seen-1's - Rented List
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Gozu (2003)Gokudô kyôfu dai-gekijô: Gozu
Senior Yakuza, Ozaki, appears to be going mad. What began as minor eccentricities have become major problems endangering not only himself but also members of his brotherhood. There is only one option left to the boss - to dispose of him. He orders Minami to take Ozaki to the Yakuza disposal dump in Nagoya and to report him once the job is done. On the way to Nagoya, Ozaki is killed accidentally. After Minami reports the news to his boss, he returns to the car to find that the body has gone. From here, we enter a surreal world of bizarre characters and unnatural goings-on, where the only people stranger than the lactating inn owner and the autistic spiritual medium are the mysterious cow-headed demon and the Yakuza who can't make love without a strategically placed ladle for added stimulation... If you thought you'd seen it all - think again. - Director:
- Takashi Miike
- Cast:
- Yûta Sone, Shô Aikawa, Kimika Yoshino
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Rainy Dog (1997)Gokudô Kuroshakai
Yuuji is an outsider. A Japanese mobster holed up in Taiwan, working as a hitman for a Triad boss, he is far from his roots. Added to this complicated existence is the fact that his ex-wife has just dumped a young boy - probably their child - on his doorstep. A hazardous burden in this world of sly manoeuvres and quick-fire shoot-outs, the boy is unwanted and unloved. While Yuuji continues to do business as usual, only a final, brutal shoot-out will bring father and son together... - Director:
- Takashi Miike
- Cast:
- Shô Aikawa, Li Wei Chang, Shih Chang
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Japan Organised Crime Boss (1969)Nihon boryoku-dan: Kumicho / Japan's Violent Gangs-Boss / The Boss
The Yakuza is in turmoil when Osaka's ruthless Danno Organisation has ambitions to take over and control the entire Japanese underworld. After staging a series of successful territorial battles, they make their way to Yokohama's busy port district with the intention of ruling that too. An alliance is formed between the remaining Yakuza clans to take on the might of the Danno Organisation. It is at this time that Yokohama Yakuza, Tsukamoto (Kôji Tsuruta), is released from prison after eight years, hoping to lead a quiet life away from the gang's activities. But when Danno's men assassinate his boss, he is forced to lead his gang in the territorial war. Tsukamoto believes the way to win the war is to propose a truce and enter into a legitimate political and business alliance with Danno, but this leaves little room for honour and payback for his boss's murder. Tsukamoto is to learn that things have changed while he was in prison, as he tries to keep the old Yakuza code with this new ruthless breed of criminal who lives and fights without honour. - Director:
- Kinji Fukasaku
- Cast:
- Kôji Tsuruta, Bunta Sugawara, Ryôhei Uchida
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Yakuza Graveyard (1976)Yakuza no hakaba: Kuchinashi no hana / Yakuza Burial: Jasmine Flower
Income stabilisation and economic stagnation have threatened the financial security of many organised crime families. As a result, many organisations are encroaching on rival territories. Police are concerned by the explosive tension that is building as Yamashiro, the underworld giant, moves in on the Nishida organisation's extensive gambling operations. Even the smallest incident has the potential to spark an all-out war at any time. - Director:
- Kinji Fukasaku
- Cast:
- Tetsuya Watari, Meiko Kaji, Seizô Fukumoto
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Legend of the 8 Samurai (1984)Satomi hakken-den / Legend of the Eight Samurai
The evil Hikita clan rises from the dead to fulfill a curse on the Satomi clan by restoring the face of their warlord by using the skin of Princess Shizu (Hiroko Yakushimaru). In the process if trying to capture her, the clan murders her entire family, but Princess Shizu escapes their clutches. She enlists the aid of eight samurai warriors, possessors of powerful magic crystals, led by Dosetsu (Sonny Chiba) to help rescue the remaining members of her court and revenge her family. Along the way, they must fight undead warriors, evil spirits, poisonous beauties and a giant centipede. - Director:
- Kinji Fukasaku
- Cast:
- Keiko Matsuzaka, Hiroko Yakushimaru, Hiroyuki Sanada
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In Italy, Celine an American model, is abducted while en route home to meet her sister Linda (Emmanuelle Seigner). Celine (Elsa Pataky) is reported missing and F.B.I, agent Inspector Enzo Avolfi (Adrien Brody) is assigned the case. He's from the Special New York City Department investigating a serial-killer that kidnaps foreigners to destroy their beauty. Enzo and Linda team up to rescue Celine from a sadistic killer known only as Yellow. - Director:
- Dario Argento
- Cast:
- Adrien Brody, Emmanuelle Seigner, Elsa Pataky
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All About Them (2015)À trois on y va
Charlotte (Sophie Verbeeck) is cheating on Micha (Félix Moati) with Melodie (Anaïs Demoustier). Not suspecting a thing, yet feeling neglected, Micha in turn cheats on Charlotte. But also with Melodie. For Melodie, things are topsy-turvy. She lies to both of them. She is privy to each of their lies. And is in love with both of them at the same time. - Director:
- Jérôme Bonnell
- Cast:
- Anaïs Demoustier, Judith Rémy, Félix Moati
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Alice Et Martin (1998)Alice et Martin
A love story betweem two emotionally damaged outsiders, 'Alice et Martin' marks auteur Andre Techine's return to the haunting and intense territory of The Wild Reeds and reunites him with Oscar-winning actress Juliette Binoche. Following the death of his father, 20 year old Martin (Alexis Loret) goes missing. He eventually reappears, distressed and fragile, at the Paris apartment shared by his half brother (Mathieu Amalric) and his flatmate Alice (Binoche). Finding work as a model, Martin becomes successful and begins to recover his self-confidence. Tentatively, a love affair between him and the troubled Alice develops and she eventually becomes pregnant. However, their happiness is short lived as the mystery of Martin's past unravels and he reveals to her a terrible secret... - Director:
- André Téchiné
- Cast:
- Juliette Binoche, Alexis Loret, Mathieu Amalric
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Ashes and Diamonds (1958)Popiól i Diament
On the last day of World War Two in a small town somewhere in Poland, Polish exiles of war and the occupying Soviet forces confront the beginning of a new day and a new Poland. In this incendiary environment we find Home Army soldier Maciek Chelmicki, who has been ordered to assassinate an incoming commissar. But a mistake stalls his progress and leads him to Krystyna, a beautiful barmaid who gives him a glimpse of what his life could be. Gorgeously photographed and brilliantly performed, Ashes and Diamonds masterfully interweaves the fate of a nation with that of one man, resulting in one of the most important Polish films of all time. - Director:
- Andrzej Wajda
- Cast:
- Zbigniew Cybulski, Waclaw Zastrzezynski, Adam Pawlikowski
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A strange and beautiful variation on Hitchcock's Vertigo, French director Andre Techine's Barocco stars Isabelle Adjani as the girlfriend of a boxer (Gerard Depardieu) who's being paid to smear a political candidate. But when the blackmail goes wrong and the boxer is killed, his killer (Gerard Depardieu) follows Adjani, seeking the boxer's money ... but slowly he becomes obsessed with Adjani, and she in turn decides to remake him into her dead lover. - Director:
- André Téchiné
- Cast:
- Isabelle Adjani, Gérard Depardieu, Marie-France Pisier
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Diary of a Chambermaid (1964)Le journal d'une femme de chambre
Written by Bunuel and his regular writing partner Jean-Claude Carriere, the film charts the ambitions of Celestine (Jeanne Moreau), a woman who comes to work in the Normandy estate occupied by Monsieur Rabour (Jean Ozenne), his daughter (Francoise Lugagne), and the daughter's husband, the right wing Monsieur Montiel (Michel Piccoli). Celestine quickly learns that M. Rabour is a more or less harmless boot fetishist, his daughter a frigid woman more concerned with the family furnishings than in returning the affections of her husband, who, in turn, can't keep his hands off the servants. Celestine picks her way through this minefield carefully, spurning the advances of all of the men until it's convenient for her. - Director:
- Luis Buñuel
- Cast:
- Jeanne Moreau, Michel Piccoli, Georges Géret
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That Obscure Object of Desire (1977)Cet obscur objet du désir
Recounted in flashback to a group of railway travellers, the story wryly details the romantic perils of Mathieu, a wealthy, middle-aged French sophisticate who falls desperately in love with his 19-year-old former chambermaid Conchita. Thus begins a surreal game of sexual cat-and-mouse, with Mathieu obsessively attempting to win the girl's affections as she manipulates his carnal desires, each vying to gain absolute control of the other. - Director:
- Luis Buñuel
- Cast:
- Fernando Rey, Carole Bouquet, Ángela Molina
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The Captive (2000)La captive
Acclaimed director Chantal Akerman becomes the latest filmmaker to take inspiration from Marcel Proust’s epic masterwork 'In Search of Lost Time'. Adapted from the fifth volume, 'The Captive' tells the story of Ariane, who lives under her lover Simon’s surveillance in a grandiose Parisian apartment. Simon harbours an obsessional need to know everything about her. He has her accompanied everywhere she goes and subjects her to endless questioning. Knowing of Ariane’s attraction to women, Simon imagines that she leads a double life, which only serves to increase his desire for her. Akerman’s film is an elegantly constructed and compelling meditation on love, desire and obsession. - Director:
- Chantal Akerman
- Cast:
- Stanislas Merhar, Sylvie Testud, Olivia Bonamy
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A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence (2014)En duva satt på en gren och funderade på tillvaron
The final part of his highly acclaimed 'Living' trilogy, Roy Andersson's 'A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence' takes another sly, humorous and wholly original look at the absurdity of life. Two travelling salesman who trade novelty items traipse glumly from one joke shop to another failing to make a living, teacher-student relationships repeatedly become inappropriate at a flamenco dance lesson, and King Charles XII of Sweden drops by a bar with an 18th century army in tow, looking for a lover and a modern day peasant to punish. This is the skewed and unique world of Roy Andersson where disparate segments of humanity are exhibited and coalesce to form a poignant and darkly funny commentary on society and how we should ultimately embrace it. - Director:
- Roy Andersson
- Cast:
- Holger Andersson, Nils Westblom, Viktor Gyllenberg
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