sjj's - Rented List

Show moreShow less

Following Pu Yi (John Lone), the last of the Emperor's of China, from his birth in 1908, through his childhood in the fortress-like Forbidden City and his later misguided collaboration with the Japanese in World War II, 'The Last Emperor' tells the history of modern China through the eyes of the

man brought up to believe that he was the country's divine ruler.

Show moreShow less

London, 1953. Mr. Williams, played by Bill Nighy, is a veteran civil servant, a cog in the city's stifling bureaucracy as it struggles to rebuild following WWII. After a shattering health diagnosis, it dawns on him he has not been living his life to the full.

Amidst the fog of his paperwork, and his loneliness at home, he yearns to find fulfilment before it's too late. He is encouraged in his search by two younger colleagues - the vibrant Margaret (Aimee Lou Wood) and idealistic new recruit Peter (Alex Sharp) - and a hedonistic stranger, Sutherland (Tom Burke), encountered during a desperate trip to the seaside.

Show moreShow less

Collection of four 1930s British dramas.

The Lash (1934)

Hearty morality tale about a self-made millionaire (Lyn Harding) and the weakling son (John Mills) who lets him down at every turn. Even jumping a ship bound for Australia to return to England and continue an affair with a married woman (Joan Maude). Finally the millionaire gives his son a savage beating with a stockman's whip. But has either learnt anything? Only time will tell.
Big Ben Calling (1935)
Hughie Green Comedy Musical in which a Radio shop proprietor, a songwriter and a cafe proprietress start a pirate radio station to help save themselves from financial disaster. They lead the police a merry dance until their secret location is uncovered.
Flood Tide (1934)
A shot on location story of life on the Thames Estuary in the 1930's. After doubts all round Ted (Leslie Hatton), son of a lock keeper, decides he does want to marry Betty (Janice Adair), daughter of a bargee, while the bargee, Bill (George Carney) is more worried about how to win the cup at the Bargee's Regatta.
The Captain's Table (1936)
On a transatlantic cruise ship, a musicians wife is found strangled. Suspects are plentiful, but, with the help of one of them, a detective who poses as a steward, the ship's captain (Percy Marmont) finally discovers the killer. Lively pocket crime drama that moves quickly and makes one wonder why Marmont directed so little.

From director and writer Sam Mendes (1917 and Skyfall), and set in an English coastal town in the early 1980s, 'Empire of Light' is a moving drama about the power of human connection during turbulent times.

Show moreShow less

On the cusp of turning 40, relentlessly laced into corsets by her exasperated staff, the uptight world of the Austrian monarchy is the last thing Empress Sisi (Vicky Krieps) cares about.

Decadence is far more exciting - so she heads off on a grand trip across Europe to call on old friends (and old flames). But the strings tying her to royal duty continue to tighten, and her attempts to make life more exciting turn into acts of rebellion. A vibrant, refreshingly mischievous take on the period drama with an award-winning lead in Vicky Krieps (Phantom Thread), 'Corsage' is the stunning, stylish new film from acclaimed director Marie Kreutzer.

Show moreShow less

The stunning debut from Scottish writer-director Charlotte Wells, 'Aftersun' juxtaposes a hopeful coming-of-age story with a poignant, intimate family portrait that leaves an indelible impression.

At a fading vacation resort in the late 1990's, 11-year-old Sophie (Frankie Corio) treasures rare time together with her loving and idealistic father, Calum (Paul Mescal). As a world of adolescence creeps into view, beyond her eye Calum struggles under the weight of life outside of fatherhood. Twenty years later, Sophie's tender recollections of their last holiday become a powerful and heartrending portrait of their relationship, as she tries to reconcile the father, she knew with the man she didn't, in Charlotte Wells' superb and searingly emotional debut film.

A 1950s housewife living in the utopian experimental community of Victory begins to worry that her husband's glamorous company may be hiding disturbing secrets.

Show moreShow less

This outrageous comedy finds a rogues' gallery of wealthy guests (from business tycoons to heiresses) aboard a hyper-luxury yacht, whose downtrodden staff - under the command of their captain and avowed Marxist (Woody Harrelson) - must respond to their every belittling whim in the hope of winning

tips. Among the super-rich patrons are the oh-sobeautiful couple Carl (Harris Dickinson) and Yaya (Charlbi Dean), two models and social-media influencers who have been invited on a free trip to show off the kind of lavish lifestyle many could only dream of.

Show moreShow less

What the World War II-era film "Air Force" is to the skies, "Destination Tokyo" is to the seas. In the only military-action film he made during the war, Cary Grant plays Captain Cassidy of the U.S.

submarine Copperfin, skippering his torpedo-laden thunderfish with courage and resourcefulness as it makes its battle-strewn way from San Francisco to the Aleutians and into the enemy's front yard.

Show moreShow less

John Ford's epic story of boiling passions amongst the burning sands, in which twelve battered, fighting men battle it out to the death.

Set during the First World War, a small British Army group is set out on a mission to the Mesopotamian desert but disaster strikes when their commanding officer is shot by an Arab sniper. Unaware of their intended destination, their Sergeant (Victor McLaglen) takes charge and decides to head north to meet up with their brigade. Sheltering at an oasis, they wake up the next morning to discover their lookout dead and their camp surrounded by Arab tribesmen. Left at the mercy of the Arabs and being slowly picked off one-by-one, the men begin to crack under the desert heat and life-or-death situation. As their supplies run low Sanders (Boris Karloff) begins to doubt his sanity but unbeknownst to the soldiers a rescue patrol is only days away...

Show moreShow less

This is the story of how a house can become a home. This family saga was Hollywood's thank you to Great Britain for its role in WWII and features an all-star cast of performers and directors (including an uncredited Alfred Hitchcock) as well as the most writers ever attributed to a single film.

During World War II an American reporter, Gates Trimble Pomfret (Kent Smith), heads to London during the Blitz in order to sell his ancestral family house. The current tenant is his distant cousin, Lesley Trimble (Ruth Warrick). Shocked by Pomfret's plan to sell, Trimble tells him the tales of the people who have loved, lost and laughed in the house's 140-year history. As the story of the house is brought to life, the intimate connections between the Trimble and Pomfret families are revealed.

Show moreShow less

Based on the hit show, the story centres around Matilda (Alisha Weir), an extraordinary girl with a sharp mind and vivid imagination who takes a stand against her terrible parents and villainous head teacher! At Crunchem Hall school, Matilda meets the inspirational teacher, Miss Honey (Lashana

Lynch), but also goes up against her fearsome headmistress Miss Trunchbull (Emma Thompson). Filled with an overwhelming sense of justice, courageous Matilda fights for what's right and teaches Trunchbull a valuable lesson!

Nearly 5,000 years after he was bestowed with the almighty powers of the Egyptian gods - and imprisoned just as quickly - Black Adam (Dwayne Johnson) is freed from his earthly tomb, ready to unleash his unique form of justice on the modern world.

Show moreShow less

Emerging from the primordial soup of glamour, gutter sleaze, and feverish creativity that was New York's 1960s underground culture, the Velvet Underground redefined music with its at once raw and exalted blend of experimentation and art-damaged rock and roll.

In his kaleidoscopic documentary 'The Velvet Underground', Todd Haynes vividly evokes the band's incandescent world: the creative origins of the twin visionaries Lou Reed and John Cale, Andy Warhol's fabled Factory, and the explosive tension between pop and the avant-garde that propelled the group and ultimately consumed it. Never-before-seen performances, interviews, rare recordings, and mind-blowing transmissions from the era's experimental cinema scene come together in an ecstatic swirl of sound and image that is to the traditional music documentary what the Velvets were to rock: utterly revolutionary.

Show moreShow less

"School for Secrets" tells the inside story of the 'Boffins' - Britain's backroom boys - who developed the miracle discovery of radar and helped stave off the German invasion of Britain in 1940.

Five different scientists, led by Professor Heatherville (Ralph Richardson), are brought together and work in total secrecy and under incredible pressure in a race against time to develop this vital weapon. Their dedication disrupts their family lives as they are forced to sacrifice everything to make the great breakthrough. Their success is illustrated by the effect Radar has on the fighting abilities of the RAF over the skies of Britain in those crucial summer and autumn months of 1940. However, Germany is also planning its own Radar capability and British commandos must be despatched to strike at a vital Nazi installation.