mwdw's - Rented List
-
Honeyland (2019)Medena Zemja
In a deserted Macedonian village, Hatidze, a 50-something woman, trudges up a hillside to check her bee colonies nestled in the rocks. Serenading them with a secret chant, she gently manoeuvres the honeycomb without netting or gloves. Back at her homestead, Hatidze tends to her handmade hives and her bedridden mother, occasionally heading to the capital to market her wares. One day, an itinerant family installs itself next door, and Hatidze's peaceful kingdom gives way to roaring engines, seven shrieking children, and 150 cows. Yet Hatidze welcomes the camaraderie, and she holds nothing back - not her tried-and-true beekeeping advice, not her affection, not her special brandy. But soon Hussein, the itinerant family's patriarch, makes a series of decisions that could destroy Hatidze's way of life forever. - Director:
- Tamara Kotevska
- Cast:
- Hatidze Muratova, Nazife Muratova, Hussein Sam
- Formats:
-
-
Francois Ozon's highly acclaimed latest film focuses on the five key moments in the life of a modern couple. 5x2 examines Gilles (Stephane Freiss) and Marion's (Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi) turbulent marriage, but the story is told in reverse order beginning with the divorce and ending with their very first meeting. - Director:
- François Ozon
- Cast:
- Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, Stéphane Freiss, Françoise Fabian
- Formats:
-
-
With his eighth and most personal film, Alfonso Cuaron recreated the early-1970's Mexico City of his childhood, narrating a tumultuous period in the life of a middle-class family through the experiences of Cleo (Yalitza Aparicio, in a revelatory screen debut), the indigenous domestic worker who keeps the household running. Charged with the care of four small children abandoned by their father, Cleo tends to the family even as her own life is shaken by personal and political upheavals. Written, directed, shot, and coedited by Cuaron, 'Roma' is a labor of love with few parallels in the history of cinema, deploying monumental black-and-white cinematography, an immersive soundtrack, and a mixture of professional and nonprofessional performances to shape its author's memories into a world of enveloping texture, and to pay tribute to the woman who nurtured him. - Director:
- Alfonso Cuarón
- Cast:
- Yalitza Aparicio, Marina de Tavira, Diego Cortina Autrey
- Formats:
-
-
Under the Sand (2000)Sous le sable
In Francois Ozon's absorbing and affecting drama, Charlotte Rampling gives one of the best performances of her career as Marie, a college lecturer who has been happily married to Jean for over 25 years. Whilst on holiday, they visit a deserted beach where Marie lazes in the sun while Jean sets out for a swim - from which he never returns. Some time later in Paris, Marie has resumed her life but refuses to accept that Jean has drowned, continuing to think of him in the present tense and resisting her friends' well-meaning attempts to interest her in other men. Ozon's most mature film to date, 'Under the Sand' is dominated by Rampling's astonishing and moving portrayal. - Director:
- François Ozon
- Cast:
- Charlotte Rampling, Bruno Cremer, Jacques Nolot
- Formats:
-
-
On a remote mountaintop, a rebel group of commandos perform military training exercises while watching over a prisoner (Julianne Nicholson) for a shadowy force known only as 'The Organization'. After a series of unexpected events drives them deep into the jungle, fracturing their intricate bond, their mission slowly begins to collapse. Set against a stunningly beautiful but dangerous landscape, Alejandro Landes' awe-inspiring film is a breathtakingly epic vision that will leave you both mesmerised and utterly gripped. - Director:
- Alejandro Landes
- Cast:
- Sofia Buenaventura, Julián Giraldo, Karen Quintero
- Formats:
-
-
Marshland (2014)La Isla Mínima
Spain's deep-south, 1980. In a small village frozen in time - close to the labyrinth of the marshlands and rice paddies - a serial killer has taken residence and caused the disappearance of several adolescents that no one seems to have missed. But, when two young sisters disappear during the annual festivities, their mother forces an investigation that brings two homicide detectives from Madrid to try and solve the mystery. Juan and Pedro both have extensive experience in homicides yet are very different in methods and style. They will soon face obstacles for which they were not prepared and become ensnared in a web of intrigue fed by the apathy and introverted nature of the locals. Nothing is what it seems in this isolated and opaque region and the investigation encounters unexpected difficulties. Both men realise they must put aside their professional differences if they are to stop the person responsible for the disappearance of the sisters before more young - Director:
- Alberto Rodríguez
- Cast:
- Javier Gutiérrez, Raúl Arévalo, María Varod
- Formats:
-
-
She risked everything to stop an unjust war. Her government called her a traitor. Based on true events, 'Official Secrets' tells the story of Katharine Gun (Keira Knightley), a British intelligence specialist who received a shocking memo in 2003: the United States is enlisting Britain's help in blackmailing United Nations Security Council members so they vote in favour of the Iraq War. Unable to stand by, Gun defies her government and leaks the memo to the press, beginning an explosive chain of events that will ignite an international firestorm, expose a vast political conspiracy, and put Gun and her family in harm's way. - Director:
- Gavin Hood
- Cast:
- Keira Knightley, Matt Smith, Matthew Goode
- Formats:
-
-
Pain and Glory (2019)Dolor y gloria
Salvador Mallo (Antonio Banderas) is a veteran film director, afflicted by multiple ailments, the worst of which is his inability to continue filming. His physical condition doesn't allow it and, if he can't film, his life has no meaning. His mixture of medications, along with the occasional flirtation with heroin, means that Salvador spends most of his days prostrate and forlorn. This drowsy state transports him back to reflect on his childhood in the 60's, when his family emigrated to Paterna, a village in Valencia, in search of prosperity, through to the appearance of his first desire and his first adult love in the Madrid of the 80's. In recovering his past, Salvador finds the urgent need to recount it, and in that need he may also find his salvation. - Director:
- Pedro Almodóvar
- Cast:
- Antonio Banderas, Asier Etxeandia, Leonardo Sbaraglia
- Formats:
-
-
Modern-day Cornish fisherman Martin (Edward Rowe) is struggling to buy a boat while coping with family rivalry and the influx of London money, Airbnb and stag parties to his harbour village. The summer season brings simmering tensions between the locals and newcomers to boiling point, with tragic consequences. - Director:
- Mark Jenkin
- Cast:
- Edward Rowe, Mary Woodvine, Simon Shepherd
- Formats:
-
-
Dirty God (2019)Jade
Jade (Vicky Knight) is a young mother in the prime of her life when an acid attack leaves her severely burned. While her face has been reconstructed, her beauty is lost beneath the scars. Descending a self-destructive path with relationships crumbling. Jade must take drastic action to reclaim her life. - Director:
- Sacha Polak
- Cast:
- Vicky Knight, Katherine Kelly, Eliza Brady-Girard
- Formats:
-
-
Never Look Away (2018)Werk ohne Autor / Work Without Author
"Never Look Away" tells the story of a young art student, Kurt (Tom Schilling) who falls in love with fellow classmate, Ellie (Paula Beer). Ellie's father, Professor Seeband (Sebastian Koch), a famous doctor, is dismayed at his daughter's choice of boyfriend, and vows to destroy the relationship. What neither of them knows is that their lives are already connected through a terrible crime Seeband committed decades before... - Director:
- Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
- Cast:
- Tom Schilling, Sebastian Koch, Paula Beer
- Formats:
-
-
When the most important friend in her life seems to disappear without trace, Elena Greco, an elderly woman living in a house crammed with books, switches on her PC and starts writing her own story, and that of Lila. She tells the tale of their friendship, which started at school in the 1950's. Set in a dangerous but fascinating Naples, it is just the start of a story spanning sixty years of life. A tale that attempts to unveil the mystery of Lila, Elena's brilliant friend. Her best friend, and her worst enemy. - Director:
- Saverio Costanzo
- Cast:
- Valentina Acca, Antonio Buonanno, Gennaro Canonico
- Formats:
-
-
Young and Beautiful (2013)Jeune and Jolie
Whilst on holiday with her family, seventeen year old Isabelle (Marine Vacth) experiences her first sexual relationship with an attractive young man. A few days later, and for no apparent reason, Isabelle casts him aside and behaves as if their encounter never happened. When she returns home to Paris, Isabelle begins a dangerous new career; she sets up a profile on an escort website and lies about her age in order to make appointments with older, wealthy clients in chic, expensive hotel rooms. On one hand she is a cool professional, catering to the sexual whims of the various men she encounters; on the other she is maintaining the illusion of being a regular school student for her parents and friends. However her double life spirals out of control, and she is forced to deal with the consequences of what she has been doing. - Director:
- François Ozon
- Cast:
- Marine Vacth, Géraldine Pailhas, Frédéric Pierrot
- Formats:
-
-
The Music Lovers (1971)Opus 74 / The Lonely Heart
Composer Peter Tchaikovsky (Richard Chamberlain) abandons his intimate friend, Count Chiluvsky (Christopher Gable), when Madame Von Meck (Izabella Telezynska) sponsors him after she hears him perform his First Piano Concerto. A tortured man, unhappy except in his music, Tchaikovsky marries Nina Milukova (Glenda Jackson), a passionate, neurotic girl. When he is unable to fulfill the demands of matrimony, his tensions become so great that he attempts suicide and has a nervous breakdown. Nina's world also falls apart, and she deteriorates into madness and ends in an asylum. Tchaikovsky recuperates at a country estate of Madame Von Meck. The two correspond, but never meet. At a great party, which she gives in his honor Count Chiluvsky appears, and when Tchaikovsky rebuffs him, he tells Madame Von Meck the truth about her protege. Madame Von Meck immediately servers all connections with the composer. Tchaikovsky is hurt, but continues to compose and conduct throughout the world. World fame does not ameliorate his unhappy state. At the age of 53, after composing his "requiem," his Pathetique Symphony, he deliberately drinks water contaminated with cholera germs. A few days later he is dead. Decades later, his music still lives. - Director:
- Ken Russell
- Cast:
- Richard Chamberlain, Glenda Jackson, Max Adrian
- Formats:
-
-
Joan Castleman (Glenn Close) has spent forty years sacrificing her own talent, dreams and ambitions to support her charismatic husband Joe (Jonathan Pryce) and his stellar literary career. Ignoring infidelities and excuses made in the cause of his art, she has put up with his behaviour with undiminished grace and humour. The foundations of their marriage have, however, been built upon a set of uneven compromises and Joan has reached a turning point. On the eve of Joe's Nobel Prize for Literature, the crown jewel rewarding a spectacular body of work, Joan will confront the biggest sacrifice of her life and some long-buried secrets. 'The Wife' is a poignant, funny and emotional journey, a celebration of womanhood, self-discovery and liberation... - Director:
- Björn Runge
- Cast:
- Glenn Close, Jonathan Pryce, Max Irons
- Formats:
-