Jane March Movies
According to the official bio of British model-turned-actress Jane March, she was born in 1975. If true, she was just the right age -- physically and psychologically -- for her first starring role as an impressionable teenager who is deflowered by aging Chinese roue Tony Leung in Jean-Jacques Annaud's The Lover (1992). Subsequent films have taken full advantage of March's smoldering sensuality and deceptively deadpan facial expression. March's love scenes with Bruce Willis in The Color of Night (1994) weren't quite as steamy as the publicity suggested, but they fogged up enough glasses to nearly earn this film an NC-17 rating. While Color of Night bombed, Jane March emerged with her reputation unscathed and with one of the film's producers as her new husband. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 2006
A terrorist bombing victim who devoted his life to trumpeting the threat that Islam poses to western culture finds his marriage threatened by a converted Christian possessed by the vengeance of jihad in action specialist Renzo Martinelli's tense and topical thriller. Eschewing his career as a journalist shortly after losing both his legs in the bombing of the U.S. embassy in Nairobi, Alceo (Jordi Molla) now dedicates every waking moment to educating students about the Muslim threat. When Alceo's wife Leda (Jane March) is nearly killed during an airport shootout between policemen and trigger-happy terrorists, the loving husband promises to spirit his wife away for a relaxing vacation in Cappadocia. Shortly after arriving at their scenic destination, Alceo and Leda come into contact with Italian gem merchant Ludovico Vicedomini (Harvey Keitel) and his Italian-speaking Muslim friend Shahid (F. Murray Abraham). Though on the surface Ludovico and Shadid keep their inflammatory religious rhetoric to a low-key minimum, a closer look at their motivations reveal two terrorist masterminds determined to bring the west to its knees while converting or killing anyone who opposes them. Seduced in a moment of weakness by the charismatic Ludovico, Leda is subsequently targeted to become the unsuspecting carrier of a dirty bomb. Despite his devotion to the Islamic cause, however, Ludovico soon finds his conviction put to the ultimate test as be begins to fall in love with the conflicted Leda. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Harvey Keitel, Jordi Mollà, (more)
- 2000
Charles Band has been making horror movies in Rumania for several years, so it should come as no surprise to find his local collaborators, associate producer Vlad Paunescu and costume designer Oana Paunescu, among the crew of this ambitious historical epic from The Kushner-Locke Company and director Joe Chappelle (Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers). It's an impressive attempt at rehabilitating the image of Vlad Tepes (Rudolf Martin), the famous Transylvanian prince who inspired Bram Stoker as the model for his vampiric count in the novel Dracula. That's part of the problem with Chappelle's film, because Martin plays Vlad as a sultry, pouting romantic figure in the Frank Langella mode rather than as a man who might have been capable of such astonishing savagery and physical strength on a battlefield. He pouts for money from the King of Hungary (Roger Daltrey being out-pouted for once), romances Jane March, speaks in a petulant growl, and generally looks like he'd be more at home on the dancefloor of a chic discotheque than on a corpse-strewn battlefield. Only the unavoidable feeling that he might be a vampire (he isn't) makes him seem even remotely threatening or dangerous. The rest of the film is better, with authentic-looking locations, some surprising gore, and nicely-handled battle scenes. Peter Weller comes off the best among the cast, playing the creepy Father Stefan with a suitable gravity and authority. It is very difficult to take the historical Dracula away from the vampire legends after over a century of Stoker-inspired over 150 films, but Chappelle and his cast make a game effort, and if they don't exactly succeed in removing the shadow of the vampire from their heroic prince, they have at least produced a rousing entertainment which is far better than anyone had a right to expect. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
Carl Schenkel directed this Tarzan film "based on the stories by Edgar Rice Burroughs." In England of 1913, Tarzan (Casper Van Dien) is due to marry Jane (Jane March), but he suddenly chooses to return to the jungle to prevent villainous explorer Nigel Ravens (Steve Waddington) from burning and killing in his quest for the lost city of Opar. Jane's pursuit of the vine-swinging Lord of the Apes forces her to confront snakes and other jungle perils. The film's inane dialogue is heard amid magnificent South African locations. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Casper Van Dien, Jane March, (more)
- 1996
When young banker Thomas Murray's marriage to the blue-blooded Amanda falls apart, he begins working with his father-in-law Arthur in Paris and ends up finding solace in the arms of the beautiful Katharine. While he is off loving Katherine, Amanda rethinks her position and decides to reconcile with Thomas. Devastated by the discovery of his affair, she attempts suicide. Her father then makes Thomas a potentially lucrative proposition that leaves him faced with a difficult choice. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jane March, Jean Rochefort, (more)
- 1996
- R
Jane March (Color of Night) stars in this entertaining thriller as a North Korean spy working in the South Korean home of an American military man and his family. Half espionage thriller and half trashy coming-of-age story, the film spends as much time on March's budding romance with the teenage son (Stephen Mendel) as it does with her growing conflict over carrying out the agenda of Kim il Sung. Nick Mancuso turns in a campy, over-the-top performance as a crippled CIA specialist brought in to plug the nearby base's sudden security leak, and genre fans will be happy to see Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa in another sneering villain role. Despite its pretentiously arty flashback and dream sequences, Provocateur is popcorn junk, but it's a lot of fun. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jane March, Stephen Mendel, (more)
When New York psychiatrist Bill Capa (Bruce Willis, in an uncharacteristically un-smirking performance) visits Los Angeles to take over his murdered colleague's therapy group, he finds himself embroiled in the thick of a mystery when he bumps into (literally) Rosa (Jane March) and begins a torrid affair. Double-identities, death threats and love scenes abound as he delves deeper into the case to uncover the truth about his friend's death. ~ Jeremy Beday, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bruce Willis, Jane March, (more)
The Lover is director Jean-Jacques Annaud's adaptation of Marguerite Duras' minimalist 1984 novel. Set in French Indochina in 1929, the film explores the erotic charge of forbidden love. Jane March plays a French teenager sent to a Saigon boarding school, while Tony Leung is a 32-year Chinese aristocrat. They look at each and they both see a blinding white flash; it's kismet. He offers her a ride in his limousine and soon they meet in his "bachelor room" where they revel in a wide variety of creative sexual encounters. However, they both realize their love is doomed. She comes from a troubled family that includes a mentally-disturbed mother (Frederique Meininger) and drug-addicted brother (Arnaud Giovaninetti). It also appears that her family would not approve of an interracial tryst. But then neither would his family, since in order to inherit his father's wealth, he must not break from a traditional Chinese arranged marriage. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jane March, Tony Leung Kar-Fai, (more)
