The Page Turner (2006)

'The Page Turner' is a suspenseful thriller, but in a cool, elegant and understated way: a typically French movie. The plot tells of a young musician slighted by a somewhat self-obsessed pianist, who subsequently gets her revenge through subtly undermining the older woman's confidence. The film is quite good at maintaining a foreboding mood, the girl gives nothing away and the viewer is tempted to assume the end may be bloody or contrived; it's slightly disappointing when the resolution, though believable, turns out to be altogether more straightforward. I think I would have liked just a little more twist; but the movie is commendable for its avoidance of pyrotechnics in favour of the mood of growing apprehension it cultivates instead. A cultivated film, indeed.

Denis Dercourt both wrote (with Jacques Sotty) and directed this very low key but very devastating tale of concentrated revenge. It has a tight script, a cast of very fine actors, and a pacing that holds the audience to the story wondering how the 'plan' will work out in the end. 10-year-old Mélanie (Julie Richalet) is a gifted piano student, the daughter of a butcher and his wife, whose studies provide her with the opportunity to enter the academy if she is successful in winning an audition. At the audition the chief judge is the accomplished pianist Ariane Fouchécourt (Catherine Frot) who allows an autograph seeker to disrupt Mélanie's audition, a disruption that results in breaking Mélanie's concentration: she does not win the audition and moreover she gives up the piano altogether. 10 years later Mélanie (the very beautiful Déborah François) works as an intern in a wealthy lawyer's office - M. Fouchécourt (Pascal Greggory) - who happens to be married to Ariane, now with a terrible stage fright because of an accident. When M. Fouchécourt needs a nanny to care for his young son Tristan (Antoine Martynciow), Mélanie ask for the job and moves to the mansion in the country where she tends after Tristan and admires Ariane's practicing. Ariane is preparing a concert in a trio with violinist and cellist wife and husband (Christine Citti and Jacques Bonnaffé). Ariane fears the performance but finds security when Mélanie offers to turn pages for her. A strong bond forms between the two, a bond that appears to go beyond music, and the concert results in success. The manner in which Mélanie works her way into Ariane's need and her response to advances made by the married cellist begin to divulge the intention of Mélanie's involvement with the Fouchécourt family. How she choreographs her revenge for her childhood disappointment is the direction the story takes to its end. Aside from the obvious fact that this film is in many ways an intense psychological thriller, the other joys offered are some excerpts from the music of Shostakovich, Bach, and Schubert. Each of the actors is superb and the manner in which director Dercourt leads us through this maze of belated revenge is truly fine filmmaking. Grady Harp

We've all seen what I like to call the Blank-From-Hell movie many times. You know what I mean. The admin assistant or nanny who looks oh-so-perfect from the outside only to reveal his or herself as a raving psychopath targeting a perfectly innocent, wronged person.Part of the reason these villains tend to have all the shelf-life of a McDonalds straw is the fact that we don't know much about them until the end of the film, and what we do find out is hardly revelatory: they were abused, they were traumatized, nobody loved them. Yeah, yeah...too little too late. You're out of the theater before you can process it.Melanie, played by the willowy, composed Deborah Francois, is hands down the most intriguing "blank" you'll ever meet. She doesn't rave, she doesn't rage incoherently and break everything in sight. Her parents were reasonably supportive of her and she wasn't abused. She's just someone you don't want to mess with.Struggling as a child to achieve her dream of becoming a concert pianist, she suffers a severe setback when a semi-renowned female judge rudely allows an outsider into the performance hall for an autograph during a crucial career-determining audition. Melanie's meticulous performance is destroyed and the judge (Ariane, superbly played by Catherine Frot) shrugs it off without a second thought. But not Melanie.Years later, she has insinuated herself, via an internship at Ariane's husband's law firm, into a live-in position at the family's posh country house, where she easily fills the role of Ariane's page-turner on her upcoming slate of radio broadcasts with her classical trio.We all know the drill by now, right? Since, being a BFH movie, we must have the standard plot points (see "Hand That Rocks the Cradle" or "Orphan" for more details)...pet is killed, husband is seduced, etc, etc."The Page Turner" brilliantly turns up it's nose at these mundane conventions and allows the diabolical machinations to be more emotional than physical. Melanie deftly manipulate's Arianne's fragile emotional state, creating a crippling dependence that's so wonderful to see shatter, when the time becomes right.Even that isn't easy or lazy...Francois' brilliant cypher-like performance never lets us in on what's really going through her mind. Is she regretting her scheme to put every aspect of Ariane's life in complete ruin...or is she gradually falling in love or like with the woman? And if she is, is she doing it to spite and cripple her even more? And is Ariane worthy of your sympathy? In a usual BFH movie that would be cut and dry....here it's anything but.One things's for sure, revenge has never been this bitter or this sweet at the same time.

Horribly marketed in the U.S. with such a bad (easily forgettable) title. Where are the good producers to lead the U.S. marketing teams (who even fell short with Stardust and oddly enough, with Live Free or Die Hard -- which should have done bigger numbers)? Done with economy and precision, the Page Turner is a little masterpiece. Brokeback Mountain received a lot of attention because of superstar McMurtry and the other savvy writer/ producers. This film deserved the same accolades -- not just because of the gay factor, but because of the updating factor of the French-New-Wave+Hitchcock model, like Brokeback was to the Western model.