griggs's - Rented List

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The most controversial film by Theo Angelopoulos tells the story of the Greek bandit Alexander (Omero Antonutti) at the turn of the twentieth century.

Escaped from prison, he kidnaps a party of English aristocrats and demands as ransom that his band of anarchist socialists are granted amnesty and that landowners turn their property over to the local peasants. But when the group reaches its mountain stronghold, internal tensions arise which threaten to bring about disaster. Taking inspiration from ancient cultural myth and actual historical events, Angelopoulos' visually stunning film presents a challenging and complex portrait of a revolutionary leader.

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Alone in a small skiff, an aging Cuban fisherman (Spencer Tracy) catches a huge marlin - and must defy the sea, marauding sharks and his own flagging strength to bring his great catch home.

Filmed in part on sun-drenched Cuban locales and graced by Dimitri Tiomkin's Oscar-winning score, 'The Old Man and the Sea' is a colorful cinematic ode to the indomitability of the human spirit.

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The first ever Inuit film to receive a theatrical release, whereupon It Instantly became one of the most critically lauded films of the year, 'Atanarjuat' is a truly epic piece of storytelling and a wonderfully lyrical cinematic experience.

The film is a recreation of the ancient Inult legend of Atanarjuat (Natar Ungalaaq) - a classic quest story set In the Arctic at the dawn of the first millennium. Evil In the form of an unknown shaman divides a small community; two brothers, Amaqjuaq (Pakak Innuksuk) - (the Strong One) and Atanarjuat (the Fast Runner) rise up to challenge this order. However, when his brother Is murdered, Atanarjuat must flee the community - can the Fast Runner end his exile and vanquish the evil that haunts his community? Zacharias Kunuk's film was shot using digital cameras entirely on sea Ice in Arctic conditions and utilised local cast and crew from the Inult community of Igloolik. Dealing with universal themes and emotions with a rare Insight and compassion, Atanarjuat Is both an extremely Idiosyncratic and yet utterly universal work that truly rivals Lord of the Rings for its epic qualities and sheer visual mastery.

The latest film from Icelandic auteur Hlynur Palmason (Godland) captures a year in the life of a family as the parents navigate their separation. Through intimate vignettes and strange occurrences, the film explores the complexities of family, love, and the impact of shared memories.

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The story of family grief and bereavement. Psychiatrist Giovanni (Nanni Moretti) lives happily with his family in a small Italian coastal town.

One Sunday he is due to spend time with his son Andrea (Giuseppe Sanfelice), when he receives an anguished call from Oscar (Silvio Orlando), one of his patients, and feels he must go and see him instead; however later that afternoon Andrea accidentally drowns in a diving accident. Over the following weeks, Giovanni, his wife Paola (Laura Morante), and daughter Irene (Jasmine Trinca), remain shell-shocked with grief; with Giovanni suspending his practice, and relations between himself and Paola becoming increasingly difficult. When a letter then arrives from a girl who Andrea had met the previous summer, who none of the family knew anything about, they all become curious to learn more about this person who meant so much to their departed son and brother.

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Boris Karloff stars in one of his most chilling roles as the sinister 'resurrection man' of old Edinburgh. Medical student Donald Fettes (Russell Wade) is apprentice to Dr. 'Toddy' MacFarlane (Henry Daniell), greatest anatomist of the age.

But, as Fettes learns, MacFarlane is not scrupulous how he obtains the bodies he uses for dissection: he buys them from sinister cabman John Gray (Boris Karloff), who robs the graves of the recently deceased. But Gray's grim work has attracted attention and the cemeteries are under watch. Unwilling to give up his lucrative trade, Gray finds another source of corpses - the bodies of people he has killed himself...

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"A Hard Day's Night on acid" best describes this outrageous movie within a movie starring recording superstars 'The Monkees'.

The first in a long line of films for collaborators Jack Nicholson and director Bob Rafelson - Five Easy Pieces, The Postman Always Rings Twice - Head's unconventional, dreamlike style showcases The Monkees' musical and comedic talents honed on their popular television series. A stream-of-consciousness script lands our fab four in a WW II foxhole dodging an excitable football player, then later they are caught in a giant vacuum cleaner after being sucked out of Victor Mature's hair as flecks of dandruff, and on and on from one wild situation to another.

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Trapped inside a fortified home owned by a mysterious couple (Everett McGill and Wendy Robie), an impoverished young boy is suddenly thrust into a nightmare.

Quickly learning the true nature of the house's homicidal inhabitants, the boy battles against sadistic security devices, befriends an elusive and abused young girl, and finally learns the secret of the creatures deep within the house.

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"The Real Glory of War", Samuel Fuller said, "is surviving". A decorated combatant with the tamed U.S. First Infantry in World War II. Fuller survived. His 1980 film version of his war experiences did not... Until now. Working with 70.

000 feet of vault materials and Fuller's shooting script critic/filmmaker Richard Schickel heads a reconstruction that adds over 40 minutes and transforms a truncated but admired war film into an epic masterwork. Lee Marvin, in a richly layered performance now revealed as one of his finest stars as the sergeant of peach-fuzzed riflemen fighting from North Africa to Normandy and across Europe. The film is the squad's combat diary, war as it's fought and sweated and bled and, maybe, survived.

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When Susy (Angharad Aubrey) drowns in the bath, Joey (William Dix) is blamed for her death. Virginia (Wendy Craig) suffers a breakdown and Joey is sent to a special school where he is analysed by psychologists.

Shunned by her exasperated husband, the grief-stricken Virginia needs Nanny (Bette Davis) more than ever. Unfortunately Joey's stay in the institution has done little to mellow him. When he returns he insists that he was not involved in Susy's death, and maintains that his sister was actually murdered by the evil Nanny. After a further 'accident' in the house. Penny arrives to look after the obnoxious Joey. Soon, however, Penny begins to suspect that the boy may have been telling the truth all along...

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To escape the burdens of rule, Sweden's Queen Christina (Greta Garbo) rides into the countryside disguised as a boy. There she meets and secretly falls for a dashing Spanish envoy on his way to the royal court.

Imagine the envoy's delighted surprise when he and the young "nobleman" must share a bed at an overcrowded inn.

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When a lawyer's (Kevin Kline) car brakes down in a dangerous Los Angeles neighbourhood, a tow-truck driver (Danny Glover) arrives just in time to save his life.

The two men begin a deep friendship that sets off a chain of unsettling and surprising events involving their families and friends for years to come.

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A dark night. A crowded diner. A man with a detonator bursts in proclaiming to be from the future. This is the 117th time he's returned with the same imperative.

Before time runs out, he must recruit a group of distinctly unqualified diner patrons to stop the impending AI apocalypse and save humanity from the perils of social media. The problem? Everything is stacked against them - from skeptical strangers and brain-rotted teenagers, to algorithmic monstrosities beyond their control. But if this unlikely group can pull it off, the world might just turn out okay....Or not, I dunno!

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In the acclaimed performance that earned her the Academy Award for Best Actress Sissy Spacek stars as legendary Loretta Lynn, the dirt poor Appalachian Mountains girl who rose from humble beginnings to become the "Queen of Country Music".

At eighteen, the mother of four children and busy housewife still finds time to write and sing songs at small fairs and local honky-tonks. Recognising her raw talent and huge potential, her ambitious husband Mooney (Tommy Lee Jones) prods her into making a record and going to Nashville. After a performance at the Grand Ole Opry the record becomes a smash hit launching her career to super stardom and changing the sound and style of country music forever.

Screen pantomime romping through the torrid heat of the desert - with the indefatigable duo of Bob Hope and Bing Crosby at the head of a camel train! Dunes, tunes, goons - classic performances from Bing and Bob make this one heck of a journey. Morocco was surely never as far out as this!