monsieurk's - Rented List
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"Benediction" explores the turbulent life of First World War poet Siegfried Sassoon (Peter Capaldi / Jack Lowden). Having survived the horrors of fighting in the First World War, he was decorated for his bravery and became a vocal critic of the government's continuation of the war when he returned from service. His poetry was inspired by his experiences on the Western Front and he became one of the leading war poets of the era. Adored by members of the aristocracy as well as stars of London's literary and stage world, Sassoon embarked on affairs with several notable men as he attempted to come to terms with his homosexuality. At the same time, broken by the horror of war, his life became a quest for salvation, trying to find it within the conformity of marriage and religion. His is the story of a troubled man in a fractured world, searching for peace and self acceptance, something which speaks as meaningfully to us in the modern world as it did then. - Director:
- Terence Davies
- Cast:
- Kate Phillips, Tom Blyth, Jack Lowden
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A woman from Scotland, while traveling in Colombia, begins to notice strange sounds. Jessica Holland, who, after hearing a loud 'bang' at daybreak, begins experiencing a mysterious sensory syndrome while traversing the jungles of Colombia. She experiences auditory hallucinations and tries to find the sources of the sounds causing her insomnia. Soon, she begins to confront the unsettling sights and sounds that call her identity into question. - Director:
- Apichatpong Weerasethakul
- Cast:
- Tilda Swinton, Agnes Brekke, Daniel Giménez Cacho
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To Our Romance (1983)A Nos Amours
A portrait of youth in bloom; a tale of one family's dissolution; a reflection upon the danger and the mystery in living. Maurice Pialat's serene, perilous masterwork provides the movie romance a definitive check and eminently deceptive balance — the X scratched on top of the O. In one of the astonishing film debuts, Sandrine Bonnaire plays Suzanne, a free spirit and the vessel for an almost Brontean choler. She's 16, and men exist — diverse lovers, an overbearing brother, and the father portrayed by Pialat himself in an unforgettable turn that displays the full magnitude of the cinema giant's tenderness, force-of-will, and presence of being. - Director:
- Maurice Pialat
- Cast:
- Sandrine Bonnaire, Maurice Pialat, Christophe Odent
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La Ceremonie (1995)La cérémonie
Adapted from Ruth Rendell's chilling novel, this is one of Chabrol's most celebrated films. Wealthy family the Lelievres have taken on the extremely efficient but strangely detached Sophie as their live-in maid. Her free time is spent alone in her room until she meets local postal clerk Jeanne who has a disturbed history and a grudge against Sophie's new employers. As the pair begin to bond the family grow increasingly concerned. - Director:
- Claude Chabrol
- Cast:
- Isabelle Huppert, Sandrine Bonnaire, Jacqueline Bisset
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A young girl is found murdered and the police are lead to the reclusive Monsieur Hire. His neighbours dislike him and think him strange. Living a mundane existence his greatest pleasure is to watch Alice who lives in the opposite apartment. One night she catches sight of his pallid face at the window, illuminated momentarily by a flash of lightning. Her initial fear gives way to seemingly intentions as they are dawn into each others lives. - Director:
- Patrice Leconte
- Cast:
- Michel Blanc, Sandrine Bonnaire, Luc Thuillier
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Paris, 13th District (2022)Les Olympiades, Paris 13e
Set in the French capital's 13th arrondissement, where a predominantly East Asian community resides, Audiard's passionate romance charts the interwoven relationships between four twenty-somethings, played by Lucie Zhang, Makita Samba, Jehnny Beth and Noemie Merlant. 'Paris, 13th District' is a modern story of love and life, reflecting the shifting attitudes towards identity and fidelity. - Director:
- Jacques Audiard
- Cast:
- Sacha Petronijevic, Lucie Zhang, Makita Samba
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The Ornithologist (2016)O Ornitólogo
Fernando, a solitary ornithologist, is looking for endangered black storks along a remote river in northern Portugal, when he is swept away by the rapids. Rescued by a couple of Chinese pilgrim girls on their way to Santiago de Compostela, he plunges into a dark, eerie forest, trying to get back on track. But as he encounters unexpected uncanny obstacles and people who put him to the test, Fernando is driven to extreme, transformative actions. Gradually he becomes a different man: - inspired, multifaceted, and finally enlightened. - Director:
- João Pedro Rodrigues
- Cast:
- Paul Hamy, Xelo Cagiao, João Pedro Rodrigues
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Oscar winner Juliette Binoche gives a "powerhouse performance" in this visually stunning portrait of a year in the life of Camille Claudel, the sculptor Auguste Rodin's infamous mistress. The French auteur Bruno Dumont, whose previous masterpieces include Flanders and Hors Satan, draws up a beautifully stark vision of a woman denied her art, confined by her family to an asylum in the South of France where she will never sculpt again. We follow Camille through her story as she struggles to adjust to life in the asylum and awaits a visit from her brother, the writer Paul Claudel. Binoche gives an excruciatingly honest performance, acting alongside real patients, in what is a must-see cornerstone of cinema history. - Director:
- Bruno Dumont
- Cast:
- Juliette Binoche, Jean-Luc Vincent, Robert Leroy
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Coincoin and the Extra-Humans (2018)Coincoin et les z'inhumains
This is the sequel to 2014's 'P'tit Quinquin', with many of the same characters from this special region of Northern France, now older and none the wiser. Quinquin has now grown up and is nicknamed Coincoin (Alane Delhaye). His old love, Eve (Lucy Caron), has abandoned him for Corinne (Priscilla Benoist). When strange cow-pats fall from the skies, police investigations reveal that the substance is both alive and non-human. The locals suddenly start to multiply after giving birth to their own clones. Captain Van Der Weyden (Bernard Pruvost) and stunt-driving assistant Carpentier (Philippe Jore) investigate these alien attacks. The Extra-Human invasion has begun. - Director:
- Bruno Dumont
- Cast:
- Alane Delhaye, Bernard Pruvost, Philippe Jore
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The Funeral (1984)Osôshiki
It's death, Japanese style, in the rollicking and wistful first feature from maverick writer-director Juzo Itami. In the wake of her lascivious father's sudden passing, a successful actor (Itami's wife and frequent collaborator, Nobuko Miyamoto) and her husband (Tsutomu Yamazaki) leave Tokyo and return to their family house to oversee a traditional funeral. Over the course of three days of mourning that bring illicit escapades in the woods, a surprisingly materialistic priest (Yasujiro Ozu regular Chishu Ryu), and cinema's most epic sandwich handoff, the tensions between public propriety and private hypocrisy are laid bare. Deftly weaving dark comedy with poignant family drama, 'The Funeral' is a fearless satire of the clash between old and new in Japanese society in which nothing, not even the finality of death, is off-limits. - Director:
- Jûzô Itami
- Cast:
- Tsutomu Yamazaki, Nobuko Miyamoto, Kin Sugai
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Jack Walsh (Robert De Niro) is a tough ex-cop turned bounty hunter. Jonathan "The Duke" Mardukas (Charles Grodin) is a sensitive accountant who embezzled $15 million from the Mob, gave it to charity, and then jumped bail. Jack's in for a cool $100,000 if he can deliver the Duke from New York to L.A. on time. And alive. Sounds like just another Midnight Run (a piece of cake in bounty hunter slang), but it turns into a cross-country chase. The FBI is after the Duke to testify - the Mob is after him for revenge - and Walsh is after him to just shut up. If someone else doesn't do the job, the two unlikely partners may end up killing each other in this hilarious, action-filled blockbuster from producer-director Martin Brest. - Director:
- Martin Brest
- Cast:
- Robert De Niro, Charles Grodin, Yaphet Kotto
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Washed-up producer Barry 'Dutch' Detweiler (William Holden) attempts to lure the iconic but reclusive actress Fedora (Marthe Keller) out of retirement in a bid to revive both their careers. But her privacy is hard won, and with good reason, and opening up the secrets surrounding her could spell disaster. - Director:
- Billy Wilder
- Cast:
- William Holden, Marthe Keller, Hildegard Knef
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Morgan (1966)Morgan: A Suitable Case for Treatment
Anarchic Londoner Morgan Delt (David Warner), a working class artist and self-confessed dreamer with a gorilla-fixation tries to regain the affections of his upper-class ex-wife Leonie (Vanessa Redgrave). Leonie rejects Morgan's attempts at reconciliation and when she informs him of her plans to marry stuffy art dealer, Charles Napier (Robert Stephens), Morgan slips off the mental deep end into a vivid fantasy life. Morgan enacts a series of bizarre gags and stunts in an often hilarious campaign to win Leonie back... - Director:
- Karel Reisz
- Cast:
- David Warner, Vanessa Redgrave, Robert Stephens
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Tanya (Dina Korzun), a vulnerable and naïve young Russian, arrives at Gatwick Airport to meet her English fiancé. But when he fails to show up, a distraught Tanya claims political asylum and finds herself virtually imprisoned in a nightmarish refugee holding centre in a lonely seaside resort. Desperate to escape, Tanya forges an unlikely alliance with amusement arcade manager Alfie (Paddy Considine), which soon develops into something more. But is he just another man who will let her down, or will Tanya and Artiom finally break free? Pawel Pawlikowski’s critically acclaimed, award-winning film is an affecting and poetic love story, featuring hauntingly beautiful photography and sensitive naturalistic performances from an excellent cast. - Director:
- Pawel Pawlikowski
- Cast:
- Dina Korzun, Artyom Strelnikov, Paddy Considine
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When renowned crime novelist Harlan Thrombey (Christopher Plummer) is found dead at his estate just after his 85th birthday, the inquisitive and debonair Detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) is mysteriously enlisted to investigate. From Harlan's dysfunctional family to his devoted staff, Blanc sifts through a web of red herrings and self-serving lies to uncover the truth behind Harlan's untimely death. - Director:
- Rian Johnson
- Cast:
- Daniel Craig, Chris Evans, Ana de Armas
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