greatest-ever-made's - Rented List

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A group of bombers announce that they have placed speed-triggered bombs aboard a Japanese Shinkansen bullet train from Tokyo to Hakata, the "Hikari 109". If the train slows below 80km/h, it will be destroyed.

When the terrorists demand five million dollars, the police find themselves in a frantic race against time to find the bombers, defuse the bomb and save the innocent passengers. Pre-dating Speed by almost two decades, The Bullet Train is a gripping, edge of your seat thriller that as well as boasting blistering action sequences also focuses on the simmering political tensions between the civilians, the government and the surprisingly sympathetic bombers. Cult action star Sonny 'Street Fighter' Chiba features as the train operator who must find the device and there's a characteristically stirring performance from Ken Takakura (dubbed the Japanese Clint Eastwood) as a bomber with a serious grudge.

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A key work of German silent cinema and an international smash on its release, E.A. Dupont's Variete (Variety) is an audacious revenge melodrama set under the canvas of the big top.

When Boss Huller (the iconic Emil Jannings) meets the young emigre Berta-Marie (Lya De Putti), it kindles his desire to relaunch his career as a trapeze artist, stalled due to an injury and the pressures of domestic life. But with passion comes obsession, and with the involvement of the famed Artinelli into their act, tensions rise to a fever pitch. Visually astonishing, with some of the most inventive camerawork of the 1920s, and a typically intense and vivid central performance from Jannings.

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Recently released ex-convict Robert Herbin (Robert Hossein) meets Marthe (Lea Massari), a beautiful Italian woman and her daughter. They share some flirtatious glances and then she invites him back to her home where they discover her husband's dead body.

Unable to bear witness to a crime due to his parole Robert flees. Guilty about her situation Robert stays close by where he discovers the body has inexplicably disappeared. With its tender depiction of character and relationships director Marcel Bluwal engineers gripping tension with the expertise of Hitchcock or Clouzot. Adapted from the novel by celebrated crime writer Frédéric Dard (Back to the Wall), 'Paris Pick-up' is released for the first time outside of France.

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Retrieving the diamonds he stashed before his arrest, thief Miyamoto (Michitarô Mizushima) hopes to help his old partner Mihara (Mari Shiraki), crippled during the heist.

Their former boss, crime lord Oyane (Shinsuke Ashida), offers to mediate with a foreign buyer, but secretly wants the stones for himself. The deal goes awry when gunmen appear on the scene. Mihara swallows the diamonds but dies in the chase, leaving a valuable corpse in the police morgue. Miyamoto forms an uneasy alliance with Mihara's wildcat sister Akiko (Mari Shiraki) to keep the gems away from gangsters, cops and even Akiko's greedy boyfriend. This wildly inventive early noir sees Seijun Suzuki (Branded to Kill, Tattooed Life) infectiously playing with genre rules and gender stereotypes.

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Henri (Jean Gabin) is brought in following a successful stint in the US to head up operations by gang boss Lisky (Marcel Dalio).

Tasked with increasing sales and reforming the drugs distribution network, he unpicks every aspect of the business, but pushers don't want to change and the cops are on his tail. From the creator of Rififi, Auguste Le Breton, and brought to the screen by Henri Decoin (Not Guilty), the influence of American noir is given a French translation as we see the then-nascent drugs trade depicted in remarkable detail. Out of the inky shadows scenery chewing support is given by a rich cast of wonderful character actors including Lino Ventura (Illustrious Corpses), Albert Rémy (The Train) and Magali Noël (Rififi).

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From director Tim Burton, Big Eyes tells the outrageous true story of one of the most epic frauds in history.

In the late 1950s and early 1960s, painter Walter Keane (Christoph Waltz) had reached success beyond belief, revolutionising the commercialisation of popular art with his enigmatic paintings of waifs with big eyes. The bizarre and shocking truth would eventually be discovered though: Walter's works were actually not created by him at all, but by his wife Margaret (Amy Adams). Big Eyes centres on Margaret's awakening as an artist, the phenomenal success of her paintings, and her tumultuous relationship with her husband, who was catapulted to international fame while taking credit for her work.

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Set in 1920's Ireland, Gypo Nolan is desperate, he is broke, hopeless and in love with a prostitute, Katie Maddon. The future looks decidedly dreary. An advertisement in a steamship window that guarantees passage to America for £10 attracts his attention.

Recollecting that the English are promising a £20 reward for the capture of Irish rebel Wallace Ford, Gypo turns him in. With his new found wealth Gypo begins to draw attention from the other Irish Rebels who suspect him to be the informer. After his capture by the rebels, Gypo tries to escape but is shot as he staggers into a church where he finds Ford's mother praying. As he lies dying she forgives him for her son's death.

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This tragic story deals with the short-lived reign of Mary Stuart. Surrounded by scheming Lords including her own brother, James Stuart, Mary seeks the comfort of Lord Bothwell, a close friend who shortly becomes a love interest.

However marriage seems impossible and Mary becomes coerced into marrying weakling Lord Darnley, heir to the English throne. Meanwhile the queen of England, Elizabeth Tudor begins to feel insecure and plots to destroy the marriage, having Damley killed by the Lords. With the help of Lord Bothwell, Mary remains on the throne and soon they marry, only to be separated 20 days later when Mary is made a prisoner and Bothwell forced to leave the country. Mary moves to England under the deceitful guidance of Elizabeth, and upon arrival is yet again made a prisoner. However Mary's legacy remains with the birth of her son who will one day take the English throne.

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Leonard Zelig (Woody Allen) is a man so introverted and insecure that he has developed the ability to blend perfectly into the background of any given situation, regardless of the personality or even ethnicity of the people around him.

But when he inadvertently becomes famous as "the human chameleon" after the media takes too keen an interest in his therapy sessions with Dr. Eudora Fletcher (Mia Farrow), Zelig is faced with an unprecedented challenge: how do you fade into the background when the spotlight is firmly upon you?

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At prestigious Winchester University, biracial student Samantha White (Tessa Thompson) begins her radio show by stating, "Dear White People, the amount of black friends required, not to seem racist, has just been raised to two. Sorry, your weed man Tyrone doesn't count".

With her sharp tongue and witty radio show, it's not long before Sam causes a stir among the administration and student body alike.

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Acclaimed director John Ford and screen legend John Wayne team up for what would be their final collaboration in this boisterous, rowdy South Seas escapade. The Duke, Lee Marvin and Jack Warden play World War II navy.

buddies who have made the French Polynesian island of Haleakaloha their post-war paradise. Local headquarters is Donovan's Reef, Wayne's rough-and-tumble watering hole where bragging, brawling, and full-blown misbehaviour are the order of the day. But destined to create more turmoil than any barroom fisticuffs is the sudden arrival of Elizabeth Allen, a straight-laced Boston blue blood. She's hoping to locate her long-estranged father (Jack Warden), affirm that he is "not of good moral character", and then assume control of the family's shipping dynasty back home in the States. Suave, debonair Cesar Romero and a sarong-clad Dorothy Lamour add to the laughs ­ and mayhem ­ in this tropical comedy treat.

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A huge radio hit through the wartime years and beyond, 'The Man in Black' mesmerised millions of listeners with his macabre tales, making Valentine Dyall a household name for his star turn as the sepulchral storyteller.

Willed the bulk of his wealthy estate when her father dies while attempting an unusual psychic experiment, Joan Clavering's delicate sensibilities are soon seen as an easy target for gaslighting by her vindictive stepmother.

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Eternal 'amateur detective' Tom Conway - who over a long career in Britain and Hollywood starred as Sherlock Holmes, The Falcon, Bulldog Drummond and the famous Simon Templar - plays a wise-cracking private investigator in this slick crime thriller from director Terence Fisher.

Co-starring Naomi Chance as a model with a secret and Richard Wattis as a dyspeptic police inspector...Ex-FBI man Tom Conway works with the police to track down the thieves behind a jewel robbery at an exclusive London fashion house. It's not long, however, before the first body turns up.

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James Stewart stars as the good-natured Elwood P. Dowd, whose constant companion is Harvey, a six-foot tall rabbit that only he can see. To his sister, Veta Louise (Josephine Hull), Elwood's obsession with Harvey has been a thorn in the side of her plans to marry off her daughter.

But when Veta Louise decides to put Elwood in a mental hospital, a hilarious mix-up occurs and she finds herself committed instead. It's up to Elwood to straighten out the mess with his kindly philosophy, and his "imaginary" friend.

Dr. Genessier (Pierre Brasseur) is a brilliant and obsessive plastic surgeon driven by the need to restore his daughter's (Edith Scob) disfigured face. He is aided in this quest by his loyal assistant (Alida Valli) who lures unwitting young women to the secret surgery in his secluded chateau.