promessi's - Rented List

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Gerard Depardieu is the self-abasing curate tortured by questions about his role in God's plan — before an encounter with a material Satan touches off a powerful revelation.

At the crux of his vision is Sandrine Bonnaire, the madly profligate sylph whose fate ruptures in a blast of gunpowder and the slash of a razor. As events unfurl, Maurice Pialat himself provides witness as the seasoned cleric who pronounces the words: "God wears us down"

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As the AIDS epidemic tears through their community, the members of ACT UP Paris are fighting for survival. One day, as outspoken radical Sean (Nahuel Perez Biscayart) strikes up a conversation with shy newcomer Nathan (Arnaud Valois), they have no idea that their lives are about to change forever.

From the writer of Palme d'Or winner 'The Class', Robin Campillo, and based on his own experiences, this vibrant and deeply emotional drama rushes with youthful energy, balancing powerful themes of social justice with euphoric moments of spine-tingling sensuality. Urgent and effecting, it's a film about life, death, passion, tragedy - and, above all, the will to survive.

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Christopher (Baltasar Kormakur) is like a fish on dry land after being fired from a freight liner. He doesn't stand much chance of being rehired, having been caught in the act of illegal alcohol trafficking.

Because of the high price of alcohol in Iceland, Christopher and his mates simply couldn't resist earning an extra buck by smuggling some vodka each time they sailed in. Faced with serious money problems, Christopher manages with a help of a friend (Ingvar Sigurdsson), to get his old job back. He is tempted to do a one last gig, determined to put all his problems behind him, once and for all.

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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.

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Perhaps the most stately of Fritz Lang's two-part epics, the five-hour Die Nibelungen (The Nibelungen) is a courageous and hallucinatory work, a film in which every single shot might alone endure as an exemplar of visual art.

Its extraordinary set-pieces, archetypal themes, and unrestrained ambition have proven an inspiration for nearly every fantasy cycle that has emerged on-screen since - from 'Star Wars' to 'The Lord of the Rings'. In Part One, 'Siegfried', the film's eponymous hero acquires the power of invincibility after slaying a dragon and bathing in the creature's blood. Later, an alliance through marriage between the hero and the royal clan of the Nibelungen turns treacherous, with Siegfried's sole weakness exploited. Adapted from the myth that served as the basis for Wagner's Ring cycle (though not an adaptation of the operas themselves), Lang's picture employs its own counterpoint through a systematic, viral series of deranged geometrical patterns and the arresting, kabuki-like quality of the actors' performances. The result is a film of startling expressionistic power, and a summit of Fritz Lang's artistry.

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Stranded in a small town, screenwriter Amitabha Roy (Soumitra Chatterjee) is astonished to encounter a former lover (Madhabi Mukherjee) now married to the owner of a tea plantation.

Recalling his inability to commit to her and the relationship's resultant breakdown, Roy decides to make amends for the past.

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Ma Vie Sexuelle is a modern tale of Parisian romance. The film's originality and humour lie in its superb performances, including one for which Mathieu Amalric won a Cesar Award for Best Newcomer in his role as Paul.

Paul is a fiercely intellectual, assistant professor and appreciator of the fairer sex at the university of Paris. He became a teacher but hasn't finished his doctorate that would make him a full professor. On a poor wage, he lives a half-life waiting to begin what he calls 'his life as a man'. Paul has been dating Esther for ten years. They don't get along, in fact, they are on the verge of splitting up. Two years ago, he had an affair with his best friend's girlfriend. Since he considers it unthinkable to steal his friend's girl, the state of his romantic affairs remain much the same way as his professional ones...

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The iconic Gerard Depardieu plays Mangin, a cop whose brutal method of investigation finds its obsessive outlet in an attempt to crack a Tunisian narcotics ring.

It is when Mangin enters into close acquaintance with the defiant Noria (expertly played by Sophie Marceau in one of her first screen roles) that the film proceeds to chart an unexpected, emotionally ambiguous course.

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Alfred Burke stars as down-at-heel inquiry agent Frank Marker in this critically acclaimed, long-running drama series.

Always working the lower end of the spectrum - divorces, missing persons, bankruptcies - the highly sympathetic character of Marker found great affinity among the public, and the series was a huge success over its ten-year lifespan. In common with most series made in the 1960's, a large number of 'Public Eye' episodes were junked, with only five shows known to exist from the first three series, made by ABC Television.

Directed by Robert Hamer, it stars Googie Withers as Rose Sandigate, a Bethnal Green housewife whose Sunday is turned upside down by the re-appearance of an old flame who is now an escaped convict seeking protection from the police.

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1954 Paris, Victor Le Garrec, a former professional boxer, runs a gym and works hard to train young recruits to achieve the goals he wasn't able to reach during his professional career. He feels this is finally possible when he recognizes the potential in Andre Menard, a young railway worker.

Victor offers to train him and André accepts willingly, although he soon realizes that Victor's wife Blanche (Arletty) is not happy with the arrangement. Andre's attention is soon drawn away from his training when he starts to have an affair with a wealthy young woman, Corinne (Marie Daems). In the end, he may have to choose between the woman he loves and his career as a world-class boxer...

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Godard's superbly acted and inventive parody of modern life revolves around three characters who are all at turning points in their lives.

The all-star cast features Isabelle Huppert as a country girl who comes to the city to become a prostitute; Nathalie Baye as a woman who decides to give up her city job to pursue an idyllic life in the country: and Jacques Dutronc as a television director, separated from his wife and daughter, and at the end of his tether. 'Slow Motion' marked Godard's return to the cinema and was rapturous reception, reaffirming the director's place at the forefront of innovative film-making.

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Gerard Depardieu plays Loulou, a layabout and petty criminal who meets middle-class Nelly (Isabelle Huppert) in a nightclub. Nelly is bored by her job in advertising and by the possessiveness and violent tempers of her boss and lover Andre (Guy Marchand).

Much to the dismayed disbelief of Andre, Nelly decides to leave him and move in with Loulou.

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Castella is a rich but lonely man. He has built up a successful business but has lost sight of himself, his wife and his family in the process. Clara is a middle-aged actress who lives for the theatre but craves for a family and some security in her life.

Clara teaches English in her spare time and this is how she meets Castella. There is no obvious attraction at first but when he just happens to see her perform in the theatre she triggers something inside him. Castella begins to pursue her aggressively, attempting to break into her social circle and even shaving off his moustache. But it into her social circle and even shaving c is only when he leaves his wife and becomes more considerate and sensitive to the people around him that Clara begins to have feelings for him.

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In 'My Voyage to Italy' (Il Mio Viaggio In Italia), American master Martin Scorsese explores in detail, the legacy of the classic period of Italian cinema.

Beginning with Roberto Rossellini's 'Rome Open City', the film traces the development of Italian neorealism: its currents and its philosophy, its evolution and its descent. Classics such as The Bicycle Thief and 'La Dolce Vita' are discussed alongside rarer titles like 'Senso' and 'Europa '51' Scorsese's appreciation is rooted in his identity as an Italian-American film-maker. Less a documentary than an impassioned essay, it ultimately provides a portrait of a national cinema that doubles as a disguised autobiography. An ode and monument to the history of film.