itpworld's - Rented List

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Aravindan's The Circus Tent poetically explores the ripples created by the arrival of a travelling circus in a remote Indian village. From their processional entrance through spellbinding performances to their final pack-down, circus life is captured in striking imagery.

Cutting between skilled performers and wide-eyed spectators, the film encapsulates the sheer magic of ar encountered for the first time. Aravindan's lyrical masterpiece links the transience of the travelling troupe with the inevitable mortality of life. Once thought lost, now fully restored, the film will enrapture audiences anew.

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A classic tale is reborn through the inspired imagination of cinematic dream-weaver Guillermo del Toro, directing alongside Mark Gustafson.

Realised through boundary-pushing, breathtakingly intricate stop-motion animation, this dark rendering of the fable of the puppet boy and his maker - which won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature - daringly transfers the story to Fascist Italy, where the irrepressible Pinocchio gradually learns what it means to be human through his experiences of war, death, and sacrifice. This 'Pinocchio' imbues the oft-told tale with a bold new resonance about living with courage and compassion.

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Sooner or later, every police investigator comes across a case that remains unsolved and that haunts them. For Yohan (Bastien Bouillon), Clara's (Lula Cotton-Frapier)'s murder proves to be that case. What starts as a thorough investigation into the victim's life soon turns into a nagging obsession.

One interrogation follows another, there is no shortage of suspects and Yohan has more and more doubts. Only one thing is sure, the crime occurred on the night of the 12th.

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The merchant seamen who helped bring in vital supplies to a Britain under siege during World War Two performed one of the most daring and dangerous tasks of the war. The battle of the Atlantic was merciless, and the Merchant Navy lost more men than any of the British armed forces.

In 1944, the Crown Film Unit set out to document the bravery of the merchant seamen and expose the harsh dangers faced by making 'Western Approaches'. Generally regarded as one of the best British documentaries of the war, the film uses merchant seamen to re-enact their roles for the cameras and was shot in colour - unlike many films of the same era. The storyline was both realistic and dramatic. Trying to run the gauntlet of U.Boat Wolf Packs on its way home from America to Britain, a merchant ship is torpedoed and sunk. The survivors take to a lifeboat and await rescue - unaware that the U-Boat which sank them is still lurking in the area, just waiting for the rescue boat to turn up...

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Dennis O'Keefe plays Joe Sullivan who is serving time for a robbery, having taken the rap for sadistic pyromaniacal gang boss Rick Coyle (Raymond Burr) who owes him if he gets out and lives to collect, Joe escapes Coyle's fatal trap and with the help of his moll/partner Pat (Claire Trevor) goes

gunning for Coyle and his henchmen. Along the way Pat and Joe kidnap Joe's moralistic social worker Ann (Marsha Hunt) who has been trying to reform Joe. the film involves the complex emotional interactions within this odd menage a trios leading to the inevitable encounter with Coyle. Joe has to answer the question is he a tough heartless criminal or is there a heart of gold under that gritty exterior.

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Director Ang Lee's follow-up to his surprise box-office hit 'The Wedding Banquet', and nominated for 11 Academy Awards including Best Foreign Film, "Eat Drink Man Woman" is an unrivalled bitter sweet comedy about food, the senses and gender politics in modern China.

Senior Master Chef Chu lives in a large house in Taipei with his three unmarried daughters; Jia-Jen, an unmarried chemistry teacher cynical about men; Jia-Chien, who has ambitions to become a great chef in a male dominated world and Jia-Ning, a sexually expressive college student who falls pregnant. Life in the house revolves around the ritual of an elaborate dinner each Sunday, lovingly cooked by Chef Chu but may be all too traditional for the next generation of the family. As each meal passes the relationships between the daughters and the family as a whole evolve and change in many unexpected ways.

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Screen legends Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray star in this timeless, heart-warming Christmas classic that can be enjoyed any time of year! Lee Leander (Stanwyck) is a pretty shoplifter on trial for swiping an expensive bracelet from a local jewellery store.

When her trial is postponed until after New Year, the sympathetic Assistant District Attorney John Sargent (MacMurray) bails her out of jail. When he invites her to his family's home for the holidays, she discovers the warmth and love she's never had but always wanted. Featuring a wonderful supporting cast of Beulah Bondi, Sterling Holloway and Elizabeth Patterson, plus a charming script by Preston Sturges and superb direction by Mitchell Leisen, 'Remember the Night' is a not to be missed classic.

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From Oscar-winning director Giuseppe Tornatore (Cinema Paradiso), 'Ennio' celebrates the life and legacy of the legendary Italian composer Ennio Morricone, who passed away on 6 July 2020.

Through interviews with directors, screenwriters, musicians, songwriters, critics and collaborators, Tornatore's documentary retraces the life and works of the cinema's most popular and prolific 20th century composer - who wrote over 500 scores for film and television and sold over 70 million records - from his cinema debut with Sergio Leone, to winning an Academy Award for 'The Hateful Eight' in 2016.

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Ang Lee's directorial debut established him as a world-class filmmaker and truly unique talent. "Pushing Hands" is a deeply moving and funny examination of Chinese respect for their elders and the cultural differences between the East and the West. Mr.

Chu is an elderly man who has devoted himself to a lifetime of study and teaching Tai Chi but in old age wishes a closer relationship with his family and so decides to leave his native Beijing to live with his son Alex (Bo Z. Wang), and his frustrated writer wife Alex (Deb Snyder) in New York. Adapting to a new culture, bonding with his new wider American family and adjusting to his dwindling independence in old age, Chu soon discovers there is still much to learn.

When a manipulative carnival man (Bradley Cooper) teams with an equally deceptive psychiatrist (Cate Blanchett) to grift the wealthy in 1940's New York society, he learns that his new partner in crime might be his most formidable opponent yet.

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One of world cinema's most dynamic and highly regarded auteurs, Hou Hsiao-hsien has influenced entire generations of filmmakers and was once dubbed one of the three directors most crucial to the future of cinema.

Cute Girl (1980)

A young bride-to-be falls for a laid-back land surveyor whilst visiting her family in the countryside. Conceived as a commercial vehicle for popular Hong Kong singer Kenny Bee, this romantic comedy was Hou Hsiao-hsien's debut feature.
The Green, Green Grass of Home (1982)
A substitute teacher (again played by Kenny Bee) moves to a remote village, where he falls in love with another teacher at the local school.
The Boys from Fengkuei (1983)
Three young men leave their fishing village for the city to look for work, where they face some harsh realities about growing up. The film which established Hou Hsiao-hsien as a leading figure of the Taiwanese New Wave, 'The Boys from Fengkuei' was rapturously received in Europe and is often considered the director's first mature masterwork.

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Loosely based on Carlos Fuentes' hypnotic novella 'Aura', Damiani's film follows the plight of playboy historian Sergio (Richard Johnson), who answers an advert from the wealthy Consuelo Lorente (Sarah Ferrati) to take care of her library and sort out her late husband's erotic memoirs.

Initially tempted to stay by the old woman's strikingly beautiful daughter, Aura (Rosanna Schiaffino), Sergio subsequently finds himself unable to leave, and that he's just one of a number of desperate men who have fallen into a deadly honey trap.

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In acclaimed director Edgar Wright's psychological thriller, Eloise (Thomasin McKenzie), an aspiring fashion designer, is mysteriously able to enter the 1960's, where she encounters a dazzling wannabe singer, Sandie (Anya Taylor-Joy).

But the glamour is not all it appears to be, and the dreams of the past start to crack and splinter into something far darker.

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Irena Dubrovna (Simone Simon), a beautiful and mysterious Serbian-born fashion artist living in New York City, falls in love with and marries average-Joe American Oliver Reed (Kent Smith).

But Irena believes that she suffers from an ancient curse and whenever she is emotionally aroused she will turn into a panther and savage her victims. Oliver thinks that is absurd and sends her to psychiatrist Dr. Judd (Tom Conway) to cure her. But truth is sometimes stranger than fantasy...

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Stach (Tadeusz Lomnicki) is a wayward teen living in squalor on the outskirts of Nazi-occupied Warsaw. Guided by an avuncular Communist organizer, he is introduced to the underground resistance - and to the beautiful Dorota (Urszula Modrzynska).

Soon he is engaged in a dangerous effort to fight oppression and indignity, maturing as he assumes responsibility for other's lives. A coming-of-age story of survival and shattering loss, 'A Generation' delivers a brutal portrait of the human cost of war.