The Page Turner A slow-burning but mesmerising Hitchcockian psychological thriller that borrows as much from Chabrol as it does from the aforementioned maestro. But it is also very much its own film, where music is more than music.... It is life. This is the brutal lesson learned by the protagonist Melanie ( as a 10-year-old budding child prodigy), an aspiring pianist who fails an exam at the conservatory when concert pianist and judge Ariane is distracted by an autograph hunter.
Many years later we find Melanie temping for Arian's husband in a law firm, ready to weave her elaborate revenge on Ariane and her family for that casual act of discourtesy that seemingly ruined her chances to become a pianist. Whether or not Melanie has planned her intricate revenge is a matter of debate but the film offers subtle clues to the viewer about Melanie's Machievellian machinations. This is where the film excels. It does not spoon-feed us with obvious motives. We expect things to happen, but they never do. Moreover, It disrupts our expectations of what should happen in such a genre- maybe because in a Hollywood film we would expect certain things to happen but this is French cinema where subtlety is key. However, what is most disturbing is the emotionless, passive-aggressive Melanie (a stunning, low-key performance of unrivaled menace by Catherine Frot), whose frozen, empty gaze signals a terrible void that the audience can only see.
Like Shakespeare, the film's strengths derive from its expert use of dramatic irony. Ariane goes from perpetrator to victim and this is where the emotional core of the film resides. She is the unwilling, unknowing victim in Melanie's Iago-like web of deceit and destruction. To conclude, The Page Turner is a stunning, ambiguous yet precise work.
Many years later we find Melanie temping for Arian's husband in a law firm, ready to weave her elaborate revenge on Ariane and her family for that casual act of discourtesy that seemingly ruined her chances to become a pianist. Whether or not Melanie has planned her intricate revenge is a matter of debate but the film offers subtle clues to the viewer about Melanie's Machievellian machinations. This is where the film excels. It does not spoon-feed us with obvious motives. We expect things to happen, but they never do. Moreover, It disrupts our expectations of what should happen in such a genre- maybe because in a Hollywood film we would expect certain things to happen but this is French cinema where subtlety is key. However, what is most disturbing is the emotionless, passive-aggressive Melanie (a stunning, low-key performance of unrivaled menace by Catherine Frot), whose frozen, empty gaze signals a terrible void that the audience can only see.
Like Shakespeare, the film's strengths derive from its expert use of dramatic irony. Ariane goes from perpetrator to victim and this is where the emotional core of the film resides. She is the unwilling, unknowing victim in Melanie's Iago-like web of deceit and destruction. To conclude, The Page Turner is a stunning, ambiguous yet precise work.