Pauline Nemcova Movies

On the most fundamental level, the two neighboring French villages of Super-Charmoussey and Charmoussey couldn't possibly be more different: the former is an affluent, thriving ski resort town, the latter a village struggling financially - to such a degree that it seems barely able to stay afloat. For decades, the two villages have engaged in an intense and longstanding rivalry, with a perennial beauty contest between the towns; the lucky young winner, each year, automatically graduates to the Miss Franche-Comtr competition. For 22 years, Super-Charmoussey has won, hands-down, with its endless supply of gorgeous young European women who are primed and coached by outside professionals for maximum success. But this year, Charmoussey's mayor opts for a change in plan; longing to beat Super-Charmoussey at its own game, he summons village expatriate-turned-professional actor Franck (superstar Benoit Poelvoorde) to leave his Parisian home, move back into the community, and uncover the many secrets that Super-Charmoussey's citizens routinely use to give themselves a leg up. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

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, Rovi