monsieurk's - Rented List
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Police, Adjective (2009)Politist, adjectiv
A cop suffers from a crisis of conscience when he is assigned to gather evidence against a college student dabbling with soft drugs. An intelligent satire of bureaucracy, 'Police, Adjective' is the acclaimed new film from the director of the award winning '12:08 - East of Bucharest'. Arguing for leniency to be shown towards what he regards as youthful irresponsibility, he finds his superiors have a very different interpretation of morality and the law. - Director:
- Corneliu Porumboiu
- Cast:
- Dragos Bucur, Vlad Ivanov, Ion Stoica
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John LeTour (Willem Dafoe) is loyal, decent, lumbering-a 40-year-old drug runner who suffers from insomnia but seems to be sleep-walking through life in Light Sleeper. When John's boss, the bubbly but sharp-witted Ann (Susan Sarandon), decides to retire, John must rethink his life's path. But breaking out of the life he's led will take some doing, especially after coming into contact with his ex-girlfriend (Dana Delkany), a recovering drug addict, and becoming embroiled in a mysterious murder. - Director:
- Paul Schrader
- Cast:
- Willem Dafoe, Susan Sarandon, Dana Delany
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The film focuses on Okin, the ex-geisha who has embraced the new post-war economy most successfully and single-mindedly. Former colleagues Tamae, whose son threatens to become a gigolo, and Tomi, who has a decidedly 'modem' daughter, live together and try to make ends meet. With his customary emphasis on the material circumstances that shape our lives, Naruse nevertheless manages to transform the film into a moving celebration of friendship. - Director:
- Mikio Naruse
- Cast:
- Haruko Sugimura, Sadako Sawamura, Chikako Hosokawa
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Edward and Caroline (1951)Édouard et Caroline
Jacques Becker's dark, offbeat comedy about a failing marriage stars Daniel Gelin as Edouard, a poor pianist married to Caroline (Anne Vernon), a beautiful girl from a middle-class family. Caroline's uncle Claude (Jean Galland), a complete snob who looks down on Edouard like the rest of his family, invites the couple to a party at which he is expected to play for his supper in front of Claude's important friends. Add the fact that Claude's son Alain (Jacques Francois) is in love with Caroline and this evening is destined for disaster. - Director:
- Jacques Becker
- Cast:
- Daniel Gélin, Anne Vernon, Elina Labourdette
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Pierrot le Fou (1965)Pierrot Goes Wild / Crazy Pete
Based on Lionel White's novel 'Obsession', 'Pierrot le Fou' transforms a story about a couple on the run into an entertaining, existential romance. Tired of his bourgeois life, Ferdinand Griffon (Jean-Paul Belmondo) leaves his wife and elopes with his former baby sitter, Marianne (Anna Karina). When a dead body is found in Marianne's apartment, the two lovers flee to the South of France in a futile bid to escape Marianne's dangerous past. - Director:
- Jean-Luc Godard
- Cast:
- Jean-Paul Belmondo, Anna Karina, Graziella Galvani
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Memories of Matsuko (2006)Kiraware Matsuko no isshô
When the body of a female tramp is found in the park, her nephew, Shou, is called upon to clean out her abandoned apartment. He unwittingly embarks upon a surprising journey through the extraordinary life of his aunt, Matsuko, a starry-eyed female searching for her prince. A collision of visually stunning hues and Bob Fosse-like musical set pieces, this Amelie-esque fairytale gracefully glides through the decades from the 50s to the 80s. Miki Nakatani displays an award winning performance as Matsuko, engaging the audience with her touching portrayal of life. - Director:
- Tetsuya Nakashima
- Cast:
- Miki Nakatani, Eita, Yûsuke Iseya
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Rolling Family (2004)Familia Rodante
A hilarious and charming road movie, Familia Rodante is the latest feature from Pablo Trapero, one of the new generation of directors currently revolutionising Argentinian cinema. The tale begins in Buenos Aries with the 84th birthday celebration of Grandma Emilia, who tells her stunned family that she has been invited to be matron of honour at her niece's wedding and expects them to accompany her on the thousand kilometre trip. One heavy dose of emotional blackmail later, thirteen members of four generations cram into a ramshackle old camper van and set off on the epic journey across Argentina.As the days pass and the van hobbles towards its destination, emotions within its cramped confines run high and the journey seems set to last a lot longer than any of its occupants had bargained for. - Director:
- Pablo Trapero
- Cast:
- Graciana Chironi, Nicolás López, Liliana Capurro
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Falstaff: Chimes at Midnight (1965)Campanadas a medianoche
On the brink of Civil War, King Henry IV (John Gielgud) attempts to consolidate his reign while fretting with unease over his son's seeming neglect of his royal duties. Hal (Keith Baxter), the young Prince, openly consorts with Sir John Falstaff (Orson Welles) and his company of "Diana's foresters, Gentlemen of the shade, Minions of the moon". Hal's friendship with the fat knight substitutes for his estrangement from his father. Both Falstaff and the King are old and tired; both rely on Hal for comfort in their final years, while the young Prince, the future Henry V, nurtures his own ambitions. - Director:
- Orson Welles
- Cast:
- Orson Welles, Ralph Richardson, Jeanne Moreau
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Jacobo is a man of dull routine who arrives each day at his run-down sock factory at the same early hour as his faithful assistant, Marta. When his socially adept brother, Herman, pays an unexpected visit, the introverted Jacobo prefers to lie rather than admit his bachelor status, asking the dour but obliging Marta to pose as his wife. The ruse works well enough until Herman invites them on a seaside trip where the strain of the pretence and old sibling rivalries lead to a comically uncomfortable series of events. - Director:
- Juan Pablo Rebella
- Cast:
- Andrés Pazos, Mirella Pascual, Jorge Bolani
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Lift to the Scaffold (1958)Ascenseur pour l'échafaud / Elevator to the Gallows
Malle's a debut feature, made when he was only 25 is a tense thriller starring Jeanne Moreau as Florence and Julian Tavernier as Maurice, a pair of lovers who conspire to murder Florence's husband in the most ingenious manner. However, not everything goes quite as planned. Lift to the Scaffold is arguably the first film of the French New Wave with its arresting camerawork by cinematographer Henri Decae, who also shot the debut film of Truffaut and Chabrol. With its sultry black and white palate, Paris locations and an improvised jazz score by the legendary Miles Davis, Lift to the Scaffold is an unforgettable slice of 50s French cool. - Director:
- Louis Malle
- Cast:
- Jeanne Moreau, Maurice Ronet, Georges Poujouly
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A remarkably assured debut from Swiss director Andreas Fontana, 'Azor' invites us into the alluring world of the ultra-wealthy in 1980's Argentina. Set in Buenos Aires, the film follows private banker Yvan (Fabrizio Rongione) as he arrives from Geneva with his wife Ines (Stéphanie Cléau) to replace a mysteriously missing colleague and placate their moneyed clientele. Moving through the smoke-filled lounges and lush gardens of a society under intense surveillance, he finds himself untangling a sinister web of colonialism, high finance, and a nation's "Dirty War". - Director:
- Andreas Fontana
- Cast:
- Fabrizio Rongione, Stéphanie Cléau, Carmen Iriondo
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Guilty of Romance (2011)Koi no tsumi
A dramatic account of three women and their lives, seen through the looking glass of sex, words, madness, death, and family, 'Guilty Of Romance' - the new crime noir from the award-winning director Sion Sono - tells the tale of three women entangled in a mystery... a mystery that is the gate to a hell-bound love like no other! Set just before the turn of the 21st century, a grisly murder occurs in Maruyama-cho, Shibuya - a love hotel district - a woman was found dead in a derelict apartment in the pouring rain. Whilst the police investigate, the story interweaves with that of Izumi, the wife of a famous romantic novelist whose life seems just a daily repetition without romance. One day, to break away from the loveless monotony, she decides to follow her desires and accepts a job as a naked model faking sex in front of the camera. Soon she meets with a mentor and starts selling her body to strangers, whilst at home she hides behind the facade that she is still the wife she is supposed to be. - Director:
- Sion Sono
- Cast:
- Miki Mizuno, Makoto Togashi, Megumi Kagurazaka
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Soon after the huge success of 'Magnificent Obsession', Jane Wyman and Rock Hudson again teamed up with director Douglas Sirk for this heartwarming story of an attractive, wealthy New England widow who defies social constraints when she falls in love for a much younger man. When Cary Scott (Jane Wyman) falls in love with her sexy gardener, Ron Kirby (Rock Hudson), she becomes the target of small town gossip, while at the time incurring the wrath of her own children Kay (Gloria Talbott) and Ned (William Reynolds). The children and the town want Cary to lead a more conventional lifestyle than that offered by Ron. They would prefer that she spend the rest of her life in front of her new TV set, wed to Harvey (Conrad Nagel), a highly respected, wealthy - and boring - bachelor. Will she choose love or "respectability"? - Director:
- Douglas Sirk
- Cast:
- Jane Wyman, Rock Hudson, Agnes Moorehead
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Young Liina (Rea Lest) and Hans (Jörgen Liik) are preparing to marry in their village in the woods, when Hans becomes entranced by the arrival of a visiting Baroness (Jette Loona Hermanis). Love spells are conjured so that each receives their intended mate, but there are more sinister things afoot. Death can visit in the form of a farm animal...but it's fine because one can hide by wearing trousers on the head. And, besides, the dead can come back to the village and chat anyway...although when the devil arrives, don't try to cheat him. And then there are the "kratts" - supernatural servants made from discarded bones, tree branches, and trash...just make sure to give them work to do, or else. - Director:
- Rainer Sarnet
- Cast:
- Rea Lest, Jörgen Liik, Arvo Kukumägi
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Flowers of Shanghai (1998)Hai shang hua
An intoxicating, time-bending experience bathed in the golden glow of oil lamps and wreathed in an opium haze, this gorgeous period reverie by Hou Hsiao-hsien traces the romantic intrigue, jealousies, and tensions swirling around four late-nineteenth-century Shanghai "flower houses", where courtesans live confined to a gilded cage, ensconced in opulent splendor but forced to work to buy back their freedom. Among the regular clients is the taciturn Master Wang (Tony Leung Chiu-wai), whose relationship with his longtime mistress (Michiko Hada) is roiled by a perceived act of betrayal. Composed in a languorous procession of entrancing long takes, Flowers of Shanghai evokes a vanished world of decadence and cruelty, an insular universe where much of the dramatic action remains tantalizingly offscreen - even as its emotional fallout registers with quiet devastation. - Director:
- Hsiao-hsien Hou
- Cast:
- Tony Leung Chiu Wai, Michiko Hada, Michelle Reis
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