helken's - Rented List

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Powerful and sweeping, the critically acclaimed Cradle Will Rock, starring John Cusack, Bill Murray, Susan Sarandon, Hank Azaria, and Joan Cusack, takes a kaleidoscopic look at the extraordinary events of 1930s America.

From high society to life on the streets, director Tim Robbins brings Depression-era New York City to vivid life. A time when da Vincis are given to millionaires who help fund the Mussolini war effort. And Nelson Rockefeller commissions Mexican artist Diego Rivera to paint the lobby of the Rockefeller Center. A time when a young Orson Welles and a troupe of passionate actors risk everything to perform the infamous musical The Cradle Will Rock. As threats to their freedom and livelihood loom larger, they refuse to give in to censorship. Based on actual events, Cradle Will Rock will move you.

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When Lady Sandra Abbott (Imelda Staunton) discovers that her husband is having an affair, she seeks refuge with her estranged, bohemian sister Bif (Celia Imrie). As a fish out of water, Sandra is at odds with her sister's free-spirited lifestyle, until she is persuaded to join Bif's dance class.

Here, Bif and her friends Charlie (Timothy Spall), Jackie (Joanna Lumley) and Ted (David Hayman) show Sandra that retirement is in fact only the beginning, and that divorce might just give her a whole new lease of life and love.

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Fallen Leaves is a timeless, hopeful and ultimately satisfying love story about two lonely souls' path to happiness - and the numerous hurdles they encounter along the way.

Set in contemporary Helsinki, and shot through with Kaurismaki's typically playful, idiosyncratic style and deadpan humor, this tender romantic tragicomedy is a timely reminder of the potency of movie-going from one of cinema's living legends.

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In the 1840's, acclaimed self-taught palaeontologist Mary Anning (Kate Winslet) works alone on the wild and brutal Southern English coastline of Lyme Regis.

The days of her famed discoveries behind her, she now hunts for common fossils to sell to rich tourists to support herself and her ailing widowed mother. When one such tourist, Roderick Murchison (James McArdle), arrives in Lyme on the first leg of a European tour, he entrusts Mary with the care of his young wife Charlotte (Saoirse Ronan), who is recuperating from a personal tragedy. Mary, whose life is a daily struggle on the poverty line, cannot afford to turn him down but, proud and relentlessly passionate about her work, she clashes with her unwanted guest. They are two women from utterly different worlds. Yet despite the chasm between their social spheres and personalities, Mary and Charlotte discover they can each offer what the other has been searching for: the realisation that they are not alone. It is the beginning of a passionate and all-consuming love affair that will defy all social bounds and alter the course of both lives irrevocably.

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In this irresistible musical, the legendary dancing duo Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers are at the pinnacle of their art as a feckless gambler and the shrewd dancing instructor in whom he more than meets his match.

Director George Stevens laces their romance with humor and clears the floor for the movies showstopping dance scenes, in which Astaire and Rogers take seemingly effortless flight in a virtuosic fusion of ballroom and tap styles. Buoyed by beloved songs by Dorothy Fields and Derome Kern - including the Oscar-winning classic "The Way You Look Tonight" - 'Swing Time' is an exuberant celebration of its stars' chemistry, grace, and sheer joy in the act of performance.

"Wonka" tells the wondrous story of how a young dreamer named Willy Wonka (Timothée Chalamet) becomes the world's greatest inventor, magician and chocolate maker.

A heart-warming film inspired by the true story of when a six-year-old Roald Dahl (Harry Tayler) meets his idol Beatrix Potter (Dawn French). A magical story of what really can happen when you are brave enough to follow your dreams.

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When sensible, sophisticated Flora Poste (Kate Beckinsale) is orphaned at nineteen, she decides her only choice is to descend upon relatives in deepest Sussex, the Starkadders at Cold Comfort Farm.

Far from the refinement of 1930's London, the decidedly odd family are in need of organising, so who better than Flora to do it!

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Regina (Audrey Hepburn) is about to divorce her husband when he is found murdered. Shortly before his death he had been converting all of his goods into cash, which has also disappeared.

Enter onto the scene Peter Joshua (Cary Grant), seemingly interested in Regina but really more interested in the whereabouts of her late husband's money. He is not alone, for there are former partners of her husband's also on the trail…

Kenneth Branagh stars as celebrated sleuth Hercule Poirot in this terrifying mystery set after World War II. Retired and living in Venice, Italy, Poirot reluctantly attends a seance where a murdered guest thrusts the detective into a sinister, shadowy world.

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After meeting a newly orphaned girl named Addie Loggins (Tatum O'Neal), con man Hoses Pray (Ryan O'Neal), who may or may not be Addie's father, is enlisted to deliver the newly orphaned Addie to her aunt in Missouri.

Shortly after however, the two realise that together they make an efficient scam-artist duo. Adventure ensues as the pair blaze through the American Midwest, stealing, swindling, and selling the moon...

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Gloria Swanson as Norma Desmond, an ageing silent film queen, and William Holden as the struggling writer who is held in thrall by her madness, created two of the screen's most memorable characters in 'Sunset Boulevard'.

Winner of three Academy Awards, director Billy Wilder's orchestration of the bizarre tale is a true cinematic classic. From the unforgettable opening sequence through the inevitable unfolding of tragic destiny, the film is the definitive statement on the dark and desperate side of Hollywood. Erich von Stroheim as Desmond's discoverer, ex-husband and butler, and Nancy Olson as the bright spot in unrelenting ominousness, are equally celebrated for their masterful performances.

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In this gently probing family drama, 40-year-old Ryota (Hiroshi Abe) arrives with his wife and stepson at the home of his elderly parents to commemorate his older brother, who drowned some years earlier.

Hirokazu Koreeda's most Ozu-influenced film is a subtle, moving account of family tensions that delves deep into the differing assumptions and value systems of its generations. This was the director's first film to feature veteran actress Kirin Kiki, who would become a regular collaborator.

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From writer-director Martin McDonagh (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri) comes a unique film starring Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson.

Although Padraic (Farrell) and CoIm (Gleeson) have been lifelong friends, they find themselves at an impasse when one abruptly ends their relationship, bringing alarming consequences for both of them.

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Hollywood 1927. George Valentin (Jean Dujardin) is a silent movie superstar. The advent of the talkies will sound the death knell for his career and see him fall into oblivion. For young extra Peppy Miller (Bérénice Bejo), it seems the sky's the limit major movie stardom awaits.

The Artist tells the story of their interlinked destinies.