mervyn-verstellung's - Rented List

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Based on the classic novella by Thomas Mann, this late-career masterpiece from Luchino Visconti is a meditation on the nature of art, the allure of beauty, and the inescapability of death.

A fastidious composer reeling from a disastrous concert, Gustav von Aschenbach (Dirk Bogarde, in an exquisitely nuanced performance) travels to Venice to recover. There, he is struck by a vision of pure beauty in the form of a young boy named Tadzio (Bjorn Andrcscn), his infatuation developing into an obsession even as rumors of a plague spread through the city. Setting Mann's story of queer desire and bodily decay against the sublime music of Gustav Mahler, 'Death in Venice' is one of cinemas most exalted literary adaptations, as sensually rich as it is allegorically resonant.

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Jim Jarmusch's deadpan comedy spans characters, cities and time zones, each taking place in the enclosed space of a cab on one single night.

Beginning in LA just as the sunset descends into darkness, moving through New York, Paris, Rome and finally Helsinki where the sun rises once again, each vignette focuses on the brief relationship that develops between driver and passenger(s) as they travel through the night.

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After the critical triumphs of Stranger Than Paradise and Down By Law, director Jim Jarmusch was heralded as one of the most arresting filmmaker to surface in the American cinema.

Mystery train is a smart and curiously affecting comedy, that is funny and thoroughly satisfying! Named after the Elvis Presley hit, 'Mystery Train'interweaves three engrossing stories, all centering around the Elvis Presley legend and his beloved hometown of Memphis. As the characters' path collide - through laughter, fear and fate - you can practically feel the presence of the King himself in every scene...and his legacy impressed on a generation of equally lost souls in this wry, brilliantly structured comedy.

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Three ill-fated men - a small-time pimp Jack (John Lurie) an unemployed DJ Zack (Tom Waits) and a strong-willed Italian tourist (Roberto Benigni) - meet in the confined space of New Orleans prison cell.

Undeterred by Jack and Zack's evident disdain, Roberto shares with them his improbable plans of escape, thrusting them into an adventure through the Louisiana bayous.

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Growing up in a new-town tower block at the tail end of the 1960's isn't easy for awkward adolescent schoolgirl Wynne (Jenny Agutter). She has a bad case of puppy love for her much older foster brother, George (Bryan Marshall).

And to add to her anguish, might he even be the crazed killer of teenage girls known to prowl the woods nearby?

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Max (Dirk Bogarde) is a night porter in a Vienna hotel in the 1950's. When beautiful Lucia (Charlotte Rampling) checks in, they recognise each other from a terrible past; Max was an SS officer in a concentration camp who had abused and tortured her, then a teenage prisoner.

Lucia is travelling with her orchestra conductor husband, but when he leaves to continue his tour, Lucia stays behind as she and Max find themselves compelled to renew their former, intense, sadomasochistic relationship. Max is a reluctant member of a group of former SS who are ruthlessly covering up their pasts. They soon consider Lucia a threat and urge Max to hand her over. He refuses and hides out with Lucia, while his former comrades exert their threats. This is the story of an obsessive passion which compels two lovers to be together despite their lucid awareness of contravening all - even their own - morality, and the certainty of their tragic destiny. Liliana Cavani's tale of passion beyond all morality or societal construct provokes overwhelming and wildly conflicting emotions.

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Advertising executive James Ballard (James Spader) and his wife Catherine (Deborah Unger) lead complex, if hollow sexual lives. However, after being involved in a near fatal car crash with Dr.

Helen Remington (Holly Hunter), Ballard finds himself being drawn into a provocative exploration of the connections between danger, sex and death - and, as his involvement deepens, Ballard and Catherine discover new and increasingly disturbing ways of expressing love...

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With a career spanning over thirty years, Louis Malle was one of the giants of French cinema.

After he burst onto the scene as one of the pioneers of the French New Wave with Lift To The Scaffold, Malle quickly achieved a reputation as a great director who was unafraid to embrace a wide array of subjects - many famously controversial. Working both in Hollywood and his native France, Malle imprinted his films with subtlety, intelligence and a sharp eye for the mores of human behaviour that set him apart from his contemporaries. This collection brings together classics from Malle's later career. Au Revoir Les Enfants, earning Malle a BAFTA for Best Director, and Lucien Lacombe are two very different tales about troubled youth set during the Second World War. Milou en Mai is a chamber comedy set against the backdrop of the 1968 Parisian uprisings and Le Souffle Au Coeur a taboo-breaking coming-of-age satire. Together with the dreamlike Black Moon, these films are proof that age did not dim Malle's humanism or commitment to experimentation.

Willie (John Lurie), a Hungarian emigre living in New York City, is disgruntled by the arrival of his sixteen-year-old cousin Eva (Eszter Balint). Along with his pal Eddie (Richard Edson), they take a journey through the American landscape, never really settling on a direction.

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When Lady Sandra Abbott (Imelda Staunton) discovers that her husband is having an affair, she seeks refuge with her estranged, bohemian sister Bif (Celia Imrie). As a fish out of water, Sandra is at odds with her sister's free-spirited lifestyle, until she is persuaded to join Bif's dance class.

Here, Bif and her friends Charlie (Timothy Spall), Jackie (Joanna Lumley) and Ted (David Hayman) show Sandra that retirement is in fact only the beginning, and that divorce might just give her a whole new lease of life and love.

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Lazzaro (talented newcomer Adriano Tardiolo) is a beautiful peasant whose sweet nature makes people mistake him for simple-minded. He happily does the bidding of anyone in his local village, which is ruled over by the evil Marchesa (Nicoletta Braschi).

He finds an unlikely friend in the Marchesa's petulant son Tancredi (Tommaso Ragno / Luca Chikovani), who convinces his hapless ally to help him stage a dramatic incident to secure a ransom. 'Happy as Lazzaro' follows the adventures of this young man living on the margins of his society, who can seemingly travel through time, arriving in the big city and appearing as a fragment of the past lost in the modern world.

Having lost his faith, Yakov (Dave Davis) flees his Orthodox Jewish community. But when his friend Reb Shulem (Menashe Lustig) approaches him to watch over the dead body of a former religious acolyte, Yakov soon finds himself opposite a troubling and malevolent entity.

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Police detective Mark McPherson (Dana Andrews) is drawn into Manhattan high society as he investigates the death of stunning ad exec Laura Hunt (Gene Tierney), apparently shotgunned in her own apartment.

The slithery suspects are numerous, led by effete, snobbish columnist Waldo Lydecker (Clifton Webb), and Laura's philandering fiancee Shelby (Vincent Price), who's also been cavorting with Laura's wealthy aunt (Judith Anderson). McPherson begins to fall in love with Laura through a portrait in her home and the memories relayed by those who knew her...just as it becomes apparent that even the basic facts of the case might not be what they seemed.

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Four children shocked by the death of their mother conspire to hide her body in the basement to avoid being sent to an orphanage. Eldest daughter Julie takes on the maternal role, as life in their concrete wilderness of a home drifts on.

Jack shows little interest in younger brother Tom, who is retreating into his own fantasy world. And seems equally non-plussed that younger sister Sue seems to spend most of her time in the basement writing her diary with her dead mother. Absorbed in himself and his growing attraction to Julie, Jack excludes himself from family life. The arrival of Julie's boyfriend Derek jolts Jack to reality. There is now the chance that the children may be discovered, although, this is nowhere near as startling as what Julie and Jack are discovering about themselves.

When Jane (Sally Hawkins) is dumped at the altar, she has a breakdown and spirals into a chaotic world where love (both real and imagined) and family relationships collide with both touching and humorous consequences.