maggs's - Rented List

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In 1960, a young Irish woman named Edna O'Brien wrote a sexually frank debut novel, 'The Country Girls'. She became a literary sensation, writing for The New Yorker, delivering provocative interviews, and authoring screenplays.

Her success enraged her writer husband and made her a pariah in her native Ireland, where her books were banned and burned. She would make her home in London, where she conducted numerous love affairs, hosted star-studded parties, and made and lost a fortune. In July 2024, Edna passed away and this film provides a final testimony from her, aged 93, as she reflects upon her extraordinary life for filmmaker Sinead O'Shea's camera. Granting the director access to her personal journals - read aloud in the film by the Oscar nominated Irish actress Jessie Buckley - and with additional perspectives offered from Gabriel Byrne, Walter Mosley and an array of renowned writers, Edna does not shy from any subject. 'Blue Road' is as candid, dark, and enchanting as O'Brien's wonderful novels.

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Jazz and decolonisation are entwined in this historical rollercoaster that rewrites the Cold War episode that led musicians Abbey Lincoln and Max Roach to crash the UN Security Council in protest against the murder of Congolese leader Patrice Lumumba.

It is 1961, six months after the admission of sixteen newly independent African countries to the UN, and a political earthquake shifts the majority vote from the colonial powers to the Global South. As Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev bangs his shoe in indignation at the UN's complicity in the overthrow of Lumumba, the US State Department swings into action by sending jazz ambassador Louis Armstrong to Congo to deflect attention from the CIA-backed coup. Featuring footage with Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, Abbey Lincoln, Max Roach, Nina Simone, Miriam Makeba, John Coltrane, Duke Ellington, Charles Mingus, Malcolm X and Nikita Khrushchev.

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Alain Guiraudie (director of 'Stranger by the Lake') is one of the most unique and transgressive voices in cinema, and this deepest France mixture of black comedy and melodrama, steeped in desires, again reveals his penchant for genre-hopping and narrative unpredictability.

Jeremie (Felix Kysyl) returns to his home village for a funeral, and stays on, amorally playing with the attraction he generates from both his old male friends, the village priest, and his mentor's wife. Then events start to spiral.

1939, Hitler's army was closing borders, and eighty-five American missionaries were in Germany serving their church. The escape of these missionaries from Nazi Germany is one of the most dramatic events to occur in modern church history.

Black Bag is a gripping spy drama about legendary intelligence agents George Woodhouse (Michael Fassbender) and his beloved wife Kathryn (Cate Blanchett). When she is suspected of betraying the nation. George faces the ultimate test-loyalty to his marriage or his country.

Struggling to fit in at his new school after being expelled for his treatment of Auggie Pullman, Julian (Bryce Gheisar) is visited by his grandmother (Helen Mirren) and is transformed by the compassionate and heroic story of her attempts to escape Nazi-occupied France during WWII.

Only one man has the particular set of skills...to lead Police Squad and save the world! Lt. Frank Drebin Jr. (Liam Neeson) follows in his father's footsteps in The Naked Gun.

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In the Welsh town of Port Talbot, 1942, Richard Jenkins (Harry Lawtey) lives as a wayward schoolboy, caught between the pressures of his struggling family, a devastating war, and his own ambitions.

However, a new opportunity arises when Richard's natural talent for drama catches the attention of his teacher, Philip Burton (Toby Jones). Taking Richard under his wing, the young man thrives thanks to Philip's strict tutelage and the guidance of kindly landlady, Ma Smith (Lesley Manville). But, as the acting world comes within Richard's reach, the burden of his past risks holding him back forever.

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One of Britain's best-loved and most critically acclaimed directors, Mike Leigh (Mr. Turner, Another Year), returns with this delightfully witty yet incredibly moving portrait of a modern Black British family.

Pansy (Marianne Jean-Baptiste) is a bad-tempered hypochondriac who never has a nice word to say about anyone. But as funny as her sharp tongue can sometimes be, it is having dire consequences for her family's wellbeing.

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London 1846: successful barber, Sweeney Todd (Terry Bird), has for years been haunted by a devastating miscarriage of justice - the loss of his parents at the hands of a cruel judge. But then his path crosses one fateful night with local baker, Mrs.

Lovett (Jo Dyson), a woman who too has been wronged by the same man and his corrupt associates. Scheming to put an end to the cycle of abuse and exploitation, Todd and Lovett make a deadly pact, leading a macabre charge for revenge against the Victorian upper class, and all who dare stand in their way.

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In the final season of the groundbreaking series,a relationship blossoms between Princess Diana (Elizabeth Debicki) and Dodi Fayed (Khalid Abdalla) before a fateful car journey has devastating consequences.

Prince William (Rufus Kampa) tries to integrate back into life at Eton in the wake of his mother's death as the monarchy has to ride the wave of public opinion. As she reaches her Golden Jubilee, the Queen (Imelda Staunton) reflects on the future of the monarchy with the marriage of Charles (Dominic West) and Camilla (Olivia Williams) and the beginnings of a new royal fairy tale in William (Ed McVey) and Kate (Meg Bellamy).

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Set on an island off the coast of New England in the summer of 1965, feature tells the story of two 12-year-olds who fall in love, make a secret pact, and run away together into the wilderness.

As various authorities try to hunt them down, a violent storm is brewing off-shore - and the peaceful island community is turned upside down in every which way.

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Three American brothers who have not spoken to each other in a year set off on a train voyage across India with a plan to find themselves and bond with each other - to become brothers again like they used to be.

Their spiritual quest, however, veers rapidly off course (due to events involving over the counter pain killers, Indian cough syrup, and pepper spray), and they eventually find themselves stranded alone in the middle of the desert with eleven suitcases, a printer and a laminating machine, at this moment, a new, unplanned journey suddenly begins.

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Escaping post-war Europe, visionary architect László Toth (Adrien Brody) arrives in America to rebuild his life, his work, and his marriage to his wife Erzsébet (Felicity Jones) after being forced apart during wartime by shifting borders and regimes.

On his own in a strange new country, László settles in Pennsylvania, where the wealthy and prominent industrialist Horrison Lee Van Buren (Guy Pearce) recognises his talent for building. But power and legacy come at a heavy cost....

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Directed by Pablo Larraín (Jackie and Spencer) and starring Academy Award winner Angelina Jolie, 'Maria' tells the glamorous, moving story of the iconic opera singer, Maria Callas.

Paris, 1977: Once the world's greatest soprano, Callas now hides in an apartment, having lost her voice and retreated from the world. She dreams of returning to the stage, but can her body and mind take the pressure?