Sunday, July 20, 2008
Site Navigation
 |
Stephanie's DVD Rental Queue
Stephanie Curtis subscribes to Netflix, the online movie rental service. This is a list of the next 25 DVDs she's signed up to see. The list changes as Stephanie rents movies and adds new ones. (The descriptions are from Netflix.)
Return to The Movie Maven
Return to The Movie Maven
Stephanie Curtis subscribes to Netflix, the online movie rental service. This is a list of the next 25 DVDs she's signed up to see. The list changes as Stephanie rents movies and adds new ones. (The descriptions are from Netflix.)
Return to The Movie Maven
| 001 | Angels in America: Disc 1  This disc includes Part 1: Millennium Approaches: Chapters 1 - 3. |
| 002 | Ratatouille Brad Bird (The Incredibles) co-directs this Oscar-winning Pixar offering, following the antics of a passionate rat named Remy (voiced by Patton Oswalt) who yearns for a sip of the good life. Growing up beneath a five-star Parisian restaurant owned by a famous chef (Brad Garrett), Remy inherits a taste for fine food. But his culinary ambitions only anger his practical father, who wishes his son could just eat garbage like everyone else. |
| 003 | 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days In the last days of communism in Romania, Gabita (Laura Vasiliu), a young college student, wants to end her unplanned pregnancy. With the help of her best friend, fellow student Otilia (Anamaria Marinca), she seeks an abortion, illegal under the oppressive Ceaucescu regime. Director Cristian Mungiu's searing portrait of life under dictatorship received a slew of film festival awards as well as a nomination for Best Foreign Language Film from the Golden Globes. |
| 004 | A Letter to Three Wives In this 1949 black-and-white classic, which won Joseph L. Mankiewicz an Academy Award for Best Director, three married women (Jeanne Crain, Linda Darnell and Ann Sothern) vacationing on the Hudson suddenly find themselves on the receiving end of a disturbing missive: One of their husbands has broken his nuptial vows and cheated. But whose? The answer is revealed as each woman excavates the ruins of her marriage. Kirk Douglas costars. |
| 005 | Night and the City Shot in London, Jules Dassin's film noir centers on grifter Harry (Richard Widmark), who schemes to take over wrestling promoter Kristo's (Herbert Lom) racket. Harry pits Kristo's father, Gregorius, against his own son and convinces nightclub owner Phil (Francis L. Sullivan) to invest in his scheme. But his plan falls apart when Gregorius is killed and Phil learns that his wife (Googie Withers) is leaving him for Harry. Gene Tierney also stars. |
| 006 | Planet Earth: The Complete Collection: Disc 1 This disc includes the following episodes: "From Pole to Pole," "Mountains" and "Fresh Water." |
| 007 | Da Ali G Show: Season 1: Disc 1 This disc includes episodes 1-3, plus unseen clips and audio commentary. |
| 008 | Diva Action, arias and assassins all collide in Diva, a romantic thriller directed by Jean-Jacques Beineix. When 18-year-old Jules secretly tapes the concert of a superstar diva who refuses to be recorded, he accidentally winds up with another tape that identifies a top mobster involved in an international sex and drug ring. Suddenly, Jules is being chased through the streets of Paris by blackmailers, hit men and the police! |
| 009 | Bluebeard John Carradine stars as Gaston, a 19-century Parisian puppeteer who also happens to be a wanted serial killer in this suspenseful adaptation of the Bluebeard legend. Gaston has high expectations of his models, and when they fail to please him, he strangles them and tosses them away. The lovely young model Lucille (Jean Parker) learns of Gaston's evil ways and vows to bring the monster to justice. |
| 010 | South Better have some hot soup and a warm blanket for this bone-chilling silent movie, which documents explorer Ernest Shackleton's 1919 expedition to cross the Atlantic Ocean via the South Pole. Cameraman Frank Hurley rolls film as the unbelievable adventure unfolds. With their ship frozen in an ice pack, Shackleton and crew bear months of arctic blasts with no sign of hope until he and a handful of men set off on an 800-mile hike for help. |
| 011 | Humanite The brutal rape and murder of a young girl sets off an investigation led by Pharaon De Winter (Emmanuel Schotté), a slow-witted police superintendent who still lives with his mother. During the course of the investigation, De Winter becomes so sensitized to the suffering around him that he's unable to filter out anything. French director Bruno Dumont (Twentynine Palms) also penned the script to this introspective drama. |
| 012 | Lola Montes Director Max Ophüls' visually stunning drama recounts the true story of the scandalous life of dancer -- and courtesan -- Lola Montes (Martine Carol). Past her prime, Montes lands in a 19th century circus in Vienna, Austria, where the slimy ringmaster (Peter Ustinov) exploits her by forcing her to tell her tale. Flashbacks reveal her many affairs, most notably with composer Franz Liszt (Will Quadflieg) and Bavarian King Ludwig (Anton Walbrook). |
| 013 | Boy Meets Girl The debut feature from French New Wave director Leos Carax tracks the evolving relationship between wannabe filmmaker Alex (Denis Lavant) and the suicidal Mireille (Mireille Perrier), who meet over the intercom in an apartment building. Since each has suffered a recent break up, the stormy lovers' romance takes a tragic turn as they search for solace in each other's arms. Carax went on to direct 1991's Lovers on the Bridge. |
| 014 | The Sopranos: Season 5: Disc 4 This disc includes the following episodes: "The Test Dream," "Long Term Parking" and "All Due Respect." |
| 015 | The Barefoot Contessa Movie director Harry Dawes (Humphrey Bogart), in a sequence of flashbacks, ponders the life of ravishing Tinseltown star Maria Vargas (Ava Gardner). A flamenco dancer at a two-bit cabaret when a trio of showbiz VIPs discovers her, Maria finds fame, fortune and love in the blink of an eye. It appears at first glance that Maria has it all, but her tempestuous nature and a devastating secret in her marriage to an Italian count give rise to tragedy. |
| 016 | The Talk of the Town The dashing Cary Grant stars in The Talk of the Town -- his last collaboration with director-producer George Stevens -- as Leopold, an activist wrongly imprisoned for a crime he didn't commit. To avoid execution, Leopold breaks out of jail, hoping for the chance to prove his innocence. He meets a legal scholar and his girl, who end up helping him find justice … and perhaps even love. |
| 017 | Our Song Our Song is the story of three teenage girls facing the challenges of growing up in a world filled with uncertainty, risk and, ultimately, hope. As Lanisha (Kerry Washington), Maria (Melissa Martinez) and Joycelyn (Anna Simpson) move through the hot August streets of Crown Heights, Brooklyn, the film explores the ways in which family, friends and community all compete to shape a young person's life. |
| 018 | Wendigo While driving to the country, urbanites Kim (Patricia Clarkson), George (Jake Weber) and their son Miles (Erik Per Sullivan) get into a car accident when they hit a deer hobbled by ruthless hunters, who complain that the city people killed "their" deer -- and worse, broke two of its antlers. But that's just the beginning of the family's worries: It seems they've also awakened the spirit of Wendigo, a mythical Native American figure. |
| 019 | World Traveler Cal (Billy Crudup) is a successful, thirty-something architect living in New York City and facing an existential midlife crisis of epic proportions. Chucking it all (including his wife and 3-year-old son), he takes off across the country to find the meaning of life while working odd construction jobs to support himself. He eventually finds answers in an unlikely person -- an alcoholic bon vivant played by Julianne Moore. |
| 020 | Frailty Director Bill Paxton's gripping thriller has evil at its core -- and a family in the crossfire. FBI agent Wesley Doyle (Powers Booth) is trying to track down "God's Hand," a notorious murderer who's resurfaced years after terrorizing a Texas town. The Meeks family -- Fenton (Levi Kreis), Adam (Matthew McConaughey) and their dad (Paxton) -- gets involved when past and present converge and a long-tormented conscience is assuaged. |
| 021 | Undisputed Ving Rhames plays James "Iceman" Chambers, a heavyweight boxing champ who's convicted of rape and sentenced to prison, where an old-time gangster (Peter Falk) arranges a bout between Chambers and the undisputed prison champ, Monroe Hutchen (Wesley Snipes). The cast also includes Master P as the leader of a prison rap group, Fisher Stevens as Hutchen's manager and Michael Rooker as a prison guard. |
| 022 | Short: International Release #3 This unique video combines award-winning short films from around the world with informative interviews, featuring acclaimed filmmakers and exciting performances by international musicians Tahiti 80 and Mohave 3. Scottish director Gregor Samsa offers his own blend of style and humor in his Oscar-winning "Franz Kafka's It's a Wonderful Life," a story about a man who wakes one morning to discover he's been turned into a giant banana. |
| 023 | East Side Story This 1997 documentary presents an amusing and fascinating compilation of scenes from Hollywood-style musicals produced by the Eastern bloc during the Cold War. Rarely seen in the West, these films attempted to promote communist ideology and to entertain, resulting in sturdy peasants and workers frolicking through meadows and factories. Interviews with filmmakers and critics, newsreel footage and censored press files provide added perspective. |
| 024 | The League of Gentlemen: Series 1 This critically acclaimed comedy series from the BBC -- often referred to often as a bizarre, hilarious hybrid of Monty Python and Northern Exposure -- stars three actors in approximately 60 different roles. In the fictitious English hamlet of Royston Vasey, Mark Gatiss, Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith run amok while dealing with everyday issues in, um, "unconventional" ways. |
| 025 | Lathe of Heaven For George Orr (Lukas Haas), the saying that "dreams come true" is terrifyingly accurate; his nighttime visions somehow reshape reality. After drugging himself in an attempt to keep from dreaming, Orr is arrested and ordered to seek psychiatric treatment for his "delusions." But when his doctor realizes that Orr's power is real, he starts to manipulate Orr's dreams … with disastrous consequences. |
Return to The Movie Maven
Archives
March 2008 | ||||||
SU |
MO |
TU |
WE |
TH |
FR |
SA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ||||||
| 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |
| 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 |
| 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 |
| 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 |
| 30 | 31 | |||||
Two for the show!
MPR now offers separate weblogs for our two cinephiles.The original
The Movie Maven
with Stephanie Curtis
New!
Movie Natters
with Euan Kerr
About the Author
About the AuthorWho is Stephanie, anyhow?
Stephanie's Rental Queue
See a list of the next 25 DVDs Stephanie is signed up to rent from Netflix.
|
|
