mcg's - Favourites List
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In the sublime new film from Jim Jarmusch, Adam Driver gives a career-best performance as Paterson, a bus driver in the New Jersey city of the same name. He's also a poet, recording his daily observations and thoughts into a notebook. Paterson thrives on routine: he drives his bus route, he goes home for dinner with his wife Laura (Golshifteh Farahani), he walks his dog, he visits his local bar for one beer. By contrast Laura's world is ever-changing, with new projects and ideas striking her daily. The film quietly observes the triumphs and defeats of daily life, along with the poetry evident in its smallest details. - Director:
- Jim Jarmusch
- Cast:
- Adam Driver, Golshifteh Farahani, Nellie
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Set among Brooklyn tenements circa 1912, 'A Tree Grows in Brooklyn' is a portrait of the Nolans, an Irish-American family living in financially challenging circumstances, often made worse by father Johnny's (James Dunn)'s drinking and employment problems. But matriarch Katie (Dorothy McGuire) keeps the family together during all of the obstacles, caring for son Neeley (Ted Donaldson) and daughter Francie (Peggy Ann Garner), as well as Katie's outspoken, oft-married sister Sissy (Joan Blondell). But just as Francie's gift for writing opens up new avenues, more tragic developments test the family's resolve. - Director:
- Elia Kazan
- Cast:
- Dorothy McGuire, Joan Blondell, James Dunn
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John Gavin plays Ernst Graber, a soldier on the Russian-German Front in 1944 venturing home to Hamburg on a rare furlough. He falls in love with Elisabeth (Liselotte Pulver) activating a magnetism that compels both individuals toward one another in love, even as it hurtles them headlong into epochal death. - Director:
- Douglas Sirk
- Cast:
- John Gavin, Paul Frees, Liselotte Pulver
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Ruthless criminals, a dedicated honest cop, sultry women and a gripping plot - all the elements of a classic police action-drama are here in force. Police Sergeant Bannion (Glenn Ford) is investigating the apparent suicide of a corrupt cop, then is suddenly ordered to stop - and The Big Heat is on. Driven to unravel the mystery, Bannion continues probing until an explosion meant for him, kills his wife. He resigns from he force and soon learns that behind it all is the powerful underworld led by Mike Lagana (Alexander Scourby) and his cold-blooded henchman, Vince Stone (Lee Marvin). When Stone's girl Debby (Gloria Grahame) makes a play for Bannion, Stone disfigures her face and in revenge, she tells all she knows. A life-or-death confrontation between Bannion and Stone brings this classic film noir thriller to a climatic unmissable finale! - Director:
- Fritz Lang
- Cast:
- Glenn Ford, Gloria Grahame, Jocelyn Brando
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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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Barbara Stanwyck sizzles, Henry Fonda bumbles, and Preston Sturges runs riot in one of the all-time great screwballs, a pitch-perfect blend of comic zing and swoonworthy romance. Aboard a cruise liner sailing up the coast of South America, Stanwyck's conniving card sharp sets her sights on Fonda's nerdy snake researcher, who happens to be the heir to a brewery fortune. But when the con artist falls for her mark, her grift becomes a game of hearts - and she is determined to win it all. One in a string of matchless comedic marvels that Sturges wrote and directed as part of a dazzling 1940s run, this gender-flipped battle-of-wits farce is perhaps his most emotionally satisfying work, tempering its sparkling humor with a streak of tender poignancy supplied by the sensational Stanwyck at her peak. - Director:
- Preston Sturges
- Cast:
- Barbara Stanwyck, Henry Fonda, Charles Coburn
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