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The Page Turner (2006)

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Movie review

From Time Out London

Denis Dercourt’s stylish, subtle and highly assured film is a pleasingly suspenseful psychological drama in the style of Hitchcock or early Chabrol. Déborah François plays Mélanie, the smalltown butcher’s daughter whose ambitions as a pianist were dashed during a childhood audition for the Conservatory when one of the jurors, famous concert pianist Ariane Fouchécourt (Catherine Frot), distracted her by signing an autograph. A decade after this unwitting but fateful slight, shy, quiet Mélanie happens to find herself working as an intern for the law firm owned by Fouchécourt’s husband Jean (Pascal Greggory). Her diligence and dependability lead him to hire her as a governess to his son, and soon enough she’s firmly ensconced in their home and helping out as Ariane’s page-turner as the pianist prepares for a big comeback concert. Is Mélanie plotting revenge? Nursing a crush – and if so, on whom? Or is she merely hoping to bask in some reflected glory?

Dercourt’s cool, extremely elegant and often witty film remains admirably ambiguous until the very final scenes, and even then the script wisely foregoes tying up too many loose ends. It’s a meticulous piece of work, beautifully shot by Jérôme Peyrebrune, and assembled with a proper understanding of music and the important role it can play in people’s lives. In building both narrative tension and psychological resonance, Dercourt is helped no end by the excellent performances, most particularly that of young François, quite superb in only her second movie after an excellent (but very different) debut role in the Dardennes’ ‘The Child’.

Author: Geoff Andrew

Time Out London Issue 1889: November 1-8 2006

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User reviews of this film

usman khawaja said...

Posted on Mar 15 2009 13:37 a calm assured poetic rendition of a vengeance executed with immense style between an older assured successful woman and her younger quieter counterpart who is a past victim ,
she meticulously and coldly calculates a sophisticated plan to seek justice for a past misdemeanour ,
the script is the height of sophistication and the performances so subtle that you hardly need to read the subtitles as the expressions and the cinematic language is sufficient to portray every slight innuendo and situation .
the analogy of the piano as a metaphor for blind justice with the superb orchestrastion of the various sonatas is magical but it really is a triumph for deborah francois who is avenging herself on catherine blot with a cold smile and an enchanting attitude which endears her to both blot and her husband and son ,both of whom are totally controlled by the character blot plays as mother and wife and yet the page turner deborah as melanie is able to shift the balance of power to herself in a nuanced enigmatic turn from the 10 year old tearful piano student reject to the totally confident woman who walks away in the finale .
denis dercourt has shown how powerful the cinematic medium can be when used with the proper orchesrtation and he is perfect in every sequence from the piano concerts to the hide and seek games in the gardens of the country mansion where the four characters involve in an emotional dramatic game of musical chairs with the piano as the culprit ..
every little detail is manifest in the actions of the characters who are all conceived with a most mystical demeanour and the taut poetic narrative is both lurid yet obsure as it propels itself to one of the most amazingly satisfying movies ever made about a musical or poetic revenge .
i adore the mutual exploitation of the two main female characters and their interaction in a gameplan which fulfills the emotional promise of the great musical score bringing the drama in harmony with the musical magnificence in total harmony .

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Technoguy said...

Posted on Jan 09 2008 15:35 This film shows the superiority and subtlty of European cinema to American.This film is a page-turner and keeps the tension simmering.Deborah Francois following her equally rivetting performance in L'Enfance shows the subtle menace of a smile and it's variations. She slowly takes hold of a whole family and tips the balance of power.Her victim,Arianne(Catherine Blot) is a major piannist in a trio of musicians but she becomes dependant and therefore vulnerable to Melanie(Francois),the page-turner who exacts a slow revenge.Francois conveys an awkwardness in her body language and movements which captures the protagonist's malevolence.Music is not the subject of the film but it is the context of precision and rhythm through which it works as the director and the piannist(Blot)are both musicians and bring all that knowledge to the performance.Such is her ambiguity that we may feel she is in love with the object of her attentions.

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