soniagee's - Rented List
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The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939)Victor Hugo's Immortal Classic The Hunchback of Notre Dame
The lecherous Chief Justice Frollo (Sir Cedric Hardwicke) gazes on a beautiful, gypsy girl, Esmeralda (Maureen O'Hara), and sends the deformed bellringer of Notre Dame Cathedral Quasimodo (Charles Laughton) to catch her. But Quasimodo himself is captured by Phoebus, Captain of the Guards, who frees Esmerelda and sentences Quasimodo to be flogged. Whilst Quasimodo is tied up in the square, only Esmeralda takes pity on him and gives him water. Later, at a party of nobles, Esmeralda again meets both Frollo, who is bewitched by her, and Phoebus; but when Phoebus is found stabbed to death, Esmeralda is accused of his murder, convicted by the court and sentenced to hang. Only Quasimodo, can save her from the gallows... - Director:
- William Dieterle
- Cast:
- Charles Laughton, Maureen O'Hara, Cedric Hardwicke
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Arriving in Egypt, Darley (Michael York), a young Irish schoolmaster finds himself in the beautiful city of Alexandria, with massive houses, masked balls, extreme opulence, incredible poverty and adolescent prostitution. The society into which Darley naively enters is dominated by Justine (Anouk Aimée), an enchantingly beautiful Jew. Among Justine's numerous friends and lovers are Pursewarden (Dirk Bogarde), a British official obsessed with his blind sister Liza; Narouz, Justine's fanatic brother-in-law, and Toto, a homosexual. So begins a chain of interlocking relationships at the heart of which lies a treacherous conspiracy. - Director:
- George Cukor
- Cast:
- Anouk Aimée, Dirk Bogarde, Robert Forster
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Anouk Aimee gives her defining performance as Cecile, a cabaret performer and single mother. Taking the stage name Lola, she entrances Roland (Marc Michel), a young drifter. A friend of Lola since childhood, he yearnsfor herto return his affections but she pines for her husband's return. In the present, she disports with an American sailor named Frankie (Alan Scott), who in turn is the object of a young girl's affections. The girl's name, like Lola's, is Cecile (Annie Dupeyroux). Set in Nantes overthe span of a few days, this story of love stories crossing paths, of life teeming with co-incidences and missed chances conveys the spirit of the early French New Wave and the cinema of Max Ophuls, to whom Demy also dedicates the film. - Director:
- Jacques Demy
- Cast:
- Anouk Aimée, Marc Michel, Jacques Harden
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From the producer of Mulholland Drive and The Pianist comes Nathalie, a seductive tale of sexual intrigue and manipulation, starring Emmanuelle Beart, Academy Award nominee Gerard Depardieu and acclaimed actress Fanny Ardant. Tormented by the suspicion of her husband's adultery, Catherine, a bourgeois Parisian businesswoman, seeks the of a beautiful but mysterious call-girl, Nathalie, to uncover the truth once and for all. As she hears the intimate details of her husband's meeting with Nathalie, Catherine also begins to learn more about herself and her own desires. However as she loses her control over Nathalie's actions she begins to question who is deceiving whom. Nathalie is a stylish and provocative drama set against the backdrop of the world's most seductive city, which looks at the nature of relationships, and the subtle line that separates love from desire. - Director:
- Anne Fontaine
- Cast:
- Fanny Ardant, Emmanuelle Béart, Gérard Depardieu
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Nine Queens (2000)Nueve Reinas
Set in Buenos Aires over the course of 24 hours, Nine Queens is a taut, highly seductive heist thriller in which nothing is what it seems and where no one can be trusted. A naive young con artist (Gaston Pauls) teams up with an enigmatic, experienced master criminal (Ricardo Darin) for what could be the crime to end all crimes. But in a relationship propelled by brinkmanship and double-cross, corruption rarely has a happy ending. - Director:
- Fabián Bielinsky
- Cast:
- Ricardo Darín, Gastón Pauls, Leticia Brédice
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Bruno is dumped by his girlfriend; behind a calm, indifferent expression, his mind plots a cold, sweet vengeance. She, a modern girl, continues to see him once in a while, but has another boyfriend - Pablo. Bruno becomes Pablo's friend, with the idea of eroding the couple, perhaps introducing him to another woman. But, along the way, the possibility of a Plan B arises. It may be a more effective one - and it is also one which will put his own sexuality into question, taking him into the secret, unexplored places of his own heart. - Director:
- Marco Berger
- Cast:
- Manuel Vignau, Lucas Ferraro, Mercedes Quinteros
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Don't Look Down (2008)No mires para abajo
Tantalising, bold and intensely erotic, cult director Eliseo Subiela's latest film explores the tantric possibilities of sexual imaginations and awakenings. This uncompromisingly explicit film delves into mysticism and spirituality, when the sleepwalking 19-year-old Eloy (Leandro Stivelman) crashes through the roof of a beautiful woman, Elvira (Antonella Costa), who takes him on a journey of sexual discovery into the tantric and therapeutic powers of the Kama Sutra, of which she is an expert. - Director:
- Eliseo Subiela
- Cast:
- Leandro Stivelman, Antonella Costa, Hugo Arana
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The Shape of Water (2017)Cold War Project
From master storyteller, Guillermo del Toro, comes 'The Shape of Water', an otherworldly fairy tale set against the backdrop of Cold War-era America circa 1962. In the hidden, high-security government laboratory where she works, lonely Elisa (Sally Hawkins) is trapped in a life of isolation. Elisa's life is changed forever when she and co-worker Zelda (Octavia Spencer) discover a secret classified experiment. - Director:
- Guillermo Del Toro
- Cast:
- Sally Hawkins, Alison Brooks, Michael Shannon
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When Robert meets vulnerable young fashion designer Stella (Susannah York) at a society soiree, it's lust at first sight. For Zee, however, it's one affair too many and her claws are really unsheathed... Zee sets about playing cat-and-mouse games with her husband and his mistress. Stella thinks she can handle Zee's jealousy - but she's wrong. She's never, ever met anyone like Zee before - and has no idea just how far she will go to come between her and Robert... - Director:
- Brian G. Hutton
- Cast:
- Elizabeth Taylor, Michael Caine, Susannah York
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A sailor, Farrel, leaves his ship and begins a lengthy journey to wintry Tierra del Fuego's interior, to an isolated village and family that he hasn't seen in years. The route seems familiar to him, and we gradually piece together his relationship with the people and community he finds there. From the opening sequences on Farrel's ship, to the spectacular harshness of his destination, Alonso is meticulous in mapping the sights and sounds of the landscape and Farrel's personal journey into the past. - Director:
- Lisandro Alonso
- Cast:
- Juan Fernández, Nieves Cabrera, Giselle Irrazabal
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Laura Reynolds (Elizabeth Taylor) is a free spirit, living in rustic Bohemian splendor in an oceanfront Big Sur home. Minister Edward Hewitt (Richard Burton), a school headmaster, lives a life as constrained as his clerical collar. Now his world is changing. Blessed with a devoted wife (Eva Marie Saint), he must come to terms with his love for another woman. Any guess who she is? - Director:
- Vincente Minnelli
- Cast:
- Elizabeth Taylor, Peter O'Toole, Richard Burton
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Rolling Family (2004)Familia Rodante
A hilarious and charming road movie, Familia Rodante is the latest feature from Pablo Trapero, one of the new generation of directors currently revolutionising Argentinian cinema. The tale begins in Buenos Aries with the 84th birthday celebration of Grandma Emilia, who tells her stunned family that she has been invited to be matron of honour at her niece's wedding and expects them to accompany her on the thousand kilometre trip. One heavy dose of emotional blackmail later, thirteen members of four generations cram into a ramshackle old camper van and set off on the epic journey across Argentina.As the days pass and the van hobbles towards its destination, emotions within its cramped confines run high and the journey seems set to last a lot longer than any of its occupants had bargained for. - Director:
- Pablo Trapero
- Cast:
- Graciana Chironi, Nicolás López, Liliana Capurro
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Golden Globe winner Cate Blanchett stars in Veronica Guerin, the critically acclaimed, powerful and poignant true story about a journalist who risked her life in search of the truth. In the mid-1990s, Dublin was nothing short of a war zone, with a few powerful drug lords battling for control. Their most fearsome opponent was not the police but the courageous Veronica Guerin (Blanchett), who investigated and exposed the "pushers," balancing her home and family against her responsibility to her readers and her country. Because of here intense efforts, she became a national folk heroine and changed Ireland forever. - Director:
- Joel Schumacher
- Cast:
- Cate Blanchett, Colin Farrell, Brenda Fricker
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A young working mother, Lily Bates (Patricia Roc), is nursing her new-born baby in a London maternity hospital when a police inspector informs her that 'her husband' has been arrested as a bigamist. Despite living in a society that frowns upon single mothers, Lily decides to overcome these prejudices and raise Jimmy by herself. She finds lodgings and even a job in a department store, but when Lily falls ill she has to leave Jimmy in the care of Frances (Rosamund John), a nursery worker, and her husband Robert (Patrick Holt). As Lily returns to health she begins to realise that Jimmy is happier with his new guardians and reluctantly decides to let the Normans bring up Jimmy as their own. Time passes, Lily moves away, and then falls in love and marries a shopkeeper called Bill (Bill Owen). But the memory of her son Jimmy plays on Lily's mind, and when it threatens to disrupt their newTound happiness, Bill and Lily decide to search for Jimmy and reclaim him as their own... - Director:
- Lawrence Huntington
- Cast:
- Patricia Roc, Rosamund John, Bill Owen
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After a badly burned pilot (Ralph Fiennes) is pulled from the wreckage of his plane in the Sahara Desert, he's placed in the care of an army nurse (Juliette Binoche) and identified only as "the English patient". As his memory slowly returns, a passionate and consuming love affair with a married woman (Kristin Scott Thomas) is unveiled, and lives from both the past and the present become inextricably altered. - Director:
- Anthony Minghella
- Cast:
- Ralph Fiennes, Juliette Binoche, Willem Dafoe
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