mcg's - Rented List
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The Sacrifice (1986)Offret
During the final hours before a nuclear war threatens to wipe out humanity, Alexander, surrounded by his family and friends as they descend into fear and turmoil, makes a deal with God: he will sacrifice all he holds dear to avoid the impending apocalypse. Tarkovsky's final film, 'The Sacrifice' is a visually breathtaking meditation on existential terror and a melancholic swansong from one of cinema's true auteurs. - Director:
- Andrei Tarkovsky
- Cast:
- Erland Josephson, Tintin Anderzon, Helena Brodin
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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 Beautiful and withdrawn, Jane slowly gets to know the other residents of the house who, like her, are social outsiders in their own way.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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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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Amid an explosive political landscape, three young film buffs are drawn together by their shared passion for movies... and for each other! Left alone while their parents are on holiday, twins Isabelle (Eva Green) and Theo (Louis Garrel) invite American exchange student Matthew (Michael Pitt) to stay with them. So begins an intense, erotic voyage of sexual discovery and desire in which nothing is off limits and anything is possible! - Director:
- Bernardo Bertolucci
- Cast:
- Michael Pitt, Louis Garrel, Eva Green
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The Shop Around the Corner (1940)Shopworn Angel
Tell bickering Budapest gift-shop workers Alfred (James Stewart) and Klara (Margaret Sullavan) that they love each other and they might call you crazy. No lover can compare to the romantic, secret pen pal each knows only as Dear Friend. What Alfred and Klara don't know, of course, is that they are each other's Dear Friend. - Director:
- Ernst Lubitsch
- Cast:
- Margaret Sullavan, James Stewart, Frank Morgan
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A later collaboration between James Mason and Carol Reed, 'The Man Between' is often considered a companion piece to The Third Man thanks to its atmospheric portrayal of a city struggling to survive in a grim post-war reality of poverty and mistrust The action is transposed to a divided Berlin, and to the beginning of the Cold War. Unlike the devilish Harry Lime, Mason's world-weary dealer Ivo Kern is ultimately still a decent man, compelled by his love for a naive schoolteacher (Claire Bloom) to make one last misguided trip through the Brandenburg Gate, with potentially tragic consequences. - Director:
- Carol Reed
- Cast:
- James Mason, Claire Bloom, Hildegard Knef
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Based on James Joyce's 1922 masterpiece, Leopold Bloom is Joyce's Jewish protagonist. Wandering the Dublin streets, he thinks about his dead son, his cuckolding wife, Molly, and his own impotence. During his travels he encounters a one-eyed man who taunts him with anti-Semitic remarks and a young student and poet, Stephen Dedalus. He and Dedalus go to a brothel where Bloom is beset by frightening fantasies. Afterwards the two men sit up all night talking at Bloom's house. When Dedalus leaves, Molly lies awake in bed thinking about her present and past loves, and the possibility of an affair with Dedalus... - Director:
- Joseph Strick
- Cast:
- Milo O'Shea, Barbara Jefford, Maurice Roëves
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With a screenplay adapted by Leonard Gardner from his own novel, John Huston's drama examines the meager hopes and resigned dreams of small-time boxers. In limbo between retirement and his youthful prime, alcoholic farm laborer Tully (Stacy Keach) shacks up with fellow outcast Oma (Susan Tyrrell) and keeps trying to make a boxing comeback, but his personal demons repeatedly overpower his ambitions. Meanwhile, fellow Stockton, CA resident and budding fighter Ernie (Jeff Bridges) takes Tully's advice to join trainer Ruben (Nicholas Colasanto)'s gym and make something of himself. Learning the tough lesson that winning is not as easy as it sounds, Ernie is still determined to get what he can out of boxing and, unlike Tully, not let disappointments get the best of him. - Director:
- John Huston
- Cast:
- Stacy Keach, Jeff Bridges, Susan Tyrrell
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The Lady from Shanghai (1947)Take This Woman / Black Irish
Hired to work on a yacht belonging to the disabled husband of femme fatale Rita Hayworth, Welles plays an innocent man drawn into a dangerous web of intrigue and murder.- Director:
- Orson Welles
- Cast:
- Rita Hayworth, Orson Welles, Everett Sloane
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Nostalgia (1983)Nostalghia / Tempo di Viaggio
Tarkovsky's unforgettably haunting film, his first to be made outside Russia, explores the melancholy of the expatriate through the film's protagonist, Gorchakov, a Russian poet researching in Italy. Arriving at a Tuscan village spa with Eugenia, his beautiful Italian interpreter, Gorchakov is visited by memories of Russia and of his wife and children, and he encounters the local mystic, who sets him a challenging task. The film is filled with a series of mysterious and extraordinary images, all of which coalesce into a miraculous whole in the film's final shot. As in all Tarkovsky's films, nature, the elements of fire and water, music, painting and poetry all play a major role. - Director:
- Tonino Guerra
- Cast:
- Oleg Yankovskiy, Erland Josephson, Domiziana Giordano
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Tortured by thoughts that her husband Jake (Peter Finch) may be having an affair Jo Annitage (Anne Bancroft) has a nervous breakdown in Harrods and her life begins to crumble all about her. But is her husband's infidelity really to blame? Or does Jo have deeper, more complex problems? Why does she have so main children - and is her seemingly perfect life all it appears on the surface? - Director:
- Jack Clayton
- Cast:
- Anne Bancroft, Peter Finch, James Mason
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With extraordinary beauty, talent and grace, Spanish dancer Maria Vargas (Ava Gardner) was born to be a star. Aided by American movie director Harry Dawes (Humphrey Bogart), she attains great success and fortune in Hollywood's land of dreams. But, though she gives her all for stardom, there is one thing Maria will never compromise - her soul. No matter what the cost, The Barefoot Contessa will dance to no-one's music but her own. - Director:
- Joseph L. Mankiewicz
- Cast:
- Humphrey Bogart, Ava Gardner, Edmond O'Brien
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Amarcord (1973)I Remember
A proud woman in red draws leers and admiration. A bosomy tobacconist sparks the fantasies of adolescent boys. A mentally challenged uncle takes refuge in a tree and announces: "I want a woman!" They are among moments and events knit by memory...and a legendary filmmaker in peak form. 'Amarcord', which means "I Remember", is Federico Fellini's lusty, often funny look at growing-up perhaps not unlike his own. The setting is a village in 1930's Italy. Teen hormones are surging. Family, church and friendship are proving grounds of love and loyalty. Fascism's rise is just down the street. Sex is around any corner. And life viewed in the local cinema is a touchstone for life lived. The memories, big and small, endure. - Director:
- Federico Fellini
- Cast:
- Magali Noël, Bruno Zanin, Pupella Maggio
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The Battle of Algiers (1966)La Battaglia di Algeri
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 - Director:
- Gillo Pontecorvo
- Cast:
- Brahim Hadjadj, Jean Martin, Yacef Saadi
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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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