watched-3's - Rented List

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The BAFTA-winning series returns as director Michael Winterbottom reunites Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon for their last culinary coast-to-coast odyssey.

Nearly ten years after their first journey together round the gastronomic hot spots of northern England, Steve and Rob set off on a fourth and final expedition. This time they will set out from the ruins of Troy in modern-day Turkey as they head to Greece to retrace the steps of legendary king Odysseus, hero of Homer's epic poem The Odyssey, on his journey home to Ithaca at the end of the Trojan War. Along the way, Steve and Rob's semi-fictional alter-egos make pit-stops in search of culture, history, beautiful scenery and, yes, some of the finest dishes in Europe. Pop culture, music, art and even the meaning of life are all discussed in their famous free-flowing conversations, peppered with barbed banter, boisterous in-car singalongs and uncannily life-like celebrity impersonations.

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Godard's delightful romantic comedy tells the story of Angela (Anna Karina), an attractive nightclub stripper, who decides one day that she must have a baby. Her boyfriend, Emile (Jean-Claude Brialy) is resistant so suggests she approach his friend, Alfred (Jean-Paul Belmondo).

What starts out as a harmless joke quickly escalates into a flurry of misunderstandings, petty jealousies and arguments.

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Mizoguchi's Gion Bayashi - made directly between Ugetsu Monogatai and Sansho Dayu - is set in the world of the courtesan.

Contrasting two different types of geisha - on one hand, Eiko (Wakao Ayako), a sixteen-year old orphan wishing to be taken in and trained; on the other, Miyoharu (Kogure Michiyo), an older, more experienced geisha, who agrees to mentor the younger woman - they live under the same roof in difficult personal circumstances. 'Gion Bayashi' is a fascinating, subtle insight into the loves of these women in 1950's Japan.

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Nanni Moretti presents a semi-autobiographical account of his experiences in fatherhood, beginning when his wife Silvia's announces her pregnancy. Family, work and politics mingle in a charming light-hearted tale with a large helping of irony and humour.

Following the general election of 1994, won by the centre-right coalition led by Silvio Berlusconi, Moretti is encouraged by a journalist friend to make a documentary about the current political situation in Italy. Two years pass, another election is held, and he has still made no progress with his documentary. He starts another project, a musical about a Trotskyist pastry chef in the 1950's, but becomes disillusioned and increasingly distracted by the pregnancy. When his son Pietro is born and the centre-left coalition Ulivo wins the election, he continues to try to shoot his documentary, but with the film remaining unfinished he must learn to stop hesitating in order to complete his passion project.

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Set amidst the glittering theatre world of 19th century Paris, the story revoles around the beautiful and free-spirted courtesan, Garanace, and the four men who compete for her affections; a mime-artist, an actor, an aristocrat and a criminal.

As the melodrama unfolds, we are treated to one of cinema's greatest love stories, a captivating tale of passion, deception and murder.

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Ryota has earned everything he has by his hard work, and believes nothing can stop him from pursuing his perfect life as a winner. Then one day, he and his wife, Midori, get an unexpected phone call from the hospital.

Their 6-year-old son, Keita, is not 'their' son - the hospital gave them the wrong baby. Ryota is forced to make a life-changing decision, to choose between 'nature' and 'nurture'. Seeing Midori's devotion to Keita even after learning his origin, and communicating with the rough yet caring family that has raised his natural son for the last six years, Ryota also starts to question himself: has he really been a 'father' all these years...

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"Lucky" follows the spiritual journey of Harry Dean Stanton's character 'Lucky', a cantankerous, self-reliant 90 year old atheist, and the quirky characters that inhabit the Arizona town where he lives.

Having out-lived and out-smoked all of his contemporaries, the fiercely independent Lucky finds himself at the precipice of life, thrust into a journey of self-exploration, leading towards that which is so often unattainable: enlightenment. Released in the US just days after Stanton's death at age 91, 'Lucky', is at once a love letter to the life and career of Harry Dean Stanton as well as a meditation on mortality, loneliness, spirituality, and human connection.

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When college nostalgia inspires a group of middle-aged businessmen to match-make for the widow - played with measured dignity by Setsuko Hara (Tokyo Story) - of one of their friends and her daughter, they have no idea of the strife their careless interference will cause.

Late Autumn's examination of familial upheaval moves effortlessly from comedy to pathos and is amongst the finest of legendary director Yasujiro Ozu's post-war films.

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When renowned crime novelist Harlan Thrombey (Christopher Plummer) is found dead at his estate just after his 85th birthday, the inquisitive and debonair Detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) is mysteriously enlisted to investigate.

From Harlan's dysfunctional family to his devoted staff, Blanc sifts through a web of red herrings and self-serving lies to uncover the truth behind Harlan's untimely death.

Former Economist Editor Bill Emmott and filmmaker Annalisa Piras explore Italy's political, economical and social decline over the past 20 years, the product of a moral collapse unmatched elsewhere in the West.

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Struggling street food vendor Sentaro finds himself confronted with Tokue, an odd but sympathetic elderly lady looking for work.

When he reluctantly accepts, it's not long before Tokue proves to have an extraordinary gift when it comes to making "an" - the sweet red bean paste filling used in his dorayakis - which starts a relationship that is about much more than just street food. With 'Sweet Bean', Kawase again focuses on people at the periphery of Japanese society and investigates their place in the flow of life itself.

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"As Tears Go By", Wong Kar Wai's first full length feature film, is set on the mean streets of Hong Kong in the late eighties. It is the tale of two lowly gangsters, Ah Wah (Andy Lau) and his side-kick Fly (Jacky Cheung), trapped in a downward spiral of violence and vengeance.

When Ah's cousin arrives from Kowloon, she brings with her the hope of life away from non-stop savagery and corruption. However, escape from their past is impossible and 'the life' soon catches up with them.

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In 1950's industrial Yorkshire, social climber Joe Lampton (Laurence Harvey) woos the boss's daughter as he sets out to reach the top of his profession.

But when his working-class background hampers his efforts, Joe seeks solace with the unhappily married Alice (Simone Signoret), an affair that will have dire consequences.

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Pierre (Hardy Kruger) is a Vietnam war veteran, psychologically scarred after killing a child. Cybele (Patricia Gozzi) is a 12 year-old girl, abandoned by an uncaring father at a small orphanage.

After a chance meeting causes Pierre to be mistaken for Cybele's father, they begin a series of Sunday outings together in which they discover a trusting, innocent happiness -though their make-believe world is threatened when a neighbour spots them together and word spreads among Pierre's acquaintances about his illicit relationship.

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When country girl Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette (Keira Knightley) marries a charismatic egomaniac named Willy (Dominic West), he unlocks the door to the tantalizing world of the Parisian arts scene. With her creative appetite sparked, Willy has Colette write novels under his name.

The phenomenal success of her 'Claudine' series makes Willy famous and elevates them both to the high life. Although she is now the toast of the town, the lack of recognition begins to gnaw at Colette. In turn, their marriage starts to internally combust, fuelled by Willy's infidelities and Colette's growing interest in women, and the gender defying Missy (Denise Gough). On a downward spiral, Willy resorts to increasingly desperate measures to pay his debts and sabotage his wife, but Colette is developing resources of her own.