monsieurk's - Rented List
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Rashomon (1950)Rashômon
A woodcutter experiences a horrific series of events - an ambush, rape and murder. In the telling of the tale however, each of the four participants give different views of what actually happened - is any of them telling the truth? Kurosawa's masterful film plays on the subjective nature of truth while unfurling a riveting tale of violence and greed. - Director:
- Akira Kurosawa
- Cast:
- Toshirô Mifune, Machiko Kyô, Masayuki Mori
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Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2020)Portrait de la jeune fille en feu
Painter Marianne (Noemie Merlant) is commissioned by an affluent countess to paint the wedding portrait of her sheltered but headstrong daughter Héloïse (Adele Haenel). While posing as her hired companion, Marianne is instructed to complete the portrait in secret, observing Héloïse by day and painting her by night. However, as the two women grow closer, their intimacy and attraction begins to blossom, paving the way for a simmering, star-crossed romance. - Director:
- Céline Sciamma
- Cast:
- Noémie Merlant, Adèle Haenel, Luàna Bajrami
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Bearing witness to the barbaric reign of the Sicilian mafia, Letizia Battaglia's black-and-white photography captures decades of violence on the streets of her home town, Palermo. Kim Longinotto traces Battaglia's journey from marriage aged 16 to a new career at 40 as the first Italian woman to be a photographer for a daily newspaper, defiantly pointing her camera at the devastation wrought by the Cosa Nostra. With a wealth of archive material - from classic Italian cinema to nail-biting contemporary reportage - 'Shooting the Mafia' is a portrait of a fearless journalist, a passionate activist and a courageous woman who has broken free of convention and expectation in every area of her life. - Director:
- Kim Longinotto
- Cast:
- Letizia Battaglia, Maria Chiara di Trapani
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Last Year in Marienbad (1961)L'Annee Derniere A Marienbad
In a vast and opulent hotel, an unnamed man (Giorgio Albertazzi) attempts to persuade a similarly unnamed married woman (Delphine Seyrig) that they have not only met before, but they were also romantically involved and had planned to escape together. The woman recalls no such encounter and so begins a sensual and philosophical examination into the uncertainty of truth. - Director:
- Alain Resnais
- Cast:
- Delphine Seyrig, Giorgio Albertazzi, Sacha Pitoëff
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The Whistlers (2019)La Gomera
On an island in the Canaries there is a language spoken only through whistling... Using the whistling language, a gang of criminals are planning the perfect crime, they will communicate across the rooftops and the police will simply think the birds are singing. Cristi is a police officer who has been sent to infiltrate their operation. But when he falls for the glorious femme fatale Gilda who suggests other plans will this cop with a history of playing both sides of the law choose justice or self-service? - Director:
- Corneliu Porumboiu
- Cast:
- Vlad Ivanov, Catrinel Marlon, Rodica Lazar
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In this funny, uplifting tale based on an actual lie. Chinese-born, U.S.-raised Billi (Awkwafina) reluctantly returns to Changchun to find that, although the whole family knows their beloved matriarch, Nai-Nai. has been given mere weeks to live, everyone has decided not to tell Nai Nai herself. To assure her happiness, they gather under the joyful guise of an expedited wedding, uniting family members scattered among new homes abroad. As Billi navigates a minefield of family expectations and proprieties, she finds there's a lot to celebrate: a chance to rediscover the country she left as a child, her grandmother's wondrous spirit, and the ties that keep on binding even when so much goes unspoken. With 'The Farewell', writer/director Lulu Wang has created a heartfelt celebration of both the way we perform family and the way we live it, masterfully interweaving a gently humorous depiction of the good lie in action with a richly moving story of how family can unite and strengthen us. often in spite of ourselves. - Director:
- Lulu Wang
- Cast:
- Shuzhen Zhao, Awkwafina, X Mayo
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Goto, Isle of Love (1969)Goto, L'île d'amour / Goto, Island of Love
In 1887, an earthquake decimates the island of Goto. Cut off from the rest of the world, the governor of Goto rules his subjects with an iron fist. Glossia (Ligia Branice), his beautiful wife, plots to escape the island with a handsome young officer, Gono (Jean-Pierre Andréani). But Grozo, a petty criminal, has other ideas. While feeding the governor's dogs, polishing the governess's boots and trapping flies which blight the island, Grozo dreams of possessing Glossia for himself... - Director:
- Walerian Borowczyk
- Cast:
- Pierre Brasseur, Ligia Branice, Jean-Pierre Andréani
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Ugetsu Monogatari (1953)Ugetsu
In 16th century Japan, amidst the pandemonium of civil war, potter Genjuro (Mori Masayuki) and samurai-aspirant Tobei (Ozawa Sakae) set out with their wives in search of wealth and military glory, respectively. Two parallel tales ensue when the men are lured from their wives: Genjuro by the ghostly charm of Lady Wakasa (Kyo Machiko); Tobei by the dream of military glory. - Director:
- Kenji Mizoguchi
- Cast:
- Masayuki Mori, Machiko Kyô, Kinuyo Tanaka
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Mr. Hulot's Holiday (1953)Les Vacances De Monsieur Hulot / Monsieur Hulot's Holiday
The film that brought Jacques Tati international acclaim also launched his on-screen alter ego: the courteous, well-meaning, eternally accident-prone Monsieur Hulot with whom Tati would from now on be inseparably associated. As with Jour de fete, Vacances is set in a sleepy French coastal resort which is seasonally disrupted by holidaymakers in energetic pursuit of fun. At the centre of the chaos is the eccentric Hulot, struggling at all times to maintain appearances, but somehow entirely divorced from his immediate surroundings. There is little plot in Tati's beautifully orchestrated 'ballet' of comic action: it's a series of incidents, a seamless succession of gently studies of human absurdity. - Director:
- Jacques Tati
- Cast:
- Jacques Tati, Nathalie Pascaud, Louis Perrault
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Like Someone in Love (2012)The End
Abbas Kiarostami is indubitably one of the most important film-makers in the world, and this, his second made outside Iran, is set in Japan. A student moonlighting as an escort goes to visit a client who is more interested in talking, and who the next day takes on the role of her grandfather when confronted by her jealous boyfriend.
It pays homage to the tradition of Ozu, but is very much a typical Kiarostami work with its oblique narrative, mistaken and assumed identies, and masterful sleights-of-hand upending the audience's assumptions.- Director:
- Abbas Kiarostami
- Cast:
- Rin Takanashi, Tadashi Okuno, Ryô Kase
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L'Eclisse (1962)L'eclisse / The Eclipse
Filmed in sumptuous black and white, and full of scenes of lush, strange beauty, it tells the story of Vittoria (Monica Vitti), a young woman who leaves her older lover (Francisco Rabal), then drifts into a relationship with a confident, ambitious young stockbroker (Alain Delon). But this base narrative is the starting point for much, much more, including an analysis of the city as a place of estrangement and alienation and an implicit critique of colonialism. - Director:
- Michelangelo Antonioni
- Cast:
- Monica Vitti, Alain Delon, Francisco Rabal
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When cryogenically preserved Miles Monroe (Woody Allen) is awakened 200 years after a hospital mishap, he discovers the future's not so bright: All women are frigid, all men are impotent, and the world is ruled by an evil dictator: a disembodied nose! Pursued by the secret police and recruited by anti-government rebels with a plan to kidnap the dictator's snout before it can be cloned, Miles falls for the beautiful - but untalented - poet Luna (Diane Keaton). But when Miles is captured and reprogrammed by the government to believe he's Miss America, it's up to Luna to save Miles, lead the rebels and cut off the nose…just to spite its face. - Director:
- Woody Allen
- Cast:
- Woody Allen, John Cannon, Diane Keaton
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Germany Year Zero (1948)Germania anno zero
Year Zero in a divided Germany. With his father too ill to work, his soldier brother terrified of being arrested as a war criminal and his sister reduced to cadging cigarettes off occupying troops, 12 year-old Edmund scours Berlin for any work he can find. However, a meeting with his disgraced teacher, who still clings to his Nazi ideals, suggests a hideous solution to his problems. - Director:
- Roberto Rossellini
- Cast:
- Adolf Hitler, Edmund Moeschke, Ernst Pittschau
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A Man Escaped (1956)Un condamné à mort s'est échappé ou Le vent souffle où il veut
Based on the true story of Resistance fighter Andre Devigny, who was imprisoned and sentenced to death by the Nazis during the Second World War, the film reconstructs his actual cell at the Lyons fortress of Montluc, and follows his meticulous plans for escape. This totally involving and thrilling tale of courage and faith is all the more authentic for its use of non-professional actors and Bresson's spare style. - Director:
- Robert Bresson
- Cast:
- François Leterrier, Charles Le Clainche, Maurice Beerblock
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A cosmic nightmare from the minds of H.P Lovecraft and Richard Stanley. 'Color Out of Space' follows Nathan (Nicolas Cage) and Theresa Gardner (Joely Richardson) and their children, whose recent retreat to rural life crumbles when a meteorite crashes into their front yard, infecting both the land and the properties of space-time. The local wildlife begins to mutate and the family attempts to fight the contagion that has consumed their farm with the help of a friendly hydrologist (Elliot Knight) and eccentric neighbour (Tommy Chong). But what chance can a few humans have against a nebulous entity capable of traversing the gulf between worlds, a nightmarish being that exists beyond the limits of the human spectrum? - Director:
- Richard Stanley
- Cast:
- Nicolas Cage, Brett W. Bachman, Joely Richardson
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