tezza's - Rented List

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A swiftly paced satire that incorporates Godard's advocacy of Maoist principles, La Chinoise largely eschews a linear narrative in favour of a collage of slogans and conversations.

The plot centres around a small group of Parisian students who discus the implications of the cultural revolution in China and how it may be possible to effect, by means of terrorism, a similar political and cultural upheaval in the West. Featuring the music of Karlheinz Stockhausen and the cinematography of Godard's nouvelle vague counterpart Raoul Coutard, La Chinoise also pays meticulous detail to design so as to include all the traditional accoutrements of Maoism.

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Simon (Gabin Verdet) is a young surfer who heads down to the beach one morning to catch some early waves. But on the way home an accident occurs. Now entirely hooked up to life-support, Simon's existence is little more than an illusion to his grieving parents.

Meanwhile, in Paris, a woman awaits an organ transplant that will give her a new lease on life and it's Simon's parents who have to make the most difficult decision any parent can make. Based on a Wellcome Prize winning novel, 'Heal the Living' is a tender cross-section of humanity's intertwining lives and how a selfless decision in the shadow of tragedy can have profound effects on the life of another.

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A truly literate and sophisticated film spectacle by perhaps the greatest of all film artists, this Oscar nominated masterpiece by Federico Fellini, the director of such world-renowned classics, as 'La Dolce Vita', 'La Strada' and '8 ½', is a fabulous trip into a totally decadent civilization

delivering a brilliant visual fantasy unlike anything you have seen. Step into the bawdy, erotic and titillating world of Rome during the days of Emperor Nero, Where two completing teachers play tricks on each other while vying for the same lover's charms, Paralleling the self-indulgence of modern society, these Roman citizens pursue their own gratification above all else, resulting in both intense pleasure and enormous despair, displayed in visually seductive scenes that are both shocking, unprecedented and brilliantly stunning.

Malle's second film, 'The Lovers' stars Jeanne Moreau as a middle-class wife and mother who is bored with her life. But she is awakened when she meets Bernard (Jean-Marc Bory) a younger man with whom she embarks on an affair.

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A small time crook, Michel Poiccard (Jean-Paul Belmondo), chased by the police after stealing a car, shoots one of them and flees. Back in Paris he finds an American girlfriend (Jean Seberg) and succeeds in seducing her. He convinces her to go to Italy with him.

But the police have discovered the murderer's identity and are on his trail...

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On the brink of Civil War, King Henry IV (John Gielgud) attempts to consolidate his reign while fretting with unease over his son's seeming neglect of his royal duties.

Hal (Keith Baxter), the young Prince, openly consorts with Sir John Falstaff (Orson Welles) and his company of "Diana's foresters, Gentlemen of the shade, Minions of the moon". Hal's friendship with the fat knight substitutes for his estrangement from his father. Both Falstaff and the King are old and tired; both rely on Hal for comfort in their final years, while the young Prince, the future Henry V, nurtures his own ambitions.

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Funny, touching and sexy, Leo's Room follows a young man's unusually sensitive and compelling journey of self-discovery. Doe-eyed grad student Leo (Martin Rodriguez) is, if anything, indecisive.

After getting dumped by his girlfriend for avoiding sex, he faces the daunting task of coming to terms with his true suppressed nature. On the one side, he tentatively cruises the Internet for gay sex, and on the other, he seeks advice from his surprisingly supportive mother and a sympathetic therapist. But it's a chance encounter with an old friend that leads him to open his heart to his true desires. Infused with memorable characters (including his hilarious pothead coach-potato roommate) and offering a witty twist on the coming out dilemma, Leo's Room is both a charming romantic comedy as well as a look into one person's search for truth.

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12 years ago Julieta's daughter, Antia (Blanca Parés / Priscilla Delgado), abandoned her without warning and hasn't spoken to Julieta since.

When a chance encounter brings news of her daughter, Julieta (Emma Suárez) returns to her former home to revive her search for Antia, whilst also examining the events leading to her daughter's estrangement.

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Class, cultural and sexual differences are explored in this romantic gay drama set in sun-splashed Tunisia.

Thirty-year old Malik (Antonin Stanly) returns to his homeland after the death of his father where he is greeted by his over-bearing mother (Claudia Cardinale) who desperately wants to see him stay and get married. But instead, Malik, meets and falls in love with the darkly handsome handyman (Salim Kechiouche). They begin a tentative relationship but Islamic mores, a still class conscience society and the ever-presence of his mother threaten their burgeoning love. A forbidden love story, The String is an engaging, insightful and undeniably sexy drama.

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The third part in Eric Rohmer's 'Tales of the Four Seasons', charts the summer vacation of Gaspard, a young man who claims nothing ever happens in his life. But one summer, he discovers that nothing could be further from the truth.

In Dinard, a seaside resort in rural Brittany, Gaspard becomes romantically entangled with three beautiful young women: his classmate Lena, waitress Margot, and the outgoing Solene, whom he meets at a party. As the girls' patience with him begins to wear thin, a confused Gaspard must make the difficult choice between them.

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Chile, 1948: Senator Pablo Neruda, diplomat and future Nobel Prize-winning poet, accuses the government of betraying the Communist Party and is swiftly impeached. Pursued by the police, Neruda and his artist wife are forced into hiding and an intimate game of cat and mouse begins.

In Europe, the legend of the poet hounded by the policeman grows - and artists, led by Picasso, call for his freedom. Neruda, meanwhile, inspired by his transformative new life as a fugitive, writes his epic collection of poems, Canto General, capturing the turmoil of a Latin America in crisis. Paying homage to a mercurial creator who is impossible to pin down in conventional biography, this playful, inventive feature by acclaimed director Pablo Larrain (Jackie and Oscar-nominated NO) is the story of the escape, the investigation and the literary legend of a man once hailed as 'the greatest poet of the 20th century'. Starring Luis Gnecco and Gael Garcia Bernal, the film plays out like a road movie, inviting us to soar alongside Neruda in his poetry, his memory, and his deeply held - sometimes paradoxical - political ideals.

A priest tortures a confession out of an old woman accused of witchcraft; meanwhile his young wife (whose own mother has been suspected of being a witch) meets and falls in love with the priest's son by a former marriage.

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Montag (Oskar Werner), a regimented fireman in charge of burning the forbidden books, meets a revolutionary school teacher (Julie Christie) who dares to read.

Suddenly, he finds himself a hunted fugitive, forced to choose not only between his rebellious mistress and his pleasure-seeking conformist wife (also played by Julie Christie), but between personal safety and intellectual freedom.

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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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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"