griggs's - Rented List

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Let others in 1968 Prague fret over such things as a liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Prague surgeon and avowed womanizer Tomas is focused on the happiness of pursuit. He's determined to live with a lightness of being that's unfettered by things like commitment and Communism.

A young doctor's quest for sex and his stumbling into love forms part of the rich storyline of this lyrical film from the landmark Milan Kundera novel, produced by Saul Zaentz and directed by Philip Kaufman. Daniel Day-Lewis, Juliette Binoche and Lena Olin indelibly form the romantic triangle at the center of Tomas' world. It's a shifting world of hope spoiled and renewed, of lives blighted by oppression and reinvigorated by deep, maturing love.

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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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Set in a detention camp in Hungary 1869, at a time of guerrilla campaigns against the ruling Austrians, Jancso (János Görbe) deliberately avoids conventional heroics to focus on the persecution and dehumanisation manifest in a time of conflict.

Filmed in Hungary's desolate and burning landscape, Jancso uses his formidable technique to create a remarkable and terrifying picture of war and the abuse of power that is still very relevant today.

When wealthy city girl Barbara Blandish (Kim Darby) is kidnapped by 'The Grissom Gang', a family of murderous outlaws headed by the malevolent Ma Grissom (Irene Dailey), no-one is prepared for the bloody chaos that ensues as violent son Slim (Scott Wilson) finds himself falling in love with the victim.

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Four friends graduate from high school and find themselves looking at an uncertain future in small-town America. Dave's passion is cycling and his dream is to compete against the best in the sport, the Italians he idolizes.

Despite being disillusioned when he finally races against his heroes, his passion for cycling takes on new meaning when he and his friends face a team from the local college in the town's annual bike race, The Little 500. Looked down on by the students, Dave (Dennis Christopher) faces his greatest challenge yet, one that will test his endurance and spirit to the limit.

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Surreal character study focusing on the friendship between two male hustlers, Mike and Scott, in Portland, Oregon. They live on the streets, do drugs, and sell themselves to men and women. Mike (River Phoenix) is quite, gay and suffers from narcolepsy.

Abandoned as a child, he is obsessed with finding his long-lost mother. Scott (Keanu Reeves) is the rebellious son of a high-ranking family, who lives this life mostly to embarrass his father. Mike is in love with Scott, who still maintains he is straight and insists that his wild lifestyle on the streets is only temporary. Together, they embark on a quest to find Mike's mother, traveling from Portland to Idaho to Italy, whit Scott picking up a beautiful girl along the way.

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A powerful, gripping and suspenseful drama that packs a devastating emotional force, 'The Child' stars Jeremie Renier, who is outstanding as Bruno, a young petty thief who has fathered a baby with his 18 year old girlfriend Sonia (Déborah François).

But when the temptation of easy money leads him to commit an act of shocking recklessness, its grave repercussions force a remorseful Bruno into a desperate and dangerous attempt to make amends.

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From legendary director Steven Spielberg comes this acclaimed, exhilarating historical drama. Daniel Day-Lewis gives a memorable, Oscar-Winning performance as the profoundly influential American president, Abraham Lincoln.

During his final turbulent months in office, Lincoln strives to convince war-ravaged America's bitterly divided government to abolish slavery. With fierce, unstoppable courage, Lincoln inspires a decision that will change history forever.

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The fishing schooner We're Here has just pulled up a different kind of fish: rich, 10-year-old Harvey Cheyne (Freddie Bartholomew), who tumbled off the side of a sleek ocean liner.

Harvey will have to wait months before the We're Here returns to harbour, months that will transform him from a spoiled whiner into an honorable young man - all because of the life lessons he learns from Manuel (Spencer Tracy), the humble fisherman who befriends him. From Rudyard Kipling's classic, 'Captains Courageous' thrills with its seagoing action, grand scale and all-star cast. Set sail for cinema glory.

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Claude Lanzmann's landmark documentary about the holocaust, Shoah. Lanzmann spent twelve years spanning the globe for surviving camp inmates, SS commandants, and eyewitnesses of the "Final Solution".

Without dramatic re-enactment or archival footage - but with extraordinary testimonies - Shoah renders the step-by-step machinery of extermination, and through haunted landscapes and human voices, makes the past come brilliantly alive. "Shoah", is a work of genius, an heroic endeavour to humanise the inhuman, to tell the untellable, and to explore in unprecedented detail the horrors of the past. It is an immensely disturbing experience, yet in its solemnity and beauty not a morbid or disheartening one. There are few works of art which leave one with such a deep appreciation for the preciousness and meaning of life. For these reasons, Shoah is one of the most powerful and important films of all time.

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Cool and sophisticated Tolen (Ray Brooks) has a monopoly on womanizing - with a long line of conquests to prove it - while the naive and awkward Colin (Michael Crawford) desperately wants a piece of it.

But when Colin falls for an innocent country girl, it's not long before the self-assured Tolen moves in for the kill. Is all fair in love and war, or can Colin get the knack and beat Tolen at his own game?

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"Gervaise" is a 1956 French film directed by Rene Clement and based on the novel L'Assommoir by Emile Zola.

Gervaise Macquart, (Maria Schell) a young crippled laundress, is left alone with two young children when her lover, Auguste Lantier decides to leave. Despite many struggles she works hard to turn her life around and marries Henri Coupeau, a roofer and fulfils her dream of buying her own laundry, however things takes a turn for the worse as her old lover returns and her husband starts drinking heavily.

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Violence begets violence in this explosive western that pits marauding Apaches against weary Indian fighters and native U.S. cavalrymen. Burt Lancaster stars in this sharply written, fact-based story as a scout assigned to aid the cavalry in tracking down Ulzana and his band of renegade Indians.

As the trail gets hotter, Lancaster attempts to teach an idealistic young lieutenant that the only way to fight the Apaches' escalating brutality and violence is with even stronger force. Robert Aldrich directs this gritty action epic sure to excite both sense and the intellect.

Introduced as a 'story of ordinary workaday people', Anthony Asquith's 'Underground' masterfully balances the light and dark sides of city life to evoke the daily existence of the average Londoner better than any other film from Britain's silent canon.

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Based on the best-selling horror action game, Silent Hill stars Radha Mitchell (Man on Fire) as Rose, a desperate mother who takes her adopted daughter, Sharon, to the town of Silent Hill in an attempt to cure her of her ailment.

After a violent car crash, Sharon disappears and Rose begins her desperate search to get her back. She descends into a fog of smoldering ash and into the center of the twisted reality of a town's terrible secret. Pursued by grotesquely deformed creatures and a townspeople stuck in permanent purgatory, Rose begins to uncover the truth behind the apocalyptic disaster that burned the town 30 years back.