mmg's - Rented List
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"2001: A Space Odyssey" is a countdown to tomorrow, a road map to human destiny, a quest for the infinite. It is a dazzling, Academy Award-winning visual achievement, a compelling drama of man vs. machine, a stunning meld of music and motion. It may be the masterwork of director Stanley Kubrick (who co-wrote the screenplay with Arthur C. Clarke) and it will likely excite, inspire and enthrall for generations. To begin his voyage into the future, Kubrick visits our prehistoric ape-ancestry past, then leaps millennia (via one of the most mind-blowing jump cuts ever conceived) into colonized space, and ultimately whisks astronaut Bowman (Keir Dullea) into uncharted realms of space, perhaps even into immortality. - Director:
- Stanley Kubrick
- Cast:
- Keir Dullea, Douglas Rain, Gary Lockwood
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Contempt (1963)Le Mepris
Camille falls out of love with her husband Paul while he is rewriting the screenplay Odyssey by American producer Jeremiah Prokosch. Just as the director of Prokosch's film, Fritz Lang, says that The Odyssey is the story of individuals confronting their situations in a real world, Le Mepris itself is an examination of the position of the filmmaker in the commercial cinema industry. - Director:
- Jean-Luc Godard
- Cast:
- Brigitte Bardot, Jack Palance, Michel Piccoli
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Pierrot le Fou (1965)Pierrot Goes Wild / Crazy Pete
Based on Lionel White's novel 'Obsession', 'Pierrot le Fou' transforms a story about a couple on the run into an entertaining, existential romance. Tired of his bourgeois life, Ferdinand Griffon (Jean-Paul Belmondo) leaves his wife and elopes with his former baby sitter, Marianne (Anna Karina). When a dead body is found in Marianne's apartment, the two lovers flee to the South of France in a futile bid to escape Marianne's dangerous past. - Director:
- Jean-Luc Godard
- Cast:
- Jean-Paul Belmondo, Anna Karina, Graziella Galvani
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The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)El tesoro de la Sierra Madre
Ranked at No. 30 on the American Film Institute's list of the 100 all-time greatest American films, 'The Treasure of the Sierra Madre' is a genuine masterpiece that went on to win 3 Academy Awards. Bogart gives a tremendous performance as a vicious down-and-out wage worker who stakes his meagre earnings on a gold-prospecting expedition. - Director:
- John Huston
- Cast:
- Humphrey Bogart, Walter Huston, Tim Holt
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Ran (1985)Revolt
Akira Kurosawa's acclaimed study of power, revenge and retribution is set against the magnificent backdrop of feudal warfare in sixteenth century Japan. Transposing the events of Shakespeare's King Lear to the blood-thirsty 'Period of Warring States', 'Ran' tells the story of a bitter power struggle within the family of Warlord Hidetora Ichimonji (Tatsuya Nakadai). After fifty years of ruthless slaughter Hidetora divides his kingdom among his sons, seeking peaceful retirement. However, as his life descends into chaos, he is unable to escape the corruption within his family and the torment within his soul. - Director:
- Akira Kurosawa
- Cast:
- Tatsuya Nakadai, Seizô Katô, Akira Terao
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Ikiru (1952)Living
Opening with a shot of an x-ray, showing the main character's stomach, 'Ikiru' tells the tale of a dedicated, downtrodden civil servant who, diagnosed with a fatal cancer, learns to change his dull, unfulfilled existence, and suddenly discovers a zest for life. Plunging first into self-pity, then a bout of hedonistic pleasure-seeking on the frenetic streets of post-war Tokyo, Watanable (Takashi Shimura) - the film's hero - finally finds satisfaction through building a children's playground. - Director:
- Akira Kurosawa
- Cast:
- Takashi Shimura, Nobuo Kaneko, Shin'ichi Himori
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The Outsiders (1964)Bande a Part / Band of Outsiders
"The Outsiders", Godard's playful reimagining of the Hollywood crime films of the 1940s, follows young misfits Franz (Sami Frey), Arthur (Claude Brasseur) and Odile (Anna Karina) as their plan to burgle a rich old lady goes tragicomically wrong. Shot in just 25 days on the wintry streets of suburban Paris, "The Outsiders" remains one of Godard's most loved films and is often remembered for its exhilarating cafe dance sequence and famous race through the Louvre. - Director:
- Jean-Luc Godard
- Cast:
- Anna Karina, Claude Brasseur, Danièle Girard
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My Summer of Love (2004)Summer of Love
Mona (Natalie Press) has just got hold of a brilliant moped that only cost a tenner. No engine but still dirt-cheap. She lives with her brother, Phil (Paddy Considine) who used to run a pub before he found God and poured away all the booze. Tamsin (Emily Blunt) is rich, spoilt and trying to livea life of seductive decadence.They meet on the moors, above their quiet Yorkshire village and begin an intense, unlikely friendship.Tamsin and Mona want to escape their lives, but Phil wants to save them and save everybody else. Mona wants the old, dangerous, Phil back; the brother that she loved. Tamsin wants to see what it takes to break him... - Director:
- Pawel Pawlikowski
- Cast:
- Natalie Press, Emily Blunt, Paddy Considine
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Metropolis (1927)Metrópolis
Shortly after that 1927 release, an entire quarter of Lang's original version was cut by Paramount for the US release, and by Ufa in Germany, an act of butchery very much against the director's wishes. The excised footage was believed lost, irretrievably so - that is, until one of the most remarkable finds in all of cinema history, as several dusty reels were discovered in a small museum in Buenos Aires. Argentina in 2008. Since then, an expert team of film archivists has been working at the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung in Germany to painstakingly reconstruct and restore Lang's film. - Director:
- Fritz Lang
- Cast:
- Brigitte Helm, Alfred Abel, Gustav Fröhlich
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The Maltese Falcon (1941)The Gent from Frisco / The Knight of Malta
A gallery of high-living lowlifes will stop at nothing to get their sweaty hands on a jewel-encrusted falcon. Detective Sam Spade (Humphrey Bogart) wants to find out why - and who'll take the fall for his partner's murder. An all-star cast (including Sydney Greenstreet, Mary Astor, Peter Lorre and Elisha Cook Jr.) joins Bogart in this cracking mystery masterwork written for the screen (from Dashiell Hammett's novel) and directed by John Huston. - Director:
- John Huston
- Cast:
- Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, Gladys George
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Film recounts the adventures of Gustave H., a legendary concierge at a famous European hotel between the wars; and Zero Moustafa, the lobby boy who becomes his most trusted friend. The story involves the theft and recovery of a priceless Renaissance painting; a raging battle for an enormous family fortune; a desperate chase on motorcycles, trains, sleds, and skis; and the sweetest confection of a love affair - all against the backdrop of a suddenly and dramatically changing Continent. - Director:
- Wes Anderson
- Cast:
- Ralph Fiennes, F. Murray Abraham, Mathieu Amalric
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Embrace of the Serpent (2015)El abrazo de la serpiente
Karamakate, a warrior shaman and last of his tribe, transcends the worlds of men and seeks truth through their dreams. He alone knows how to find the mysterious and psychedelic Yakruna plant; for some it has life-saving properties, for others it is a commodity waiting to be exploited. Two scientists, in two different times enlist Karamakate on their individual quests in an epic adventure into the heart of the Colombian Amazon to find this mythical plant. This Oscar nominated film is seen through Karamakates eyes and bears witness to the effects of colonialism, religion and the exploitation of rubber on indigenous traditions and the environment to which they arc inextricably linked. - Director:
- Ciro Guerra
- Cast:
- Nilbio Torres, Jan Bijvoet, Antonio Bolivar
- Formats:
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Spirited Away (2001)Sen to chihiro no kamikakushi
Chihiro, a headstrong 10-year-old girl, is unhappy that her family are moving house and that she will have to make new friends. As they make their way to the new home, Chihiro's father takes a detour to explore a mysterious tunnel in the woods. On the other side is what seems to be a deserted theme park but is in fact a ghostly town. Unwittingly, they have strayed into the Land of the Spirits, a world of dreamlike scenery inhabited by ancient gods and magical beings, ruled over by the sorceress, Yubaba. With her parents held captive and Yubaba set on enslaving them forever, Chihiro must use all her energy to survive in this strange new place. With the help of Haku, a brave young spirit, she is forced to overcome her Pears and join an epic battle for her family's freedom. - Director:
- Hayao Miyazaki
- Cast:
- Daveigh Chase, Suzanne Pleshette, Miyu Irino
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Harakiri (1962)Seppuku
In a magnificent performance. Tatsuya Nakadai stars as Hanshiro Tsugumo. a masterless down-and-out samurai who enters the manor of Lord lyi. requesting to commit ritual suicide on his property. Suspected of simply fishing for charity, Hanshiro is told the gruesome tale of the last samurai who made the same request - but Hanshiro will not be moved... - Director:
- Masaki Kobayashi
- Cast:
- Tatsuya Nakadai, Akira Ishihama, Shima Iwashita
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Time of the Wolf (2003)Le Temps Du Loup
Controversial filmmaker Michael Haneke is reunited with Isabelle Huppert, the star of 'The Piano Teacher', in this nightmarish vision of a post-apocalyptic world in which society has completely broken down. Huppert plays Anne, who flees the city with her husband Georges (Daniel Duval) and their two children, in the hope of finding safe refuge at the family's country home. But soon after arriving they learn they have made a terrible mistake and must embark on a gruelling odyssey through a country totally devastated by disaster, without even the most basic of utilities such as water and electricity. - Director:
- Michael Haneke
- Cast:
- Isabelle Huppert, Anaïs Demoustier, Béatrice Dalle
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