monsieurk's - Rented List

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Recalling her youth in 1950s northern Spain, Estrella revisits her relationship with her beloved father Agustin, raised in the south, and realises how little she knew of him and his secrets.

Victor Erice's delicate and mysterious film reveals his abiding fascination with memory and loss, missed opportunities and the links between private dreams and political realities. The performances, like the meticulously lit compositions and evocative soundtrack, are superb; Omero Antonutti is a charismatic Agustin, while Sonsoles Aranguren and Iciar Bollain shine as, respectively, the young and teenaged Estrella. Exquisitely beautiful, profoundly moving.

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After receiving a letter from her visually impaired (and ever so slightly senile) Aunt Martha (Emmanuelle Riva), Fiona (Fiona Gordon) takes the trip from Canada to France. Except Martha has disappeared, putting Fiona in the middle of a calamitous hunt for the missing nonagenarian.

After a mishap while taking a picture at the Eiffel Tower, Fiona finds herself without any of her belongings, soaking wet and, as the title suggests, Lost in Paris. A chance meeting with a quirky homeless man, Dom (Dominique Abel), sees a relationship blossom across the city's famous sights and streets.

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Catherine Deneuve stars as a Princess whose father, the King (Jean Marais), seeks her hand in marriage after promising his dying wife to only wed a woman more beautiful than she.

Listening to her godmother, the Fairy of Lilacs (Delphine Seyrig), the frightened Princess flees to a neighbouring farm and hides as a scullery maid, while wearing the skin of her father's prized donkey as a disguise. A visiting Prince passes by, and an unlikely romance is born.

Set in a decadent 19th century, 'Morgiana' is the story of two sisters. Klara (Iva Janzurová) is auburn-haired and beautiful; Viktoria (also Iva Janzurová) is wicked, sadistic, bursting with hate and jealousy - and plots to poison her more popular sibling...

Director Luchino Visconti brings all of his famed majestic style to bear on this lavish and operative portrait of Ludwig II (Helmut Berger), the nineteenth-century 'mad king' of Bavaria, whose obsession with Wagner's music inspired him to build fairytale castles and finally lose his already-fragile grip on his sanity.

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Two introverted people, both workers in a meat-processing plant - one a world-weary financial director, the other a strict quality controller - find out by chance that they share the same dream every night. They are puzzled, incredulous and frightened.

As they begin to accept this strange coincidence, they try to recreate in broad daylight what happens in their shared subconscious.

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In 1429, the Hundred Years' War between France and England had already been going 90 odd years.

Believing that God had chosen her, the young Joan (Lise Leplat Prudhomme) is a leader of the army of the King of France (Fabrice Luchini) and lifts the siege of Orleans, enabling the dauphin to be formally crowned as Charles VII. After she is captured, she is sent for trial on charges of heresy, to be judged by pro-Burgundian and pro-English clerics. Refusing to accept the accusations, Joan stays obdurate.

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In one of Agnes Varda's more provocative films she presents us with the dilemma faced by husband and father Francois (Jean-Claude Crouot) who finds himself falling in love with an attractive postal worker.

What follows is a detailed study of adult fidelity and happiness, which will ultimately end with major repercussions for all parties involved.

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A subtle and beautifully observed social satire that deftly balances hope and despair, 'A Blonde in Love' is widely celebrated as one of the great films of the 1960's.

This bittersweet romance from Milos Forman, the multiple Oscar-winning director of 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest' and 'Amadeus', unfolds as a sweetly seductive tale of young love, but also provides a wry critique of life under totalitarianism. Aided by gorgeous cinematography and naturalistic performances, the film adeptly distils universal truths from the simplest of situations, presenting them with a sharp yet compassionate eye.

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L.A. detective Harry Moseby (Gene Hackman) has problems. Missing persons and bedroom stakeouts are no match for his glory days as a pro-football player. His wife is having a not-so-secret affair.

And while sorting things out, he takes on the case of a runaway teenager that may be a lot more than he can handle.

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In the darkest days of World War II, two partisans, Sotnikov (Boris Plotnikov) and Rybak (Vladimir Gostyukhin) set out for supplies to sustain their beleaguered outfit, braving the blizzard swept landscape of Nazi occupied Belorussia.

When they fall into the hands of German forces and come face-to-face with death, each must choose between martyrdom and betrayal, in a spiritual ordeal that lifts the film's earthy drama to the plane of religious allegory. With stark, visceral cinematography that pits blinding white snow against pitch black despair, 'The Ascent' finds poetry and transcendence in the harrowing trials of war.

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"I Clowns (The Clowns)" has been revered by Fellini enthusiasts since its release as among the Maestro's finest works - one in a register all its own.

The film plays out in dazzling colour and in episodic cascade: as the circus rolls into town, and the big-tent is erected, the clowns execute their acts with feverish bravado. It's all true - and yet not a "documentary" per se; rather, something inbetween a portrayal of gags-at-play and of all that makes the spark for childhood inspiration ignite into creative virtuosity.

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A chance meeting in a coffee shop between Harry (Lars Ekborg), a young errand boy, and Monika (Harriet Andersson), a wild and reckless girl who works in a nearby grocery shop, soon develops into a love affair. After a row with her father, Monika goes on a motorboat holiday.

Their idyllic summer is soon shattered by the news that Monika is pregnant. Faced with sudden responsibility, Harry agrees to marry Monika and they set up home together in a small flat. Monika rapidly becomes bored with married life and looking after the baby. Soon Harry returns from a business trip to discover that his wife has been unfaithful with a former lover. A frank and tender portrait of first love, Bergman's film is also a realistic and uncompromising account of a disintegrating marriage.

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Guy Foucher (Nino Castelnuovo), a 20-year-old French auto mechanic, has fallen in love with 17-year-old Genevieve Emery (Catherine Deneuve), an employee in her widowed mother's chic but financially embattled umbrella shop.

On the evening before Guy is to leave for a two-year tour of combat in Algeria, the pair share a passionate night. Genevieve becomes pregnant and then must choose between waiting for Guy's return or accepting an attractive offer of marriage from a wealthy diamond merchant (Marc Michel).

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'The Cremator' has been described in many ways - as surrealist-horror, political allegory, a pitch-black comic satire and a darkly disturbing tale of terror. This unique cult film, a brilliantly chilling mix of Repulsion and Dr.

Strangelove, is set during the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia and built around a remarkable performance by Rudolf Hrusinsky as the titular cremator. Proud of his mastery of his trade, Mr. Kopfrkingl's perverse and deranged fantasies gradually lead him towards offering a final solution for the 'salvation of the world'.