David Jahn 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
- Starring:
- Marion Cotillard, Sylvie Testud, (more)
Despite its target audience, the tale of Peter Pan offers a plethora of darker implications ranging from the natural fear of aging and responsibility to discovering sexuality despite the strong inclination to resist all that clashes with youth. A far cry from Steven Spielberg's Hook, director Damion Dietz taps into this seldom seen side of Pan in Neverland. When a seductive Peter Pan (Rick Sparks) and his vocally reluctant sidekick Tinkerbell (Kari Wahlgren) convince adopted siblings Wendy (Melany Bell), Michael (Marcus Reynaga), and John Darling (Wil Wheaton) to join him in Neverland, they had no idea that their destination was a deteriorating amusement park serving as home to scads of confused and startlingly attractive youths. Once there, the Darling family becomes victim to Chief Hook's (Gary Kelley) plot. Obsessed with the youth and beauty of Peter Pan, the disgruntled park maintenance man (Kelley) jumps at the opportunity to kidnap the lost boys after Tinkerbell reveals their location in a drug-induced stupor, realizing that only such an action would prompt a face-off with Peter. ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rick Sparks, Melany Bell, (more)
