john-t's - Rented List

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Shot in the summer of 1975 as General Franco lay dying, Saura's masterpiece takes its title from a sinister Spanish proverb: 'Raise ravens and they'll pluck out your eyes'.

A subtle yet unmistakable indictment of the family as a repressive force in Spanish society, 'Cria cuervos' centres on an eight-year-old orphan (the spellbinding Ana Torrent) who believes herself to have poisoned her cold, authoritarian father (Hector Alterio), a high-ranking military man whom she blames for the death of her adored mother (Geraldine Chaplin).

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Julie Christie plays the part of 'Darling' in this story of a stylish amoral model. There are three men in her life, each of whom willingly or involuntarily helps her on her way to the top.

Dirk Bogarde plays a TV interviewer, an honest man striving to tell illusion from reality; Laurence Harvey, an advertising executive, totally cynical about manipulating society's values; and Roland Curram, a gay magazine photographer battening parasitically on glossy society. There is also a 'fourth man' - the one whom Darling marries, only to find herself a prisoner of the smart world she has conquered. Although Darling thinks she can exploit society to her own advantage, she ends up exploited - manipulated by men who are, aptly enough, professional image-makers at a time in British life when the image said it all (or so it was thought). And at the centre of it all, incarnating the decade which saw the ascension of the model girl to the status of international idol, Julie Christie gives the sort of indelible performance that made many of her subsequent roles look like Darling's distant cousins or historical ancestors.

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This monumental mid-nineteenth-century epic from Jan Troell charts, over the course of two films, a Swedish farming family's voyage to America and their efforts to put down roots in this beautiful but forbidding new world.

Movie legends Max von Sydow and Liv Ullmann give remarkably authentic performances as Karl Oskar and Kristina, a couple who meet with one physical and emotional trial after another on their arduous journey. The precise, minute detail with which Troell depicts their story - which is also that of countless other people who sought better lives across the Atlantic - is a wonder to behold. Engrossing at every step of the way, the duo of 'The Emigrants' and 'The New Land' makes for perhaps the greatest screen drama about the settling of America.

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1902: John McCabe (Warren Beatty) turns up in a northwest mining town called Presbyterian Church, starts gambling and sets up a successful brothel with his girlfriend Constance Miller (Julie Christie), an opium-addicted madam.

They refuse an offer from the mine operators to buy them out, but the mine bosses refuse to take no for an answer.

Ashby's film follows the burgeoning relationship between the gloomy, 20-year-old, suicide-staging Harold (Bud Cort), suffocated by his wealthy homestead, and the sprightly octogenarian Maude (Ruth Gordon), whose bohemian wiles and open-arms approach to living enable Harold's first gentle steps towards embracing existence.

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Karamakate, a warrior shaman and last of his tribe, transcends the worlds of men and seeks truth through their dreams. He alone knows how to find the mysterious and psychedelic Yakruna plant; for some it has life-saving properties, for others it is a commodity waiting to be exploited.

Two scientists, in two different times enlist Karamakate on their individual quests in an epic adventure into the heart of the Colombian Amazon to find this mythical plant. This Oscar nominated film is seen through Karamakates eyes and bears witness to the effects of colonialism, religion and the exploitation of rubber on indigenous traditions and the environment to which they arc inextricably linked.

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On a wintry day, a young man collapses and dies while jogging in the park. At that same moment, a baby is born.

Maverick filmmaker Jonathan Glazer affirms the promise of his brilliant debut, Sexy Beast, with his new film Birth, teaming with Academy Award winner Nicole Kidman for a metaphysical love story that explores the space between what we know and what we feel. Kidman stars as Anna, a delicate young widow who is on the verge of a new life when a solemn little boy appears, claiming to be the reincarnation of her dead husband.

After losing his mother, nine-year-old Icare (nicknamed "Courgette") is taken to a foster home to live with other kids his own age. Although he has trouble finding his place at first, Courgette soon learns to love those around him as he finds a new family of his own.

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"Amadeus" triumphs as gripping human drama, sumptuous period epic, glorious celebration of the music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. It's 1781 and Antonio Salieri (F. Murray Abraham) is the competent court composer to Emperor Joseph II.

When Mozart (Tom Hulce) arrives at court, Salieri is horrified to discover that the godlike musical gifts he desires for himself have been bestowed on a bawdy, impish jokester. Mad with envy, he plots to destroy Mozart by any means. Perhaps, even murder.

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From producer and director Steven Spielberg, with a script by screenwriter and playwright Tony Kushner, comes 'West Side Story'.

An adaptation of the 1957 musical, the film tells the tale of forbidden love and the rivalry between the Jets and the Sharks, two teenage street gangs of different ethnic backgrounds.

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"Topsy-Turvy" casts the spotlight upon the creative partnership of William Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan, responsible for such classic operettas as The Pirates of Penzance.

After ten consecutive smash hits, Gilbert and Sullivan have a flop on their hands and begin to question the very process that has afforded them a decade of success. Sullivan (Allan Corduner) thinks Gilbert's story lines have become formulaic and a creative deadlock is reached. But when Gilbert (Jim Broadbent) visits a Japanese cultural exhibition he is struck with inspiration and the pair re-unite to create 'The Mikado', a huge hit. Throughout 'Topsy-Turvy' are woven insights into the lives not only of the complex Gilbert, childlessly married to a demoted wife, and the bon-viveur, brothel-visiting Sullivan and his American mistress, but also the working actors, actresses, chorus, musicians and costumiers of the Savoy Theatre, and of D'Oyly carte and his team.

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After 20 years on the British police force, Detective Sergeant Johnson (Sean Connery) has seen too much: 20 years of murders, rapes and countless other violent crimes.

One day while interrogating a snide, sarcastic suspect in a child molestation case, all of his pent up anger and hatred surfaces and Johnson loses control, killing the man. What had started out as a routine investigation has turned into a case of police brutality, and Johnson must now attempt to reconcile his own violent behaviour.

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Fin McBride (Peter Dinklage), a loner with a passion for trains, inherits an abandoned train depot in the middle of nowhere, a place that suits him just fine because all he wants is to be left alone. But that is not to be.

Soon after moving in, he meets Olivia (Patricia Clarkson), a distracted artist, and Joe (Bobby Cannavale), a friendly Cuban with an insatiable hunger for conversation who parks his hot dog truck right next door. With absolutely nothing in common, they find their isolated lives coming together in a friendship none of them could foresee.

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Anthony Hopkins plays the eponymous role of a mischievious and highly independent man who, as he ages, refuses all assistance from his daughter Anne (Olivia Colman). Yet, such help has become essential following Anne's decision to move to Paris with her partner.

As Anne's father tries to make sense of his changing circumstances, he begins to doubt his loved ones, his own mind and even the fabric of his reality.

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Belfast is a poignant story of love, laughter and loss in one boy's childhood amid the music and social tumult of the late 1960's.

Buddy's family lives in a largely Protestant district with a few Catholic families, but one day his community and everything he thought he understood about life is suddenly turned upside down. Buddy's family gets caught in the mayhem and must decide to stay or leave the only place they have ever called home. Through it all, his passionate parents (Caitriona Balfe and Jamie Dornan) and quick-witted grandparents (Academy Award winner Judy Dench and Ciaran Hinds) keep the joy alive through music and the magic of movies in this feel-good story that reminds us that no matter how far you go, you never forget where you came from.