trh's - Rented List

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Charting the turbulent relationship between a train-driver and a married woman as they plot to kill her husband, Renoir's adaptation of Emile Zola's classic novel is often cited by critics as one of the director's greatest films.

Made at the height of Renoir's 1930s poetic realism period, the film also has shades of film-noir with its sexually charged story and self-destructive, hard-boiled anti-hero. Featuring a truly unforgettable performance by Jean Gabin as Lantier, the tormented train-driver, 'La Bete Humaine' was one of Renoir's biggest successes and is just as compelling today as when it was first released.

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As a psychotic thug devoted to his hard-boiled ma, James Cagney - older, scarier and just as electrifying - gives a performance to match his work in 'The Public Enemy' as 'White Heat's's' cold-blooded Cody Jarrett.

Bracingly directed by Raoul Walsh, this fast-paced thriller tracing Jarrett's violent life in and out of jail is also a harrowing character study. Jarrett is a psychological time bomb ruled by impulse. He murders a wounded accomplice and revels in the act. He neglects his sultry wife (Virginia Mayo) and adores his doting mother. It is among the most vivid screen performances of Cagney's career, and the excitement it generates will put you on top of the world!

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A couple floats over a war-town Cologne; on the way to a birthday party, a father stops to tie his daughter's shoelaces in the pouring rain; teenage girls dance outside a cafe, 'About Endlessness' is a beautiful work which Andersson presents as his final film, a kaleidoscope of all that is

eternally human, an infinite story of the vulnerability of existence.

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A captivating look at the remarkable life of a young Swedish girl who became one of the most beloved and celebrated icons of cinema.

From her first Hollywood screen tests, to her immortal starring role in Casablanca, through to an incredible three Academy Awards, and the love affair that shocked Hollywood. This documentary provides a complex and intimate insight into Ingrid Bergman's personal life through never-before-seen private footage, letters, diaries, and interviews with her children.

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At the heart of the story is one man's heroic quest - both to fight for a deep moral cause and to reclaim his manhood after a shattering divorce from the society beauty Virginia Troy (Megan Dodds).

But Guy Crouchback's (Daniel Craig) encounters with the absurd reality in the British Army from 1939-45. strewn with bureaucratic blunders, military debacles and indelibly funny characters, prove to be more of a challenge than facing the enemy itself. In strong contrast to Guys military experience, his renewed and passionate acquaintance with his dangerously beautiful ex-wife, provokes a personal and moral crisis that tests - to the limit - both his undying love for Virginia and his profound sense of duty. Sword of Honour is both a war story and a love story - as well as a biting satire on the emergence of the world we live in today.

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Based on the novel by Katherine Anne Porter 'Ship of Fools' is set in 1933 aboard a luxury liner bound from Mexico to Germany. Among the many passengers are Vivien Leigh as a divorce desperate for love and lost youth.

Also starring are Simone Signoret as a Spanish noblewoman being deported as a political prisoner, Lee Marvin as an aging, alcoholic ballplayers, and Jose Ferrer as a budding Nazi whose brutishness foreshadows the holocaust to come. Their separate but interlocking stories, beautifully observed by director Stanley Kramer, serve as a brilliant microcosm of a world on the verge of war.

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Widely misunderstood and shamefully denigrated at the time of its original release, but now recognised as not simply one of Rossellini's greatest films but as one of the key works of modern cinema, 'Journey to Italy' is a deceptively simple piece.

There is little plot to speak of: a marriage is breaking up under the strains of a trip to Italy, and we watch. But in its deliberate rejection of many aspects of 'classic' Hollywood narrative and its stubborn pursuit of a quite different aesthetic, its meandering story line creates space for ideas and time for reflection.

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Tony and Brenda Last appear to be the perfect married couple - with money, a great country house and an adored son, John Andrew.

When Tony inadvertently invites John Beaver, an idle and penniless young socialite to stay for the weekend, he sets in motion a series of events which drastically disrupts the course of all their lives.

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Sir Thomas More (Paul Scofield), England's Roman Catholic Chancellor, is forced into a difficult position when corrupt King Henry VIII (Robert Shaw) demands his approval to divorce his wife and marry his mistress.

Torn between his conscience and duty to the crown, Sir Thomas chooses to say nothing, sparking the rage of the king. What unfolds is a battle of wills packed with palace intrigue, political brinkmanship and the fate of man, church and country. In the end, his silence spoke loudest of all.

Directed by Robert Hamer, it stars Googie Withers as Rose Sandigate, a Bethnal Green housewife whose Sunday is turned upside down by the re-appearance of an old flame who is now an escaped convict seeking protection from the police.

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Smarmy, psychotic fortune hunter Edward "Teddy" Bare (Dirk Bogarde) has a penchant for the older woman... and for murder! Having plied his elderly wife (Mona Washbourne) with alcohol, the modern day Bluebeard leaves her to die from gas poisoning by the fireplace of their stately home.

Having done the nasty however, his wife's fortune soon turns out to be far smaller than Edward realised, and what there is has been entailed away to a distant sister. He sets his greedy sights on the heavily insured barkeeper Freda (Margaret Lockwood). Edward soon grows restless with his crass new wife, who refuses to give him a penny, and instead targets a third wealthy matron (Kay Walsh). She, however, is no fool and has plenty of her own secrets. Secrets that could expose Teddy. Has he finally met his match?

After four years in the Great War (WWI), Frank Gibbons (Robert Newton) is demobbed and returns home to his wife (Celia Johnson) and their children. They move into a small house which, although homely, becomes the setting for much high drama.

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An immensely popular British crime film, Basil Dearden's 'The Blue Lamp' was scripted by ex-policeman T.E.B Clark, the writer who arguably did the most to define Ealing Studio's post-war identity.

The film marked the first appearance of the character of Jack Warner (Jack Warner) - later to be immortalized in 'Dixon of Dock Green'. The story follows two London policemen whose daily routine is interrupted by a botched robbery and subsequent murder hunt.

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The Topham family live a blissfully happy life together in the lovely market town of Dunmow in deepest Essex. Recently married Basil Topham (David Tomlinson) and his beautiful wife Julie (Petula Clark) are patiently waiting for their house to be built by local builders.

Until then, they are forced to live with Basil s parents and eccentric grandfather (A.E Matthews). Basil and Julie have been entered into the Dunmow Flitch, a competition for the happiest married couple and all seems idyllic with our newly-weds. That is until a beautiful maid Marta (Sonja Zieman) arrives from Hungary to run the Topham family home and inadvertently throws everything into chaos!!

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Nine disparate Britons are transported to a mysterious city where, according to their class and disposition, they find themselves either in an earthly paradise of peace and equality or a hell starved of ambition and riches.

From the pen of JB Priestley, this fantastical allegory is a striking expression of post-war utopian impulses and among Ealing's most unusual features.