William Dieterle
- Cast:
- Charles Laughton, Maureen O'Hara, Cedric Hardwicke
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Trying to climb a rung on the social ladder, Joan (Patricia Medina) is pressured into marrying pompous boss (Claud Allister) by her pushy mother (Ellen Pollock) - but Joan loves a soldier (Jimmy Hanley) who is away fighting. On his return he finds Joan betrothed and he storms off to Scotland, Joan decides to follow and all ends happily...also stars Irene Handl. - Director:
- Paul L. Stein
- Cast:
- Patricia Medina, Jimmy Hanley, Frederick Leister
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Gerard Depardieu plays Serge Piladosse, a recently retired meat factory worker, who must retrieve former employment records in order to claim his full pension. He takes to the road on his classic 'Mammuth' motorcycle and embarks on a haphazard trip down memory lane. With visitations from his 'lost love' (Isabelle Adjani) and egged on by his eccentric yet suspicious wife Catherine (Yolande Moreau), Serge faces some difficult truths about his past lives that force him to take a new perspective on life. - Director:
- Benoît Delépine
- Cast:
- Gérard Depardieu, Yolande Moreau, Isabelle Adjani
- Formats:
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Based on a John le Carre novel and directed by Sidney Lumet, 'The Deadly Affair' is a cold war thriller centred in the world of espionage. When foreign Office official Samuel Fennan and his wife (Simone Signoret) are anonymously accused of Communist affiliations, their world is turned upside down. Fennan is subsequently found dead from an apparent suicide, although Secret Service agent Charles Dobbs (James Mason) suspects otherwise. When Dobbs' suspicions hit a dead end with his superior officer, the veteran agent decides to resign his government post and join forces with retired CID inspector Mendel (Harry Andrews). As the two men continue their pursuit of the truth, their investigation unearths a spy ring and much more than they ever expected along the way. - Director:
- Sidney Lumet
- Cast:
- James Mason, Maximilian Schell, Simone Signoret
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In this wonderfully affectionate and satirical 1986 film, Italian cinematic maestro Federico Fellini celebrates the legacy of Rogers and Astaire - and sends up tacky television - with this touching tale of two elderly dancers who model themselves on cinema's greatest dance duo, and who reunite after 30 years for one final TV dance spectacular. - Director:
- Federico Fellini
- Cast:
- Marcello Mastroianni, Giulietta Masina, Franco Fabrizi
- Formats:
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The Confrontation (1968)Fényes Szelek
Jancso's first film in colour is a virtuoso display by one of cinema's greatest artists. It eloquently explores the complex issues and inherent problems of revolutionary democracy and asks the question: what happens after the revolution is won? Paralleling the dramatic student protests and riots that were exploding across the world in the 1960s when the film was made, 'The Confrontation' is a story of rebellion in Hungary 1947 after the Communist Party had just taken power. Told in an operatic but supremely naturalistic style with songs of revolution used to punctuate the narrative, The Confrontation combines a radical aesthetic with radical politics to become a film as revolutionary in its form as it is in its subject. - Director:
- Miklós Jancsó
- Cast:
- Andrea Drahota, Kati Kovács, Lajos Balázsovits
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Spring and Port Wine is a poignant, authentic and hilarious depiction of working class life in the north of England during the late sixties. One of the last great, British kitchen sink dramas it tells the story of Rafe Crompton, a stern, strict and deeply religious father with an extremely domineering control over his meek wife and four children. When one of his daughters refuses to eat her herring one teatime, her actions ignite a family dispute as two very different generations come into conflict. - Director:
- Peter Hammond
- Cast:
- James Mason, Diana Coupland, Hannah Gordon
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Leslie Caron (Gigi) was Oscar-nominated for her portrayal of Jane, a young pregnant French girl who moves to a seedy boarding house in London for a new start. Beautiful and withdrawn, Jane slowly gets to know the other residents of the house who, like her, are social outsiders in their own way. As she falls into a relationship with Toby (Tom Bell) a struggling young writer who lives on the first floor, and befriends Johnny (Brock Peters) a black jazz musician, Jane finds a new reason to five. She considers getting an abortion, but is unhappy with this solution. Eventually she comes to like her odd L-Shaped room, but still faces two problems: what to do with her baby, and what to do with Toby. - Director:
- Bryan Forbes
- Cast:
- Leslie Caron, Anthony Booth, Avis Bunnage
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Two bank robbers, Dennis (Hywel Bennett) and Hal (Roy Holder), are on the run from the police after a successful heist. Needing somewhere to hide the loot, they turn to a funeral parlour where they can stash the cash in Hal's recently-deceased mother's coffin. Taking the coffin, they turn to Hal's father (Milo O'Shea) and hide it in the bathroom of his hotel. Before long the hotel is host to the eccentric Inspector Truscott (Richard Attenborough). - Director:
- Silvio Narizzano
- Cast:
- Lee Remick, Richard Attenborough, Hywel Bennett
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