i-done-watched-these's - Rented List

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The first sound-film by one of the greatest of all filmmaker's, Vampyr offers a sensual immediacy that few, if any, works of cinema can claim to match.

Legendary director Carl Theodor Dreyer leads the viewer, as though guided in a trance, through a realm akin to a wakingdream, a zone positioned somewhere between reality and the supernatural.

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It begins with a funny, touching evocation of a rambunctious Sicilian childhood, as six-year-old Toto (the irresistible Salvatore Cascio) becomes first an irritant and then a willing assistant to the gruff projectionist Alfredo (Philippe Noiret) at the local cinema, the Paradiso.

A decade later, now going by his full name of Salvatore (Marco Leonardi), he falls in love with a girl out of his social league, takes his first tentative creative steps in the world of film and decides to leave home for good. Finally, the adult Salvatore (Jacques Perrin) ruefully reflects on the personal and emotional cost of his artistic success, and how much he owes to Alfredo. The beautiful score by Ennio Morricone and his son Andrea bathes the film in a warmly nostalgic glow.

Director James Wan returns to his roots with this new original horror thriller. A woman is paralysed by shocking visions of grisly murders, and her torment worsens as she discovers that these waking dreams are in fact terrifying realities.

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From the mind of the legendary cult filmmaker, Alejandro Jodorowsky, comes an epic imaginary autobiography depicting both the wonders and the hardships of existing in the substance we all call reality.

True to form, Jodorowsky takes us on a strange, mystic, fantastic and deeply surreal journey that no one else could, except this time the subject is his own early life, being raised by his strict, Stalin-adoring father who has plans to assassinate the right-wing Chilean president.

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From legendary filmmaker Paul Verhoeven, 'Elle' is a gripping psychological noir thriller. Starring iconic actress Isabelle Huppert in a career-defining role, 'Elle' follows Michele LeBlanc (Huppert), founder and CEO of a successful video game company, who is attacked in her own home.

Upending our expectations, Michele begins to track down her assailant, and soon they are both drawn into a curious and thrilling game, one that at any moment may spiral out of control.

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"2046" continues the story of Chow Mo Wan from Wong Kar-Wai's previous film, 'In the Mood for Love', a few years after his ephemeral affair with Maggie Cheung's Su Li-zhen. Set in late-1960's Hong Kong, Chow is now an out of work journalist and pulp fiction writer living in a cheap hotel.

Bruised and battered by love, he pursues a playboy lifestyle of zero commitment and one-night stands. He develops a passion for a beautiful call girl (Zhang ZiYi), enjoys a breezy summer with the hotel manager's eldest daughter (Faye Wong), and happens across the path of a professional gambler (Gong Li) who he met in Singapore some years before. In the meantime, Chow works on a science fiction novel about a mysterious hi-tech train that transports people to the year 2046 to reclaim their lost memories.

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Winston Smith (John Hurt) endures a squalid existence in totalitarian Oceania under the constant surveillance of Big Brother. But his life takes a horrifying turn when he begins a forbidden love affair and commits the crime of independent thought.

Sent to the chillingly labelled "Ministry of Love", he is placed at the mercy of O'Brien (Richard Burton), a coolly treacherous leader determined to control his thoughts and crush his soul...

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A gallery of high-living lowlifes will stop at nothing to get their sweaty hands on a jewel-encrusted falcon. Detective Sam Spade (Humphrey Bogart) wants to find out why - and who'll take the fall for his partner's murder.

An all-star cast (including Sydney Greenstreet, Mary Astor, Peter Lorre and Elisha Cook Jr.) joins Bogart in this cracking mystery masterwork written for the screen (from Dashiell Hammett's novel) and directed by John Huston.

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One of the most emotional film experiences of any era, Carl Theodor Dreyer's 1928 'The Passion of Joan of Arc' is a miracle of the cinema, an enigmatic and profoundly moving work that merges the worlds of the viewer and of saintly loan herself into one shared experience of hushed delirium.

Drever's film charts the final days of Joan of Arc as she undergoes the debasement that accompanies her trial for charges of heresy - through her imprisonment and execution at the stake.

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For decades, the housing projects of Chicago's Cabrini-Green were terrorized by a ghost story about a supernatural, hook-handed killer.

In present day, an artist (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) begins to explore the macabre history of Candyman, not knowing it would unravel his sanity and unleash a terrifying wave of violence that puts him on a collision course with destiny.

A reclusive truffle hunter (Nicolas Cage) who lives alone in the wilderness must return to his past in Portland in search of his beloved foraging pig after she is kidnapped.

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Welcomed into an ancient Japanese clan called the Arashikage after saving the life of their heir, Storm Shadow (Andrew Koji), Snake Eyes joins the battle against the terrorist group Cobra. Pushed to his limits, Snake Eyes will become the ultimate warrior.

But, when past secrets are revealed, his honour and allegiance will be tested - even if that means losing everything he ha been fighting for. Also starring Ursula Corbero as Baroness and Samara Weaving as Scarlett.

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Jean Servais is Tony le Stephanois, a master thief with a battered face and a tubercular cough, souvenirs of a recent stint in the pen.

The ageing Tony is reluctant to return to a life of crime, but when he realizes his girlfriend has thrown him over for a rival gangster, he agrees to attempt one last job. Together with three collaborators – a young father, a boisterous Franco-Italian and a sentimental Milanese safecracker – Tony meticulously engineers his biggest heist yet: robbing the most heavily guarded jewelry store in Paris.

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A tyrant schoolteacher - Delasalle (Paul Meurisse) in a seedy boarding school has both his wife (Vera Clouzot) and his mistress (Simone Signoret) looking for a way out as he maltreats them both. They decide to work together to murder their tormentor.

The two women drown Delasalle in the bath then dump the body in a swimming pool. When the pool is drained and no body found they start to worry. When his suit is returned, cleaned, they start to panic. Is he alive? Does someone else know? A spiral of perfectly crafted tension hurtles you to an unparalleled conclusion and an ending you will never forget!

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Kurosawa's transposition of Shakespeare's 'Macbeth' to sixteenth century Japan is immensely successful in capturing the spirit of the original. A truly remarkable film combining beauty and terror to produce a mood of haunting power.

'Throne of Blood' also shows Kurosawa's familiar mastery of atmosphere, action and the savagery of war.