The Page Turner [2006] [DVD]

Young melanie fails a piano exam and never plays again. The woman who fails her is a well-known but neurotic pianist married to a sucessful lawyer. Ten years later Melanie insinuates herself into her husband's officeand then into her family home and is invited to turn pages for an important concert by her trio. The superficially shrinking violet uses her immense sexual power to destroy both family and trio. Apart from the two set trios, the music ic specially composed and is so skilfully integrated into the film that one is hardly conscious of it but together with the restrained acting of the principals it sustains the underlying tension and menace throughout. A subtle and intriguing film.

Twelve-year-old Melanie Prouvost is determined to become a world-class pianist. She practices with a single-mindedness which is daunting. She arrives with her mother at a conservatory where she will perform a difficult piece before a panel of judges. Many other children are competing. If she wins, her chances for a wonderful career will lie in front of her. As she takes her place at the piano and begins, one of the judges, a famous concert pianist, motions in a fan who wants an autograph. The judge whispers something, takes out a pen, thinks a moment, writes on the photo and returns it to the fan. Melanie's concentration is broken. She stops, tries to recover and performs badly. Afterwards, the judge simply comments that there was no reason for Melanie to stop. On the way out of the conservatory, Melanie suddenly pushes down the key cover on a piano when another girl is practicing, nearly crushing the girl's fingers. Melanie arrives home and locks her piano for good.

Several years later, Melanie (Deborah François), now a striking young woman, applies for and is accepted as an intern in a law office. She learns a senior partner needs someone to look after his young son while he is away for several weeks on business. His wife works and cannot always be available. When Melanie says she'd happily look after the boy, she is accepted. And when she arrives at the country manor, 25 miles outside Paris, we learn that the mother was in an auto accident and is still emotionally fragile. The woman, Ariane Fouchecourt (Catherine Frot), indeed works. She is a world-class pianist who now performs as part of a trio. And, yes, she was the judge who so thoughtlessly ruined Melanie's life ambition. She doesn't even remember the incident. Now we realize Melanie remembers all too well.

All along we've noted how quiet Melanie is. She observes; sometimes there will be the smallest of smiles. Melanie becomes almost indispensable to Ariane, who suffers stage fright now. Melanie becomes her page turner, the person who sits next to a pianist and turns the pages of the score as the pianist plays on. She begins to give Ariane confidence. We're not sure where the movie is heading. All we know is that a number of uneasy things happen that could be explained away. Melanie gains the confidence of Tristan, the boy, but twice seems to place him in positions of peril that don't quite happen. She opens some letters and smiles just a bit, but we're not sure why. She subtly seems to be almost wooing Ariane, yet shows no particular interest. We remember Melanie is the daughter of butchers and know she must be familiar with slicing into meat. Does this mean we'll soon be watching her turn Tristan into lamb chops? The movie keeps us off balance. While it's possible that at some point we'll realize that Melanie still loves the piano and we may end with her giving Ariane back confidence while Ariane decides to work with Melanie on a career for her, we also realize that the movie just might end the way Claude Chabrol's La Cérémonie does, with a slaughter fired by resentment and rage.

No one dies in this movie, just the soul of one of the characters. The Page Turner is a not-quite-a-thriller thriller, and is all the more disturbing because of it. François and Frot give marvelous performances, with François unnervingly calm and Frot fragile to a fault. This was only Deborah François' second movie. At 19, she almost out-Hupperts Isabelle Huppert.

There is some great music in the movie. The trio, with Melanie as the page turner for Ariane, does a rehearsal of Shostakovich's opus 67, trio in E minor. It's terrific. The Page Turner is almost as good at keeping us off balance.

The Page Turner is a wonderful little film.

At just over 80 minutes, the plot is as simple or as complex as the viewer wants, depending on how much you read into it.

A very atmospheric fantastic revenge drama, with perfectly measured performances from the two lead actresses, and a pure pleasure to watch from start to finish.

I would recommend this film to anyone who has an aversion to subtitles, or anyone who is new to French cinema. The script is economical, even quite spartan in places and often relies on facial expressions/actions rather than words to convey the mood.

As a fan of French cinema, I greatly enjoyed it.