john-t's - Rented List

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"Marlene" is no standard movie-star documentary. It is a mystery story, a discourse on truth and fiction, a battle with a sacred monster, a caustic comedy of errors, and the story of the making of a film, all rolled into one.

After years of public silence, the legendary Dietrich personally selected Maximilian Schell to make an interview film about her. Schell saw a golden opportunity to penetrate an enigma: he soon found himself locked in a battle royal. Marlene refused to let him photograph her or even her apartment. She was openly contemptuous of his questions and refused to answer many of them. Schell is candid enough tomake himself the butt of his own film, an increasingly comic, exasperated figure with whom Marlene toys much like one of the femmes fatales she portrayed so masterfully on the screen. Schell fills out the image track with wonderful excerpts of her performances and often bizarre representations of his own dilemma. But dominating the film is Marlene herself, her disembodied voice only heightening her mystique - querulous, witty, provocative, revealing and moving. It quickly becomes apparent that the friction between director and star is not the film's liability but its saving grace, rescuing it from conventionality and turning it into a unique, multi-leveled and richly entertaining record of an encounter with a real-life legend.

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Foxcatcher is an electrifying thriller, based on true events.

When wealthy John du Pont (Steve Carell) invites Olympic wrestler Mark Schultz (Charming Tatum) to move to his estate and help form a wrestling team for the 1988 Seoul Olympics, Mark sees a way to step out of the shadow of his charismatic and revered brother, Dave (Mark Ruffalo) and instantly accepts his offer.
However, du Pont begins to lead Mark down a dark path while becoming fixated on recruiting Dave to 'Team Foxcatcher'. As tensions and paranoia run high through their constant power-struggles and the pursuit of victory, all three men are propelled towards ;an unforeseen event that will change their lives forever.

Research scientist Eddie Jessup (William Hurt) believes other states of consciousness are as real as everyday reality. Using sensory deprivation, then adding powerful, hallucinogenic drugs, he explores these altered states...and endures experiences that make madness seem a blessing.

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When Timothy Evans (John Hurt), and his wife Beryl (Judy Geeson), move into 10 Rillington Place with their young daughter, they have no idea of the horror that awaits them.

For at the same address lives John Reginald Christie (Richard Attenborough), a man with a dark secret that will soon engulf Evans and his family in tragedy.

A stunning and beautiful film, "Mr. Turner" tells the extraordinary story of Britain's greatest ever artist. As Turner (Timothy Spall) produces masterpieces ahead of his time that challenge the art world, so he has to confront his own ever changing circumstances and deal with love and loss.

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In 'The Unknown Known', Academy Award-winning director Errol Morris offers a mesmerising portrait of Donald Rumsfeld, the larger-than-life figure who served as George W. Bush's secretary of defense and as the principal architect of the Iraq War.

Rather than conducting a conventional interview, Morris has Rumsfeld perform and explain his "snowflakes" - the enormous archive of memos he wrote across almost fifty years in Congress, the White House, in business, and twice at the Pentagon. The memos provide a window into history - not as it actually happened, but as Rumsfeld wants us to see it. By focusing on the "snowflakes", with their conundrums and their contradictions, Morris takes us where few have ever been - beyond the web of words into the unfamiliar terrain of Rumsfeld's mind. 'The Unknown Known' presents history from the inside out. It shows how the ideas, the fears, and the certainties of one man, written out on paper, transformed America, changed the course of history - and led to war.

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The Marvel Cinematic Universe expands into the cosmos when brash space adventurer Peter Quill steals a coveted orb and becomes the object of a relentless bounty hunt.

To evade his enemies, Quill forges an uneasy truce with Rocket, a gun-toting raccoon; Groot, a tree-like humanoid; the deadly assassin Gamora; and the revenge-driven Drax. But when Quill discovers the true power of the orb, he must rally his ragtag band of misfits for a desperate battle that will decide the fate of the galaxy.

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Dreamy-eyed grade-schooler Mason (Ellar Coltrane) is facing upheaval: his struggling single mom Olivia (Patricia Arquette) has decided to move him and older sister Samantha (Lorelei Linklater) to Houston - just as their long-absent father Mason Sr. (Ethan Hawke) re-enters their world.

Thus begins a decade of constantly unfolding heartbreak and wonder as Mason swims against the tide of family moves and controversies, faltering marriages, new schools, first loves, lost loves, good times and scary times that shape the person he will be.

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'20,000 Days on Earth' is a bold and unique look at one of music's most mysterious and charismatic figures, the iconic musician and writer Nick Cave.

Directors lain Forsyth and Jane Pollard present a vision of an artist in a way that is unconventional yet undeniably intimate, while also exploring more universal themes of creativity and how we choose to spend our time on the Earth. The film presents Cave's personal analysis of his own life and creative processes. He shares humorous tales of times past with bandmate and frequent collaborator Warren Ellis, and engages in enlightening discussion with those who have affected his life both professionally and personally, including former Bad Seed Blixa Bargeld, actor friend Ray Winstone, and perhaps most notably Kylie Minogue, with whom Cave collaborated on his breakout hit Where the Wild Roses Grow.

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Browning, a former circus contortionist, cast reai-life sideshow professionals.

A living torso who, nimbly fights his own cigarette despite having no arms or legs, microcephalics (whom the film calls "pinheads")-they and others play the big-top troupers who inflict a terrible revenge on a trapeze artist who treats them as subhumans.

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Marlene Dietrich sizzles opposite John Wayne as sexy saloon singer Bijou Blanche, who's as quick with a comeback as she is with a come on.

Deported from every South Sea island on which she's ever performed, Bijou winds up in Boni Komba at the Seven Sinners Cafe, convincing the manager that she'll break only hearts, not bar stools.

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From the inimitable Billy Wilder (Double Indemnify, The Lost Weekend) comes this classic comedy that mixes romance with hard-boiled wit in a story about stiff-necked Iowa congresswoman Phoebe Frost (Jean Arthur -Shane) mired in jaded postwar Berlin.

As she investigates the morale of American troops, Phoebe is cynically wooed by fellow Iowan Captain John Pringle (John Lund), who is trying to cover up his affair with Nazi-tainted chanteuse Erika von Schlutow (Marlene Dietrich). Filled with sharp dialogue and satiric jabs, 'A Foreign Affair' is one of Wilder's most beloved comedies...

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Garbo Talks!, proclaimed ads when silent star Greta Garbo debuted in talkies. Nine years and 12 classic screen dramas later, the gifted movie legend was ready for another change.

Garbo Laughs!, cheered the publicity for her first comedy, a frothy tale of a dour Russian envoy sublimating her womanhood for Soviet brotherhood until she falls for a suave Parisian man-about-town (Melvyn Douglas). Working from a cleverly barbed script written in party by Billy Wilder, director Ernst Lubitsch knew better than anyone how to marry refinement with sublime wit. "At least twice a day the most dignified human being is ridiculous", he explained about his acclaimed Lubitsch Touch. That's how we see Garbo's lovestruct Ninotchka: serenely dignified yet endearingly ridiculous. Garbo laughs. So will you.

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Legendary Hollywood icons Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor and Peter O'Toole star in this screen adaptation of Dylan Thomas's classic play. A celebration of life and death, the film follows the people and events in a small Welsh harbour village, on one spring day.

Captain Cat (O'Toole), the blind sea captain, awake or asleep, yearns for Rosie Probert (Taylor), the greatest passion of his youth. Richard Burton plays the key role of the first voice, an all-seeing compassionate narrator.

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There's plenty of fun for the whole family as Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, Animal and the entire Muppets gang head out on a world tour. But mayhem follows the Muppets, as they find themselves unwittingly entangled in an international crime caper.

Now Kermit is behind bars at the mercy of prison warden Nadya (Tina Fey), and the World's Number One Criminal, Constantine - a dead ringer for Kermit - has taken his place! As Constantine and his dastardly sidekick Dominic (Ricky Gervais) plot the robbery of the century, they are pursued by Sam Eagle and Interpol agent Jean Pierre Napoleon (Ty Burrell). Will Constantine get away with his nefarious scheme? Will Kermit escape in time to save the day? Packed with dozens of guest cameos and some great new songs, Disney's Muppets Most Wanted is the most hilarious, most wanted Muppet movie ever!