saj's - Rented List

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F. W. Murnau, Germany's finest director, was imported to Hollywood in July 1926. William Fox of the Fox Film Corporation promised and gave him complete artistic freedom. Fox told Murnau to take his time, spend whatever he had to, and make any film he wished to make.

The film that resulted was Sunrise, made entirely without studio interference. Sunrise, a psychological thriller from the silent movie era, begins when the pleasant and peaceful life of a naive country Man (George O'Brien) is turned upside down when he falls for a cold-blooded yet seductive Woman from the City (Margaret Livingston). She persuades him to drown his virtuous Wife (Janet Gaynor) in order to be with her. This is one of the most moving stories ever told on screen - a tale of temptation, reconciliation, reconsecration, and redemption, told with a lyrical simplicity that gives it the timeless universality of a fable.

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Eve (Gabriela Cartol) is a conscientious hotel chambermaid. Punctual and enterprising, paying close attention to the details, she hopes her impeccable professionalism will bring her promotion to the Hotel Presidente's exclusive penthouse floor.

Long, laborious shifts prevent Eve from caring for her child while she helps guests with their own children. Aviles records her day-to-day activities, from the detail of ensuring rooms are immaculately presented each morning to enrolling in the hotel's adult education programme, which will help her chances of promotion. When things don't result as planned, Eve transforms her lonely explorations and newfound courage into the necessary strength to face a life outside the glimmering tower.

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"His music inspires you, his life will surprise you", 'Rocketman' is a one-of-a-kind musical celebration set to Elton John's most beloved songs. Discover how a shy boy growing up in the suburbs of London becomes one of the most iconic figures in rock and roll.

Featuring an all-star cast, this truly spectacular and utterly electrifying ride is filled with show-stopping musical performances and is "unlike anything you've ever seen".

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American psychologist John Holden (Dana Andrews) arrives in England to discover that his colleague, Henry Harrington (Maurice Denham), has suddenly died following his efforts to discredit notorious occultist Julian Karswell (Niall MacGinnls).

The cynical Holden dismisses Karswell's warnings as supernatural nonsense, even when he and Harrington's niece, Joanna (Peggy Cummins), are confronted by a series of bizarre and inexplicable events. Holden discovers that Karswell has slipped him a parchment featuring ancient runic symbols - a sign that, like Harrington before him, he has been marked for imminent destruction by a fire-breathing demon.

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Zama (Daniel Giménez Cacho), an officer of the Spanish Crown born in South America, waits for a letter from the King granting him a transfer to a better place. His situation is delicate.

He is forced to accept submissively every task entrusted to him by successive Governors who come and go as he stays behind. The years go by and the letter from the King never arrives. When Zama notices everything is lost, he joins a party of soldiers that go after a dangerous bandit.

Based on the Broadway hit and set to an Academy-Award-winning adaptation score, 'On the Town' changed the landscape of movie musicals, opening filmmakers' eyes to what could be done on location.

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"The Story of Film: An Odyssey", written and directed by award-winning film-maker Mark Cousins, is the story of international cinema told through the history of cinematic innovation.

Five years in the making, 'The Story of Film: An Odyssey' covers six continents and 12 decades, showing how film-makers are influenced both by the historical events of their times, and by each other. It provides a worldwide guided tour of the greatest movies ever made; an epic tale that starts in nickelodeons and ends as a multi-billion-dollar globalised digital industry. Described as a love letter to the movies, Cousins visits the key sites in the history of cinema; from Hollywood to Mumbai; from Hitchcock's London to the village where 'Pather Panchali' was shot, and features interviews with legendary filmmakers and actors including Stanley Donen, Kyoko Kagawa, Gus van Sant, Lars Von Trier, Claire Denis, Bernardo Bertolucci, Robert Towne, Jane Campion and Claudia Cardinale.

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"Jackie" is a searing and intimate portrait of one of the most important and tragic moments in American history, seen through the eyes of the iconic First Lady, Jackie Kennedy (Natalie Portman). 'Jackie' places us in her world during the days immediately following her husband's assassination.

Known for her extraordinary dignity and poise, here we see a psychological portrait of the First Lady as she struggles to maintain her husband's legacy and the world of "Camelot" that they created and loved so well.

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Andrew Dominik's one more time with feeling is a remarkable black and white documentary which chronicles the creation of Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds' album 'Skeleton Tree'.

Originally a performance based concept, the film evolved into something much more significant as Dominik delved into the tragic backdrop of the writing and recording of the album. The result is stark, fragile and raw, and a true testament to an artist trying to find his way through the darkness.

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Struggling to cope with his erratic temper, novelty-toilet-plunger salesman Barry Egan (Adam Sandler) spends his days collecting frequent-flier-mile coupons and dodging the insults of his seven sisters.

The promise of a new life emerges when Barry inadvertently attracts the affection of a mysterious woman named Lena (Emily Watson), but their budding relationship is threatened when he falls prey to the swindling operator of a phone sex line and her deranged boss (played with maniacal brio by Philip Seymour Hoffman).

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Kelly plays an ex-GI who loves Paris and loves even more an alluring (but engaged) perfume-shop clerk. Dance sequences spun around Gershwin songs accent Kelly's romantic pursuit. And the final 17-minute ballet - combining the title symphony.

Impressionist set stylings and Kelly's unique talent for telling a story in dance - lifts this winner of six Academy Awards including Best Picture into the ether of timelessness. Love Is Here To Stay Kelly sings. So is An American In Paris.

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In Alabama, 1944, 24-year-old black mother and sharecropper Recy Taylor was raped by six white young men. Common in the Jim Crow South, very few women ever spoke up about these things in fear for their lives. But Recy Taylor did.

She bravely identified her rapists and the NAACP sent their chief investigator, Rosa Parks, who rallied support. It triggered an unprecedented outcry for justice. 'The Rape of Recy Taylor' exposes a legacy of abuse of black women. It reveals Rosa Parks' own story, her similar experiences, her role in Recy Taylor's story and her ongoing work to find justice for countless women like Recy. The 1955 bus boycott was an end result, not a beginning.

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The German invasion of England took place in July 1940 after the British retreat from Dunkirk. Strongly resisted at first, the German army took months to restore order, but the resistance movement, lacking outside support, was finally crushed. Then, in 1944, it reappeared.

That is what happened when history was rewritten: Nazi Germany has won the Second World War and England is under occupation. Kevin Brownlow was only 18 when he and Andrew Mollo - just 16 - embarked on this ambitious neorealist-tinged drama, which took eight years to complete. The result is a chilling and timely reminder of what might have been had Nazism not been defeated.

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Inspired by a true story... Set in 1950s New York and starring Elijah Wood as John Malcolm Brinnin, the aspiring young American poet who finds his ordered world shaken when he embarks on a week-long retreat to save his hell raising hero, Dylan Thomas, played by Celyn Jones.

Directed by BAFTA-nominated director, Andy Goddard this visually stunning film, shot entirely in black and white, is a cautionary tale about meeting your heroes, the dirty business of celebrity and about what may have happened in an East Coast boathouse when an earnest ingenue shared cabin space with his idol, the greatest living poet of the twentieth century.

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Tina (Eva Melander) is a customs agent with a nose for trouble. She can literally smell human emotions, which is a handy talent for sniffing out suspicious border crossers.

But when a mysterious male traveller's scent confounds her, she's faced with hugely disturbing insights about who she is and what she wants.