I'm thinking of renting dvd's from amazon. Has anyone joined their rental scheme and is it any good?

I joined last month and think it's fine - I went with the £7.99 plan which means you get 2 at home max at one time. You can also purchase extra rentals if you use them all up at £1.99 - the DVDs come in a bar-code tracked envelope and plastic case - you just return them in any post box. The only problem is the availability - but if you check your list of titles you've added, you can move up and down the ranking system. Lots of art cinema stuff I just can't afford - so easier to see that way. The only prob is that things that are more than one disc are counted as one rental - so 'Heimat' will be four discs = four rentals. You also have to avoid renting bonus discs that just have extras on!

I've been a member for a while and find it really good. The turn around time is excellent.
Splitting movies over two rentals is a bit annoying.. though Andrei Rublev and Solaris were well worth waiting for.I checked out The Kingdom disc one, but then cancelled disc two.. thinking maybe I'd seen enough.
I'd like to see your Rental List, wiseblood

Thanks I'll probably join soon. I'm only joining for the arthouse stuff and I like the fact you get a couple of dvds at a time. I was with Lovefilm but found the process slow as I only got one dvd at a time and it took about a week or more to get another one.

I've been a member for over a year and I think Amazon is great. The CDs in the post come really quick. The thing you have to get used to is even if your No 1 choice is available you don't often get the top on your list, so it's always a bit of a mystery when you open the envelope!!! But then, you are gonna get something on your list and its there because it's something you want to watch!!
Best part is the selection process, they have such a great selection, and you have access to all the reviews, written by other Amazon members and reading between the lines you really do get an idea about a film, much more than just reading the jacket in a video shop!!
I have seen some unbelieveable foreign films lately - especially Italian, which just don't get shown at the cinema in my neck of the woods!!

Rental list at present:

Constant Gardener
Howl's Moving Castle
Fanny & Alexander
Le Belle et La Bette
2046
The Terrorist
Serenity
Ghost in the Shell 2
Dig
9 Songs
Persona
The Kingdom
The Jean Vigo Collection
Shame
Wicker Park
The Brown Bunny
Rust Never Sleeps
Punk: Attitude
Francesco...
Weekend
Last Year at Marienbad
A Hole In My Heart
The Sorrow & the Pity
Night & Fog
Rocco and His Brothers
The Captive
Last House on the Left
The Funeral
The Addiction
Arabian Nights
Blind Chance
Rome Open City
Umberto D
Shooting the Past
The Realm of the Senses
Metallica: Some Kind of Monster
The American Friend
Nostalgia
Crumb
29 Palms
Lilya 4 Ever
Andrei Rublev
Un Chien Andalou
M
...and it goes on for another 100 or so titles. Never short of selections and you can move things up and down your ranked list...

I've seen 16 of those films on your list and own 10 of them. Are you wanting to see how bad Wicker Park is compared to L'Appartement? Lilya 4 Ever was excellent I thought, although it references Wings Of Desire it reminded me of Christiana F for sheer squalor and desperation. I'd also like to see Hole In My Heart, the follow up, despite the bad reviews. Some great films on there which I expect you've seen many of them before?

I have eight films in common with your list wiseblood, but will surely be checking out some others that you name...I do run out of ideas occasionally. Most recently I have been impressed with Mike Leigh's early stuff.. Prick Up your Ears, Made In Britain, Meantime....
And Werckmeister Harmonies and Damnation.

I am very ignorant of French film and would like to explore this further.. I loved La Haine, Le Diner Cons, City of Lost Children for example, but didn't care so much for Weekend.
I'd appreciate any recommendations..
Is Pola X watchable?

Werckmeister Harmonies is excellent. I bought that. It was selling for about £7 on amazon last month which was fairly cheap for a 2 disc set. It's one of my favourite films ever.

I joined amazon rental yesterday on a free trial which is 3 dvds for a month but I'll probably upgrade after I watch them. My first film is Tiresia, an update on a Greek tragedy fable. Has anyone seen Battle In Heaven? Recently released and looks as though it's well worth a look.

gen (have you got the new TG LP yet? - I was surprised when GP turned up in Dig! when I saw that the other day!)

So far I've had Hearts & Minds, The Battle of Algiers (which I hadn't seen for a few years and have since bought in a sale), Punishment Park, Innocence & bonus rental The Constant Gardener...Quite fancy the two discs that are Fanny & Alexander, but have a few days to move things around - as Howl's Moving Castle is on one night at a cinema round here, will probably watch that there instead...Lots of stuff on my list I've seen before, but added from some BFI lists I did on amazon - lots of ideas and can always remove them. I've cut down DVD purchasing in one month, so probably a good thing - definitely going for the world cinema/arthouse/culty...I think Wicker Park might have to be removed, am more curious- but like City of Angels, The Assassin, Sommersby etc I know it'll probably be crap (though I must add that French remake of James Toback's Fingers that is meant to be superior)...Missed Lilya4Ever for some reason and a Hole in My Heart got some scathing reviews - I am quite an admirer of that film-maker's prior work and the more hardcore approach in Europe (I like the fact 'Open Hearts' was meant to be a Dogme-style romantic comedy and instead became a depressfest)...Might move Lilya up, despite the Wings of Desire references, as I love Christiane F - probably for the unrelenting tone and the Bowie-soundtrack which go together extremely well...There are some DVDs being released - Klimov's 'Come and See' and Jancso's 'The Red & the White' that I'll definitely be buying - I wonder if Jancso's 'The Round Up' will get released on DVD? It was one of the films Scott Walker screened at his meltdown - lots of great European stuff is appearing on DVD now...

lila, yes Mike Leigh's stuff was great - though I tend to prefer films/TV like 'Nuts in May', 'Meantime', 'High Hopes', 'Life is Sweet', 'Naked' to the later stuff like the over-rated 'Secrets & Lies', the patchy 'Career Girls' (as much as I loved Katrin Cartlidge), 'Topsy Turvy' and the dull one with Timothy Spall in again whose name I have forgotten. That whole era was great and Alan Clark's stuff is fantastic, I think 'The Firm' and 'Rita, Sue & Bob Too' are as good as 'Made in Britain' and 'Prick Up Your Ears' is of course fantastic (& I generally loathe the biopic genre now, more for TV movie takes on things like Ray Charles and Johnny Cash).

Pola X looks great and has a fine soundtrack from Scott Walker, but it's really pretentious and extremely overlong. The most enjoyable bits, apart from the soundtrack, was Catherine Deneuve in a bath and the leads getting rude on-screen. So may as well watched porn really, since it was poor on every other level - one of those cliched French films with sex in like that awful film where a professor slept with his nubile pupil (Cederic Kahn made it...title escapes...)

I s'pose 'Weekend' is acquirred and it's around that period when Godard's work becomes less enjoyable. French films I've enjoyed and can recommend (if you haven't seen):

*Read My Lips
*L'Appartment
*Water Drops on Burning Rocks (more for the Fassbinder connection & the girl from 'The Beach' and '8 Women')
*Harry, He's Here to Help
*The Piano Teacher/Hidden (though the director is Austrian)
*The Lovers (not sure it's on DVD at mo)
*Irrerversible
*Beau Travail
*Roberto Succo
*Last Year at Marienbad
*La Jetee/Sans Soleil
*The Umbrellas of Cherbourg
*Lift to the Scaffold
*Bande a Part
*Les Quatres Cents Coups
*The Double Life of Veronique (though director is Polish as is one of the doppelgangers)
*Les Yeux Sans Visage
*Celine and Julie Go Boating (not on DVD at mo)
*Le Samourai
*Claire's Knee
...and probably loads more that escape my mind at present...will ponder some more...

Unfortunately the new TG has been delayed and hasn't got a release date now. It should be released sometime in the summer, and the new PTV is due later in the year. I did read about his appearance in Dig but presume it's a cameo. Probably not enough for me to rent it.

I also added Red and the White and Innocence after reading a few reviews. I also added Double Life Of Veronique, which I haven't seen before. Fanny and Alexander is essential Bergman, try and see that right away if you haven't seen it already, fantastic stuff. And Werckmeister Harmonies is a must see if you haven't already.

As for French films, well I would also second Irreversible, an extraordinary film with a remarkable ending. A couple of others:

*La Regle du Jeu
*Les Enfants du Paradis
*Trois Couleurs Trilogy
*Caché (haven't seen it yet but sounds essential)
*Monsieur Hire
*Pickpocket
*Au Hasard Balthazaar
*L'Amour de Swann (Proust may be unfilmable but I think this is the best of the adaptations. I felt The Captive and Time Regained both misfired)
*L'Appartement
*Betty Blue
*Diva (not sure if it's on dvd)
*L'Atalante (classic 30s film which Orson Welles must have seen because I see bits Of Kane in this. He definitely saw La Regle du Jeu because Renoir appears to be a prime influence)
*Le Trou (unfortunately not available to rent which is a travesty because it's a beauty)
*Nathalie (a minor French film but I liked it)
*Bande A Part
*Code Unknown (by the Caché bloke)

and all the Bunuel French films are worth seeing but I think only Tristana is available to rent. The others:

*Discreet Charm Of The Bourgeoise
*Phantom Of Liberty
*Belle du Jour
*Obscure Object Called Desire

A couple of thrillers

*Betty Fisher and Other Stories
*Swimming Pool

I'll try and come up with some others.