tom-bolton's - Rented List

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James Mason and James Coburn star in this gripping account of a doomed German platoon facing annihilation at Russian hands during 1943, who discover that their instinct for war is greater then their instinct for survival.

While the enemy attacks, two officers fuel the conflict with their hell-bent lust for personal vindictiveness and glory- all part of the greater absurdity called war.

Two reporters, Mullen (Gabriel Byrne) and Bayliss (Denholm Elliott), receive an anonymous tip-off on a breaking political scandal regarding an MP, a call girl and an East German military attache. But when Bayliss suddenly dies, Mullen realises that the story goes far deeper than anyone imagined.

Agnes Varda's classic 'Cleo from 5 to 7' from 1962 manages to successfully capture Paris at the height of the sixties in this intriguing tale expertly presented in real time about a singer (Corinne Marchand) whose life is in turmoil as she awaits a biopsy test result.

When elderly mother Edna (Robyn Nevin), inexplicably vanishes, her daughter Kay (Emily Mortimer) and granddaughter Sam (Bella Heathcote) rush to their family's decaying country home. When Edna returns her behaviour is strangely volatile.

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Set in the early 1950's, the film charts an imagined chapter in the life of Jackson (Elisabeth Moss), who has recently become a literary sensation.

When her philandering professor husband (Michael Stuhlbarg) invites a newlywed couple into their home, the reclusive writer is forced to change her routine, which heightens tensions in their already tempestuous household. This change acts as a catalyst, sparking inspiration for the anxiety-prone writer. As she becomes enamoured with Rose (Odessa Young), her unsuspecting new muse, Shirley's obsession plunges her into a quasi-delirium, awakening a repressed femininity that could inspire her next masterpiece.

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The latest from the unique imagination of Peter Strickland, 'In Fabric' is a delirious retail nightmare that blends Euro-infused horror with absurdist dark humour, to ghostly effect.

Set against the backdrop of a busy winter sales period at a mysterious Thames Valley department store, the film follows the journey of a cursed artery-red dress as it passes from person to person with devastating consequences.

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Part road movie, part suspense thriller, the plot is high-tension simplicity itself. In the South American jungle, supplies of nitro-glycerine are urgently needed at a remote oil field.

The unscrupulous American oil company pays four out-of-work men (Yves Montand, Charles Vanel, Folco Lulli and Peter Van Eyck) to deliver the supplies in two sets of drivers: a tension magnified thousand fold by the unforgiving heat, the lure of filthy lucre and the rough and rocky roads where the slightest jolt can result in agonising death. Which of the disparate, desperate desperadoes will survive the white-knuckle journey and claim the loot and the glory?

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Whether in front of the camera or behind it, Agnés Varda was a visual storyteller who eschewed convention and prescribed approaches to drama.

In 'Varda by Agnés' - the director's swansong film - she offers a personal insight into her oeuvre, using excerpts from her work to illustrate her unique ideas and artistic vision.

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This classic anthology science fiction series, created by Irene Shubik, was daring, ambitious and inventive, drawing from writers of the calibre of Frederik Pohl, E. M. Forster, Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury and John Wyndham.

The cream of British television talent was recruited to bring these tales to the small screen. Dramatists such as J. B. Priestley and Leon Griffiths, directors such as Philip Saville and Rudolph Cartier, visionary designers, including Ridley Scott, and actors of the calibre of Yvonne Mitchell, George Cole, Rachel Roberts and David Hemmings.The results were spectacular: a consistently demanding exploration of science fiction with some of the most memorable television productions ever staged. This seven-disc video box set collects all 20 surviving episodes from the four original series, along with an extensive and comprehensive collection of extra features including four episode reconstructions, an incomplete episode, audio commentaries, stills galleries, an interview with director James Cellan Jones, and a newly created 42-minute documentary with original cast and crew members and rarely seen fragments from lost episodes.

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The death of Suggs' beloved cat on his fiftieth birthday triggers a personal quest to discover what happened to the father he never knew.

Stunned by what he learns, Suggs is taken back through his life to a childhood on the streets of Soho, featuring music written by The Kinks Prince Buster, Ian Dury and, of course, his beloved Madness. Director Julien Temple (The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle, Absolute Beginners) takes a stage show, adds some drama, archive, animation and music, then shakes it all up for 'My Life Story' where Suggs takes a hilarious yet moving look back at his life in music and words. Is it a drama? Is it a comedy? Or a music hall dream? Whatever it is hold on to your seats as Suggs goes on to stumble and plummet through the trap door of failure, then trampoline back up to catch the passing trapeze of show business success.

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Winner of the Special Jury Prize at Cannes, 'Kwaidan' features four nightmarish tales (adapted from Lafcadio Hearn's classic Japanese ghost stories) about mortals caught up in forces beyond their comprehension when the supernatural world intervenes in their lives.

Breathtakingly photographed entirely on hand-painted sets, the film is an abstract wash of luminescent colours from another world.

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When Aboriginal detective Jay Swan returns to his home town to solve the brutal murder of a teenage girl, he is immediately thrown into a web of lies and deceit.

Alienated by the white-dominated police force to which he is attached and ostracised by the local Indigenous community, Jay must stand alone and attempt to unravel the truth before tensions boil over.

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'Red Shift' takes the viewer on a beguiling voyage through English history, spanning three distinct time periods: Roman Britain, the English Civil War and 1970s modem day.

Gamer's story follows three troubled young men, Tom, Thomas and Macey, who occupy these different eras and are haunted by shared visions. They are also linked by a common location (Mow Cop in south Cheshire) and by the discovery of a talisman: an ancient axe-head.

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Into Great Silence is the phenomenal box office smash hit about life inside the Grande Chartreuse that has opened to rapturous acclaim across the Western World.

The director, Philip Groning, made his request 19 years ago to film inside the monastery where the last photos taken were in 1960, only to be told that it was 'too early' that maybe in 10 or 15 years... Eventually, as a result of this long standing and trusted relationship between the Film Director and the General Prior, permission to film was granted. Into Great Silence is a very strict, next to silent documentary on monastic life with no music except the chants in the monastery, no interviews and no commentaries and is the first feature to document life inside the mother house of the legendary Carthusian Order in the French Alps. The viewer is invited to watch the films as part of a meditative experience where the film becomes the monastery rather than depicting one. A film for those who want to embrace awareness, absolute presence and to contemplate the life of men who have devoted themselves to God in the purest form.

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Humphrey Bogart stars as Dixon Steele, a screenwriter who is faced with the odious task of scripting a trashy best-seller. He enlists hat-check girl Mildred Atkinson to tell him the story in her own words.

Later that night, Mildred is murdered and Steele is a prime suspect; his record of belligerence when angry and his macabre sense of humour implicate him. Fortunately, lovely neighbour Laurel Gray (Gloria Grahame) gives him an alibi. Laurel proves to be just what Steele needed. and their friendship ripens into love. m Will suspicion, doubt, and Steele's inner demons come between them?