The Page Turner

Mèlanie, a small-town butcher's daughter, seems to have a special gift for the piano. She takes the Conservatory entrance exam, but fails after being distracted by the thoughtless behavior of the chairwoman of the jury, a well known concert pianist. Bitterly disappointed, Mèlanie gives up the piano.

Some ten years later, while working as an intern at a law film, Mèlanie meets Monsieur Fouchècourt, the husband of the woman who has changed her life. Mèlanie's efficiency and devotion are quickly noticed and Monsieur Fouchècourt recruits her into his home to look after his son.

Madame Fouchècourt doon warms to Mèlanie when her musical sensitivity comes out, and the young woman becomes her page turner…

"…one of the quietest thrillers I've seen, and yet it is indeed thrilling and chilling in its own reserved manner, with its tiny moments of violence perfectly timed and delivered." ~ James Van Maanan, Greencine.com
http://daily.greencine.com/archives/003353.html

Nominated for several Cesars, including Best Actress, Most Promising Newcomer and Music, the film also a Cannes, Toronto and Telluride selection.

“A tight little emotional thriller about a music lover who becomes a musician-hater.” (Variety)

“A fine example of the excellence of French genre film right now: A dark tale of revenge with an inscrutable heart, ice in its veins and an electric undercurrent of eroticism, it also might be the best-photographed picture I've seen so far this year.” (salon.com)

“The movie saves the full strength of her toxicity for a kicker that's almost gleeful in its sangfroid; Dercourt's parting coup de grâce is like getting shanked with an icicle.” (Village Voice)

"An impeccably made psychological melodrama. It's a story of destruction, dependence and betrayal set not only in the world of classical music but in the French culture of politeness where form and decorum are everything." (Kenneth Turan, L.A. Times)

“I find myself more responsive to the malignancy in THE PAGE TURNER than in all the other recent, all too numerous excursions into the darker side of human nature. Call me inconsistent if you wish, but do see THE PAGE TURNER.” (Andrew Sarris, New York Observer)