William Armstrong Movies

Writer/director Olivier Dahan (Crimson Rivers II) helmed La Vie en Rose, the screen biopic of tragic French songstress Edith Piaf. Marion Cotillard portrays Piaf, the superstar once raised as a young girl by her grandmother in a Normandy bordello, then discovered on a French street corner -- as a complete unknown -- by cabaret proprietor Louis Leplée (Gérard Depardieu). The film segues breezily between various episodes from Piaf's life -- such as her lover, French boxer Marcel Cerdan's (Jean-Pierre Martins) championship bout in mid-'40s New York; her period in Hollywood during the '50s; Piaf's abandonment as a young girl by her contortionist father (and earlier by her mother, a street singer); her brushes with the law as an adult; and her 1951 car accident and subsequent morphine addiction that caused her to age well beyond her years and left her barely mobile; and, through it all, her ability (like Billie Holiday) to funnel personal tragedy and emotional struggles into her vocalizations -- dazzling audiences in the process. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

When a drifter named Simeon arrives in a small seaside town, it takes the locals some time to warm up to him. Eventually they do, but he carries a secret that could threaten everyone who comes into his path-including his new companions. Out of Season features Dennis Hopper and Gina Gershon. ~ Cammila Albertson, All Movie Guide

In this adaptation of the novel by Michelle Magorian, John Thaw stars as Tom Oakley, an old man with a short temper who doesn't have much use for people. However, after the outbreak of World War II, Tom is forced to take in Willie Bech (Nick Robinson), a young boy who has been evacuated from London and sent to the small village Tom calls home. Willie is a quiet, withdrawn child whose childhood has not been a happy one; Tom learns to draw him out, tutors him in reading and writing, and encourages his creative gifts. An unexpected bond develops between Tom and Willie, and when the boy's mother wants him to return to a London that's been torn apart by the blitz, Tom doesn't want him to leave -- and neither does Willie. Goodnight, Mister Tom received its American premier on PBS's Masterpiece Theater in 1999. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Widow Victoria Riddler (Kate Mulgrew) and her wheelchair-bound son Elias (Daniel Newman) live a meager existence on an Indiana farm that hasn't yielded a crop in years. Then one day Elias experiences a strange vision--and before long, the Riddlers' north land is fertile and bountiful. Astonished by this phenomenon, the locals suspect that Elias has somehow developed diabolical superpowers. Only town drunk George (Corbin Bernsen) knows that the answer lies not in Elias, but in the stars. A presentation of UPN's off-and-on Nightworld TV-movie anthology, Riddler's Moon originally aired on November 5, 1998. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Danny, the Champion of the World is set in rural England. Nasty country squire Robbie Coltrane, who owns half the land, covets the other half. His principal opponents are a father-and-son team of farmers. The warm relationship between the two "good guys" hardly needs to be forced, since the roles are played by Jeremy Irons and his real-life son Samuel. Cyril Cusack and Jean Marsh also appear in this colorful comedy-drama. Produced for British television, Danny, the Champion of the World was based on a story by Roald Dahl. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

An affectionate reverie about war, childhood, and British stoicism, John Boorman's Hope and Glory is the veteran filmmaker's recollection of the bombing of London during World War II. Set on the British home front during the early days of the war, this episodic movie shows the blitz through the eyes of seven-year-old Billy Rohan (Sebastian Rice Edwards). At the war's outset, Billy finds himself alone in a house full of women, as all the men are called off to join the war effort. With wide-eyed wonder and an outsized imagination, Billy sees the war as a grand diversion, an extension of his world of knights, tin soldiers, and war games. As bombs fall and houses burn, Billy's mother (Sarah Miles) struggles to keep the family together in her husband's absence. Even as Billy seeks to escape the harem of aunts and sisters, Dawn (Sammi Davis), his older sister, falls for a Canadian soldier who gets her pregnant. After the Rohans' home catches fire (not, ironically, as the result of a bomb blast, but from a domestic accident), the family is forced to move in with Billy's cantankerous grandfather in the countryside, where they spend the rest of their summer and enjoy an unusual idyll amid the raging war. Nominated in 1987 for a Best Picture Academy Award, Hope and Glory proved to be another high point in the career of the remarkably protean Boorman. ~ Elbert Ventura, All Movie Guide

Hal Holbrook stars in this TV pilot film as Colonel Calvin Turner, a special operative for the OSS during World War II. Working in cooperation with British intelligence, Turner's mission is to uncover atomic weapon secrets at a Nazi plant in occupied Norway. The task permits him time for a bit of dalliance with the lovely Anne Twomey. David McCallum and Ray Sharkey costar in this uneven location-filmed adventure caper, first broadcast December 29, 1985. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide