mervyn-verstellung's - Favourites List

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An adaptation of the best-selling novel by the Austrian author Marlen Haushofer, the film stars Martina Gedeck who, in the course of a shoot that lasted over several seasons, gives a solo performance of enormous strength, both mental and physical.

An invisible wall cuts off a woman alone in the Alps but for a dog, a cow, a cat and her determination to survive, even when the rest of the world has possibly perished.

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This intense, twisty, provocative thriller unfolds in the darkest corners of a mind. Recently released from prison, mild-mannered Carl (Toby Jones) quietly attempts to move on with his life after leaving prison.

Just as he embarks on his first date in 15 years, Carl's fresh start is shattered by the sudden reappearance of his domineering mother (Anne Reid) whose presence awakens a deep-seated trauma. What unfolds is a brain-warping puzzle as reality and illusion, past and present collide and explode in violence.

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Lily Bart (Gillian Anderson) is a ravishing socialite at the height of her success. Torn between her heart and her head, Lily always seems to be doing the right thing at the wrong time and her beauty and charm begin to start attracting unwelcome interest and jealousy.

Conforming to social expectations she begins to seek a wealthy husband but her quest comes to a scandalous end when she is falsely accused of having an affair with a married man and is rejected by society and her friends.

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Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood visits 1969 Los Angeles, where everything is changing, as TV star Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his longtime stunt double Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt) make their way around an industry they hardly recognize anymore.

The ninth film from the writer-director features a large ensemble cast and multiple storylines in a tribute to the final moments of Hollywood's golden age.

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Based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning play by Paul Zindel, Paul Newman's second film as director stars his wife Joanne Woodward as an abusive, over-bearing mother raising her two daughters, Matilda and Ruth (Nell Potts and Roberta Wallach), in an atmosphere of bitterness and hatred.

'The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds' is a powerful, searingly unsentimental and ultimately transformative drama, with a trio of towering performances from the three female leads at its core.

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An eye-opening exploration of the occult, Malcolm Leigh's X-rated quasi-documentary 'Legend of the Witches' (1970) is an imaginative depiction of pagan rituals as they were supposedly practised at the dawn of the downer decade.

Sharing the secrets of initiation into a coven, divination, ritual scrying, the casting of a 'death spell' and a chilling black mass, it also visits Boscastle's incredible Museum of Witchcraft, celebrates Britain's pagan heritage and pays tribute to the perennial power of the witch. Part mondo movie, part counter-cultural artefact, 'Secret Rites' (1971) is a side-step towards documentary territory by notorious exploitation stalwart Derek Ford that purports to lift the veil on witchcraft-as-lifestyle-choice in 1970's Notting Hill. Mystery band 'The Spindle' provide psychedelic sounds while groovy hairdresser and tentative occultist Penny is initiated into the coven of Alex Sanders, who features prominently in both films.

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To her friends, Halla (Halldóra Geirharðsdóttir) leads a quiet and routine life. But her happy and upbeat exterior hides a secret double life as a committed environmental activist.

Known to others as "The Mountain Woman", she wages a one-woman-war on the local aluminium industry to protect the stunning highland landscape that is under threat. Just as she begins planning her biggest and boldest operation yet, she receives an unexpected letter that will change everything. She will be forced to choose between her environmental crusade and the chance of fulfilling her dream of becoming a mother. Funny, moving and utterly unique, 'Woman at War' follows Halla as she juggles the adoption of a beautiful little girl whilst planning her final act of industrial sabotage.

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From acclaimed filmmaker Terence Davies, 'A Quiet Passion' is a powerful study of' 19th Century poet Emily Dickinson that features a stunning performance from Cynthia Nixon.

Spanning a rebellious schoolgirl youth to her later years as a reclusive writer, Davies elegantly explores the hopes, dreams and desires of a woman who wrote some of the most important poems in American literature that still resonate today.

The film follows Asger (Jakob Cedergren), a police officer who enters a race against time when he answers an emergency call from a kidnapped woman. But soon he realises that he is dealing with a crime that is far bigger than he first thought.

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The last season, "All-Out War", set Rick Grimes and his group of survivors against the Saviours and their ingenious leader, Negan. A year and a half after the war, we see our survivors rebuilding civilisation under Rick's unwavering leadership.

Over time, the community is confronted with unexpected obstacles and tensions, but nothing prepares them for the true danger which is developing without their knowledge, and which will endanger the very civilisation that our survivors have been struggling to build...

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Jo (Rita Tushingham) is an awkward, shy 17-year-old girl living with her promiscuous alcoholic mother, Helen (Dora Bryan) in the grey, bleak, tenement houses of Manchester.

Desperately longing to simply be loved, when her mother's latest boyfriend drives Jo out of their apartment she spends the night with a black sailor on a brief shore leave. When Jo's mother abandons her to move in with her latest lover, Jo finds a job and a room for herself. Then Geoffrey (Murray Melvin) drifts into her world, a shy and lonely homosexual, with whom she agrees to share her flat. When Jo discovers that she is pregnant with the sailor's child, Geoffrey, Grateful for her friendship, looks after her, even offering marriage. But their brief taste of happiness is short-lived for Jo's fickle and domineering mother wants to be part of the picture.

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In her remarkable portrayal that won her the 1974 Best Actress Academy Award, Ellen Burstyn stars as widow Alice Hyatt, travelling in a packed station wagon with her son along a bumpy road to a new life.

With Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, director Martin Scorsese is as much at home in the semi-rural Southwest as he is in the urban environs of his signature movies. He guides the "live a little, learn a lot" of Alice's odyssey with affection unmarred by sentiment and draws pitch-perfect performances from co-stars Kris Kristofferson, Alfred Lutter, Jodie Foster, Harvey Keitel, Vic Tayback and Oscar nominee Diane Ladd. It's a slice of life as real, funny and thought-provoking as any you've ever seen. Or lived.

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Nervous spinster Charlotte Vale (Bette Davis) is stunted from growing up under the heel of her puritanical Boston Brahmin mother (Gladys Cooper), and remains convinced of her own unworthiness until a kindly psychiatrist (Claude Rains) gives her the confidence to venture out into the world on a

South American cruise. On board, she finds her footing with the help of an unhappily married man (Paul Henreid). Their thwarted love affair may help Charlotte break free of her mother's grip - but will she find fulfillment as well as independence?

A lonely, unbalanced young butterfly collector (Terence Stamp) stalks and abducts a young art student (Samantha Eggar), keeping her imprisoned in a stone cellar as if she were one of his specimens.

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Winter 1968, and showbiz legend Judy Garland arrives in swinging London to perform in a sell-out run at The Talk of the Town. It is 30 years since she shot to global stardom in The Wizard of Oz, but if her voice has weakened, its dramatic intensity has only grown.

As she prepares for the show, battles with management, charms musicians, and reminisces with friends and adoring fans, her wit and warmth shine through. Even her dreams of romance seem undimmed as she embarks on a courtship with Mickey Deans (Finn Wittrock), her soon-to-be fifth husband. And yet Judy (Renée Zellweger) is fragile. After working for 45 of her 47 years, she is exhausted: haunted by memories of a childhood lost to Hollywood, and gripped by a desire to be back home with her kids. Will she have the strength to go on? Featuring some of her best-known songs, the film celebrates the voice, the capacity for love and the sheer pizzazz of "the world's greatest entertainer".