mervyn-verstellung's - Rented List

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For over 30 years the Children's Film Foundation produced quality entertainment for young audiences, employing the cream of British filmmaking talent.

Newly transferred from the best available elements held in the BFI National Archive, these much-loved and fondly remembered films finally return to the screen after many years out of distribution in this specially curated video release from the BFI.

The Man from Nowhere (1976)is a beautifully told Victorian gothic thriller from acclaimed director James Hill. Young orphan Alice has been invited by her rich uncle to live in his country mansion but she soon finds herself persecuted by the apparent visitations of an unsettling stranger. Who is this 'man from nowhere' and just why is he trying to scare her away? The events in Haunters of the Deep (1984)take place along the dramatic Cornish coastline. Intent on re-opening a disused tin mine, an American businessman ignores warnings about the site's grisly past. It's left to his bored daughter and local lad, Josh, to attempt a daring rescue when history threatens to repeat itself. In John Krish's Out of the Darkness (1985), a Derbyshire village is haunted by a tragic secret from the era of the Black Death. When the Neils decide to buy a run-down cottage they are unaware that it was once inhabited by a plague-stricken family. Soon, the Neil siblings find themselves in the middle of a thrilling adventure, assisted by their friend, Tom, and a local folklore expert (Michael Carter).

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American siblings Oscar (Nathaniel Brown) and Linda (Paz de la Huerta) eke out a shared existence in Tokyo - he by dealing drugs, she by working as a stripper. However, tragedy strikes when a deal turns sour and Oscar is shot by the police.

As his lifeless body lies on the floor of a public toilet, his soul floats high above the neon-drenched Tokyo streets, observing the effect of his death on his sister and reliving the events in his life that brought him to this juncture.

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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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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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For over 30 years the Children's Film Foundation produced quality entertainment for young audiences, employing the cream of British filmmaking talent.

In The Monster of Highgate Ponds (1961) young David promises to guard a mysterious egg which his uncle brings back from Malaysia. But, when a baby monster hatches, mayhem ensues as David struggles to keep the unruly, but friendly, creature from falling into the clutches of two ruthless crooks. This enchanting tale features brilliant animated sequences by the legendary Halas and Batchelor, who also produced the film, and was directed by the celebrated Ealing director Alberto Cavalcanti (Went the Day Well?).
The Boy Who Turned Yellow (1972) is the splendidly eccentric final collaboration from eminent filmmaking duo Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. London schoolboy John Saunders turns a bright yellow after losing his pet mouse on a school trip. Is the mysterious colour change the result of an alien invasion or does the answer lie closer to home?
In A Hitch in Time (1978) Patrick Troughton (Doctor Who) plays time-hopping inventor Professor Adam Wagstaff. Discovered working on his time machine by two curious kids, Wagstaff decides to send them back through the ages. But, with malfunctions aplenty, will they be able to make it back? Featuring Jeff Rawle (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire) as 'Sniffy' Kemp, the teacher out to spoil everybody's fun, A Hitch in Time is a riotous re-telling of history.

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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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Triple bill of British movies produced by the Children's Film Foundation. In 'The Salvage Gang' four children try to raise money to replace a broken saw, taking them on an unexpected journey through the capital.

Directed by the acclaimed John Krish (I Think They Call Hir John) this affectionate tour of bomb-damaged London features a young Frazer Hines and an appearance by Wilfrid Brambell. 'Operation Third Form', featuring a fresh-faced John Moulder-Brown (Deep End) in a sparkling performance as the schoolboy out to foil a pair of north London crooks, is a pacey boy's own adventure complete with a groovy 1960s soundtrack. 'Night Ferry' stars Bernard Cribbins as Pyramid, a dastardly master-of-disguise who plans to smuggle an ancient Egyptian mummy out of the country. When young Jeff (Graham Fletcher) discovers the plan, a dangerous chase via London's Victoria and Clapham stations ensues.

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Sue Ann (Oscar winner Octavia Spencer) is a loner who keeps to herself in her quiet Ohio town. When she is asked by a teenager to buy some booze for her group of friends, Sue Ann offers the basement of her home for the kids to hang out and party.

But there are some house rules: Someone has to stay sober. Don't curse. Never go upstairs. And call her "Ma". As her hospitality starts to curdle into obsession, what began as a teenage dream turns into a terrorising nightmare, and Ma's place goes from the best place in town to the worst place on earth.

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Cynthia (Sidse Babett Knudsen) is an orthopterist who is seemingly firmly in control of her partner Evelyn (Chiara D'Anna) through a strict, dictatorial fetish life behind closed doors.

But as Evelyn's requests to be dominated become increasingly extreme the true nature of their relationship begins to surface. A story about power and the exploration of discomfort that people will stretch to for the ones they love, told in mesmerisingly coruscating style by one of Britain's finest contemporary auteurs, Peter Strickland.

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When Daily Mirror journalist V. C.

Wall (Reece Shearsmith) calls upon the services of famed paranormal investigator Harry Price (Jonathan Rigby) to investigate supernatural 'goings on' at a Victorian mansion in Essex, little does he realise that he will set into motion a story that will fascinate and confound the world. 'Borley Rectory' is the true story of Price's investigation and the legends that came to haunt all those involved. 'Borley Rectory' is an animated documentary chronicling what came to be known as 'The most haunted house in England'. The legends attached to the rectory and famed paranormal investigator Harry Price's subsequent investigations of them, caught the public's imagination during the 1930's in time becoming one of the world's most notorious ghost stories influencing Shirley Jackson's 'The Haunting of Hill House' and Richard Matheson's 'Hell House'.

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Psychological trauma and aberrant sexuality abound in this twisted 1972 tale of a young woman whose severe daddy issues send her on an unforgettably bleak downward spiral.

Yearning for the love of her absentee father, Jamie (Marcia Forbes) inhabits an infantilised world surrounded by toys, including those which her wayward pops bizarrely continues to send her. Unable to consummate her new marriage with dashing colleague Charlie (Harlan Cary Poe), Jamie's chance encounter with aging sex worker Pearl (Evelyn Kingsley) leads her into the murky world of prostitution where her most disturbing erotic fantasies begin to play out.

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When homicide detective Mike Hoolihan (Patricia Clarkson) is called to investigate the murder of a leading astrophysicist (Mamie Gummer) in New Orleans, she is confronted by a mystery that begins to affect her in ways she had never expected.

As the investigation deepens, a darker world is slowly revealed and she must use all of her skills and experience to piece together fragments of a wider conspiracy that lies behind the murder.

A darkness swirls at the center of a world-renowned dance company, one that will engulf the troupe's artistic director (Tilda Swinton), an ambitious young dancer (Dakota Johnson), and a grieving psychotherapist (Lutz Ebersdorf). Some will succumb to the nightmare. Others will finally wake up.

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13-year-old Antoine (Jean-Pierre Leaud) can't seem to do anything right. His dysfunctional parents yell at him, his spiteful schoolteacher picks on him and luck just never goes his way.

Despite his efforts at patience, one day it all becomes too much and Antoine throws in the towel, choosing to take his chances on the Paris streets. At times joyous and at others bitterly hard, his new life brings a newfound freedom - one that Antoine will follow up to its painful, poignant and beautiful conclusion...

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Isabelle Huppert gives a performance of astounding emotional intensity as Erika Kohut, a repressed woman in her late thirties who teaches piano at the Vienna Conservatory and lives with her tyrannical mother (Annie Girardot), with whom she has a volatile love-hate relationship.

But when one of Erika's students, the handsome and assured Walter Klemmer (Benoit Magimel), attempts to seduce her, the barriers that she has carefully erected around her claustrophobic world are shattered, unleashing a previously inhibited extreme and uncontrollable desire.