elasticpiriformis's - Rented List
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There is a philosophical theory that we should be born with a small amount of alcohol in our blood; that modest inebriation opens our minds to the world around us diminishing problems and increasing creativity. Intrigued Martin (Mads Mikkelsen) and three of his friends all weary high school teachers, embark on a risky experiment to maintain a constant level of intoxication throughout the workday. Initial results are positive, but as the units are knocked back and stakes are raised, it becomes increasingly clear that some bold acts carry severe consequences. - Director:
- Thomas Vinterberg
- Cast:
- Mads Mikkelsen, Thomas Bo Larsen, Magnus Millang
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An Autumn Afternoon / A Hen in the Wind (1962)Sanma no aji / Kaze no naka no mendori
Yasujiro Ozu's elegiac final film, 'An Autumn Afternoon', charts the inevitable eclipse of older generations by irreverent youth. Revisiting the story of his earlier masterpiece Late Spring (1949), Ozu once again casts Chishu Ryu in the role of Hirayama, the concerned father to unmarried Michiko. Harangued on all sides to marry off Michiko, Hirayama reluctantly prepares to bid his old life farewell. A cast of tragi-comic characters weaves seamlessly through this gently satirical portrayal of life's inevitable, endless cycle. - Director:
- Yasujirô Ozu
- Cast:
- Chishû Ryû, Shima Iwashita, Keiji Sada
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Early Summer (1951)Bakushû / Shukujo wa nani o wasureta ka
Regarded by many as the world's finest director, and renowned for his exact, formalist style, Yasujiro Ozu made his first film in 1927 and went on to direct 55 films before his death in 1963. It was only during his final years, however, that his genius as a film-maker was recognised in the West alongside such contemporaries as Bunuel, Bergman and fellow countryman Kurosawa. Early Summer (1951) further explores Noriko's relationship with her family, and examines her role as a modern woman in a traditional society. - Director:
- Yasujirô Ozu
- Cast:
- Seiji Miyaguchi, Kuniko Miyake, Chikage Awashima
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The Emperor's New Groove (2000)Las locuras del emperador
The young and spoiled Emperor Kuzco (voiced by David Spade) is transformed into a iiama as part of a plan by his advisor, Yzma, and her henchman, Kronk (Patrick Warburton), to overthrow Kuzco's reign on the kingdom. Unwillingly paired with a peasant named Pacha (John Goodman), the ruler must set aside his difference in order to assume his place in the kingdom once again. - Director:
- Mark Dindal
- Cast:
- John Goodman, Eartha Kitt, Patrick Warburton
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Following the closure of a gypsum mine in the Nevada town she calls home, Fern (Frances McDormand) packs her van and sets off on the road in this "exquisite film" (Joe Morgenstern, The Wall Street Journal). Exploring an unconventional life as a modern-day nomad, Fern discovers a resilience and resourcefulness unlike any she's known before long the way, she meets other nomads who become mentors in the vast landscape of the American West. - Director:
- Chloé Zhao
- Cast:
- Frances McDormand, David Strathairn, Linda May
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Late Spring (1949)Banshun
Yasujiro Ozu's hugely influential award-winning masterpiece, 'Late Spring', is a tender meditation on family politics, sacrifice and the status quo. Noriko (Setsuko Hara) and her father, Professor Somiya (Chishu Ryu), live together in perfect harmony but old certainties are put at risk when an interfering aunt raises the question of marriage. Introducing Ozu's popular Noriko character, 'Late Spring' poignantly examines the gradual compromise between modernity and tradition. - Director:
- Yasujirô Ozu
- Cast:
- Chishû Ryû, Setsuko Hara, Yumeji Tsukioka
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Dekalog and Other Television Works (2016)The Ten Commandments / Spokój / Krótki dzien pracy / Personel / Pierwsza milosc / Przejscie podziemne / Still Alive
Krzysztof Kieslowski's "Dekalog" is one of the greatest achievements of the late twentieth century - as much an intricate work of moral philosophy as it is a collection of psychologically riveting narratives. Each standalone stop/ revolves around the consequences arising from a breach of one of the Ten Commandments, but this is no finger-wagging religious tract: Kieslowski was one of film history's keenest observers of human nature, and his troubled, vainglorious, self-deceiving, deeply flawed characters (many played by some of Poland's finest character actors) are all too universally recognisable. "Dekalog" is merely the highlight of a box set that compiles virtually all of Kieslowski's television work, starting with his first professional short fiction film and continuing with four feature-length pieces that are in every way as probing and incisive as his better-known cinema films. - Director:
- Krzysztof Kieslowski
- Cast:
- Artur Barcis, Olgierd Lukaszewicz, Olaf Lubaszenko
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Trouble returns to Monterey, CA. As relationships unravel, loyalties erode, and the potential for emotional and bodily injury still looms large, the HBO smash-hit series is back. In Season 2, the "Monterey Five" - Madeline, Celeste, Jane, Renata and Bonnie - look to pick up the pieces of their shattered lives - just as Perry's mother Mary-Louise (Meryl Streep) arrives looking for answers. - Director:
- Andrea Arnold
- Cast:
- Reese Witherspoon, Benjamin Valic, Nicole Kidman
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From Paul Thomas Anderson and Thomas Pynchon, it's the tail end of the psychedelic '60s and paranoia is running the day from the desert to the sea of sunny Southern California. With a cast of characters that includes surfers, hustlers, dopers and rockers, a murderous loan shark, the FBI, LAPD detectives, a tenor sax player working undercover, a group of Beverly Hills dentists and a mysterious entity called The Golden Fang, everything's gone from "groovy" to "where you at, man?" in what seems like a matter of moments. So when private eye Doc Sportello's ex-old lady Shasta Fay shows up at his door with a story about her current billionaire land-developer boyfriend and his wife and her boyfriend...well it all starts to get a little peculiar after that. Maybe you'll just want to see the movie? - Director:
- Paul Thomas Anderson
- Cast:
- Joaquin Phoenix, Alina Gatti, Josh Brolin
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24 City (2008)Er Shi Si Cheng Ji
A compelling docudrama, '24 City' is set in the south-western city of Chengdu where a state-owned factory is being demolished to make way for a complex of luxury flats. Jia Zhangke's film weaves together the stories of three generations of factory workers, audaciously blurring the boundaries between documentary and fiction by subtly combining heartrending real-life interviews with scripted accounts performed by actors (including Joan Chen, The Last Emperor). Epic in scope and beautifully realised, '24 City' is an elegiac look back across 50 years of factory life which pays tribute to the workers and invites reflection on the radical changes taking place in modern China. - Director:
- Zhangke Jia
- Cast:
- Jianbin Chen, Joan Chen, Liping Lü
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Noel Coward's sensitive portrayal of what happens when two happily married strangers, played by Trevor Howard and Celia Johnson, meet and their acquaintance deepens into affection and eventually into love. It is the story of two people, thrown together by the chance meeting of the title, helpless in the face of their emotions but redeemed by their moral courage. Over the years few films have equalled the compassion and the realism of Brief Encounter. - Director:
- David Lean
- Cast:
- Celia Johnson, Trevor Howard, Stanley Holloway
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Show Boat (1936)Edna Ferber's Show Boat
Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein Il's immortal musical adaptation of Edna Ferber's sprawling novel receives its most faithful and enduring cinematic treatment under the elegant direction of James Whale. A rich portrait of changing American entertainment traditions and race relations, 'Show Boat' spans five decades and three generations as it follows the fortunes of the stage struck Magnolia (Irene Dunne), an aspiring actor whose journey takes her from her family's humble floating playhouse in the 1880's South to the bright footlights of the 1930's North. The cast of show-business legends includes Helen Morgan, Hattie McDaniel, Charles Winninger, and the great Paul Robeson, whose iconic, soul-shaking rendition of "Ol' Man River" is one of the crowning glories of the American stage and screen. - Director:
- James Whale
- Cast:
- Irene Dunne, Allan Jones, Charles Winninger
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In the largest engineering project since the Great Wall, China has set out to harness the power of the Yangtze, an endevour that provides the epic and unsettling backdrop for a dramatic and disquieting film on life inside the Chinese dream. Stunningly photographed and beautifully composed, Up the Yangtze juxtaposes the poignant and sharply observed details of Yu Shui's story against the monumental and ominous forces at work all around her. Western passengers take in the spectral views, consuming entertainment on the spacious upper decks, while Yu Shui Toils in the gallery down below, preparing with the other workers for an uncertain future as all around her the waterscontinue to rise. - Director:
- Yung Chang
- Cast:
- Jerry Bo Yu Chen, Campbell Ping He, Cindy Shui Yu
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Bigger Than Life (1956)One in a Million
One of the greatest American films of the 1950s and a high point in the careers of both the lead actor James Mason and director Nicholas Ray. Mason gives a towering performance as Ed Avery, a happily married schoolteacher who agrees to take a new 'miracle drug' when diagnosed with a potentially fatal disease. It is not long before the drug begins producing malevolent and murderous side-effects that bring to the fore all of Ed's long-repressed frustrations with his life. Mason's support is, exceptional: Barbara Rush as Ed's devoted wife, Christopher Olsen a s his cruelly punished son and Walter Matthau as his faithful colleague. One of cinema's most persuasive portraits of psychological turmoil, the film also succeeds magnificently as searing melodrama and subversive social critique, with Ray, his scriptwriters and cinematographer achieving a perfect balance between emotional realism and exprer;sionist allegory. - Director:
- Nicholas Ray
- Cast:
- James Mason, Barbara Rush, Walter Matthau
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After his inevitable arrest (and almost immediate release), Michel (Martin LaSalle) reflects on the morality of crime, developing a vague theory that exceptional individuals are above the law. Lost in another world, he rejects his friends in favour of a life of crime and is seemingly set on finding his place in the world by engineering a head-on collision with society. - Director:
- Robert Bresson
- Cast:
- Martin LaSalle, Marika Green, Jean Pélégri
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