paul-b's - Rented List
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The Return (2003)Vozvrashcheniye
The life of two brothers is shattered by the sudden appearance of their father, whom they know only from a 10 year old photograph. Is he really their father? Why has he come back after so many years? The boys find some answers on a remote and desolate island travelling with this man who turned their lives upside down. - Director:
- Andrey Zvyagintsev
- Cast:
- Vladimir Garin, Ivan Dobronravov, Konstantin Lavronenko
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Sister Clodagh (Deborah Kerr) leads a group of Anglican nuns to a remote Himalayan range of mountains, there to set up a mission in an abandoned harem. This is her first position of authority and she finds both her physical and her spiritual limits being taxed as she has to maintain order and discipline in a claustrophobically hostile environment. Slowly but surely, however, the privations and hardship they must endure, the extremes of climate and the peculiar amorality of the local natives all combine to slowly corrupt the women's faith, pushing them further into jealousy, anger and madness... - Director:
- Michael Powell
- Cast:
- Deborah Kerr, David Farrar, Flora Robson
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The Match Factory Girl (1990)Tulitikkutehtaan tyttö
This blackly comic minimalist masterpiece stars Kati Outinen as Iiris, a shy and dowdy young woman stuck in a dead-end job on a match factory production line. She dreams of finding love at the local dancehall, but her attempts are constantly foiled by her selfish parents and the callous behaviour of would-be suitors. Finding herself pregnant after a one-night stand and abandoned by the father, Iiris finally decides the time has come to get even and she begins to plot her revenge. - Director:
- Aki Kaurismäki
- Cast:
- Kati Outinen, Elina Salo, Esko Nikkari
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Amour (2012)Love
Examining the close bond shared by an elderly couple when one of them begins to suffer from an illness, Amour tells a heart-rending story of sacrifice, devotion and the limits that love can drive us to. Amour is one of the most honest, intimate and deeply affecting portraits of love ever committed to film. - Director:
- Michael Haneke
- Cast:
- Jean-Louis Trintignant, Emmanuelle Riva, Isabelle Huppert
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Casque D'Or (1952)Golden Marie
Georges Manda (Serge Reggiani), an honest woodworker, falls in love with Marie (Simone Signoret), the moll of minor crook Roland (William Sabatier). Gangster boss Felix Leca (Claude Dauphin) orders Georges and Roland to fight a duel to the death over the girl. Felix then pins the blame for Roland's death on Georges' boyhood chum, Raymond (Raymond Bussieres), knowing that the woodworker will nobly accept the blame; this will leave Marie alone, which is what lustful Felix has wanted all along. When Georges learns he's been set up as a dupe, he plots his revenge. Based on the true-life Leca-Manda scandal, 'Casque D'Or' brilliantly mixes violence with tenderness to capture the brutality of the French underworld and the tragedy of doomed love. - Director:
- Jacques Becker
- Cast:
- Simone Signoret, Serge Reggiani, Claude Dauphin
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4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (2007)4 luni, 3 saptamâni si 2 zile
The friendship between two girls is tested to its absolute limits in this utterly compelling drama set in the twilight years of Communist-era Romania. Gabita (Laura Vasiliu), young and naive, is pregnant. She turns to her more pragmatic room mate Otilia (Anamaria Marinca) for help and a meeting is arranged in a downtown hotel with the shady Mr. Bebe (Vlad Ivanov). Entering a dangerous and illegal underworld where the stakes are high and nothing is as it seems, the girls are set for a life-changing experience that neither will ever forget. - Director:
- Cristian Mungiu
- Cast:
- Anamaria Marinca, Vlad Ivanov, Laura Vasiliu
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Evil (2003)Ondskan
Following his expulsion from school for bad behaviour, Erik is sent to an exclusive boarding school. Latching on to his last chance to graduate, Erik promises, both for his and his family's sake, to do all he can to stay out of trouble. But though he is well equipped for the tough regime of respect the school affords, his silent defiance in the face of the school's all powerful senior pupils brings only punishment to Erik and his fellow classmates. As the battle of wills between himself and brutal school captain Silverhielm reaches its peak, Erik realises that all evil needs is for good men to do nothing. And for every friend who has faced the tyranny of the college, Erik finally decides to fight back... - Director:
- Mikael Håfström
- Cast:
- Andreas Wilson, Henrik Lundström, Gustaf Skarsgård
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Kolya (1996)Kolja
Louka, a middle-aged Czech cellist, is a skirt-chasing bachelor who enjoys a lifestyle free of responsibilities. When he finds himself strapped for cash, he agrees to a marriage of convenience. But after his new bride skips town, Louka is left to father her five-year-old Russian son, Kolya. Neither could be more unhappy with their predicament, especially since they don't even speak the same language. It'll take time and patience for the cultural barrier between this unlikely father-son duo to fall, but when it does, an unbreakable bond forms in its place. - Director:
- Jan Sverák
- Cast:
- Zdenek Sverák, Andrei Chalimon, Libuse Safránková
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The Taliban have just seized power and a widow reluctantly decides to disguise her 12-year-old daughter as a boy - the Osama of the title - so that at least one family member can earn a living. But the 'boy' is soon dragged off for religious instruction and military training and resultantly the disguise is uncovered, triggering a sharp slide into tragedy. - Director:
- Siddiq Barmak
- Cast:
- Marina Golbahari, Zubaida Sahar, Mohammad Arif Herati
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Faithless (2000)Trolosa
Loosely based on an episode in the life of its writer, Ingmar Bergman, this powerful and emotionally compelling drama about three adults caught in a love triangle was directed - to great critical acclaim - by Liv Ullmann. Marianne (Lena Endre) is happily married to Markus (Thomas Hanzon), a successful conductor. They have a nine-year-old daughter, Isabelle (Michelle Gylemo). Markus's best friend is David (Krister Henriksson). Twice divorced, David is often at Marianne and Markus' apartment, and is Isabelle's favourite storyteller. One night, while Markus is away, David visits the flat as usual. But the sexual and emotional attraction that Marianne and David have for one another changes what was once a safe, platonic friendship. An intense affair develops, with devastating consequences... Within this complex set of relations, no one is innocent, people manipulate those they love, secrets are revealed, and everyone it appears - is faithless. - Director:
- Liv Ullmann
- Cast:
- Lena Endre, Erland Josephson, Krister Henriksson
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Ordet (1955)The Word
A tale of miraculous resurrection brought about by human love, Ordet is an extraordinary expression of spiritual optimism without being either sentimental or pious. Religious intolerance and family tensions lie at the heart of the film, which explores the clash between orthodox religions and true faith. Dreyer achieves its powerful effects in deceptively simple ways, and has produced, in its closing moments, one of the most extraordinary scenes in all cinema. - Director:
- Carl Theodor Dreyer
- Cast:
- Birgitte Federspiel, Preben Lerdorff Rye, Hanne Agesen
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Sátántangó (1994)Satan's Tango
Internationally acclaimed filmmaker Bela Tarr's epic rendering of Laszlo Krasznahorkai's novel, about the decline of Communism in Eastern Europe, is a unique and visionary masterpiece that defies classification and transcends genre. Set in a struggling Hungarian agricultural collective, a group of lost souls reeling from the collapse of their Communist utopia face an uncertain future, until the arrival of a charismatic stranger in whom they believe lies their salvation. The collective's individual experiences and fates are gradually revealed in Tarr's immaculately composed, brilliantly photographed and bleakly comic tour-de-force, which confirmed his place as one of contemporary cinema's few genuine auteurs. - Director:
- Béla Tarr
- Cast:
- Ferenc Kállai, Mihály Vig, Putyi Horváth
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Happy Together (1997)Chun gwong cha sit
Cult director Wong Kar Wai's first film shot outside of Hong Kong is a spellbinding tribute to blind passion that features two of Asian cinema's biggest stars. Lai (Tony Leung) and Ho (Leslie Cheung) arrive in Argentina as lovers, but while driving south in search of adventures, something goes wrong and Ho leaves for Buenos Aries. Devastated, Lai finds work in a tango bar but is consumed by thoughts of being happy together once more with Ho. A heady cocktail of sound and vision, Wong and cinematographer Christopher Doyle marry the rythms of Buenos Aries and Frank Zappa's jazz to an astonishing array of images. - Director:
- Kar-Wai Wong
- Cast:
- Leslie Cheung, Tony Leung Chiu Wai, Chen Chang
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Le Doulos (1963)Doulos: The Finger Man
After serial burglar Maurice Faugel (Serge Reggiani) is released from his latest stint behind bars, he quickly returns to his criminal ways and plans a robbery with Silien (Jean-Paul Belmondo) and Rémy (Philippe Nahon). After murdering an old associate in retaliation for the killing of his former girlfriend, Maurice becomes racked with suspicion and distrust of everyone around him amid rumours that Silien has become a police informant. When Maurice and Rémy carry out a robbery of their own, the police quickly close in on them and Maurice begins to unravel the deadly web of deceit that has formed around him. - Director:
- Jean-Pierre Melville
- Cast:
- Jean-Paul Belmondo, Serge Reggiani, Jean Desailly
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Sprung from prison on a legal technicality by his cocaine-addled attorney (Sean Penn), former drug kingpin Carlito Brigante (Al Pacino) stuns the local underworld when he vows to go straight. Taking a job managing a glitzy, low-life nightclub, he tracks down his onetime girlfriend (Penelope Ann Miller) and rekindles their romance, promising he's changed for good. But Carlito's dream of going legitimate is undermined at every turn by murderous former cronies and even deadlier young thugs out to make a name for themselves. Ultimately, however, his most dangerous enemy is himself. Despite good intentions, Carlito's misguided loyalties and an outmoded code of 'honour' will plunge him into a savage life-or-death battle against the relentless forces that refuse to let him go. - Director:
- Brian De Palma
- Cast:
- Al Pacino, Sean Penn, Penelope Ann Miller
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