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The Page Turner [2006] | ![The Page Turner [2006]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51GkPS6fjoL._SL75_.jpg)
 enlarge | Director: Denis Dercourt
Actors: Catherine Frot, Deborah Francois, Pascal Greggory, Xavier De Guillebon, Clotilde Mollet
Studio: Artificial Eye
Category: DVD
List Price: £19.99
Buy New: £5.45
You Save: £14.54 (73%)
New (16) from £5.45
Avg. Customer Rating:  10 reviews
Sales Rank: 11418
Format: Anamorphic, Pal
Languages: French (Unknown), English (Subtitled), French (Original Language)
Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 82
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
EAN: 5021866338309
ASIN: B000L42N4G
Theatrical Release Date: 2006
Release Date: March 26, 2007
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Condition: Brand New and Fully Guaranteed - Over 90% of orders are dispatched same day or next day by First Class post. Please note Danish customers may incur custom charges.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 5 more reviews...
 Un film riduculous! December 6, 2007
0 out of 6 found this review helpful
As a child, Melanie's piano recital is rudely interrupted, causing her to get "le hump" so badly, she locks the piano lid for good.
Revenge being a dish best served cold (or luke-warm in this case) she waits years until she has blossomed from a very plain and pasty-looking child, into a surprisingly attractive young woman (the only recognisable similarity being the blank expression and peculiar Stepford wife gait) to worm her way into the life of the concert pianist who wrecked her future career and reap revenge.
It's difficult to see why she bothered. Whilst she was menacingly stroking the pianist's son's pet chicken, I at least hoped she might dish it up to the family for dinner as a nice coq au vin, but instead she just played hide & seek. The worst she does is causes the son to get a sore wrist - quelle horreur!
Next time Melanie should consider sending Glen Close along to do the job properly.
 Thank heavens that this isn't American December 2, 2007
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
After having watched many many American films, we've decided to try French films and this is really good. There is just 1 slightly gory scene, we were hooked right from the word go, whereas quite often it takes a while to understand the characters.
Just the right length, slightly peters out at the end but her revenge was just right.
The americans would have killed the chicken, done something beyond repair to the son, if you watch this you will understand!
Slight but Delicious French Psychological Drama November 27, 2007
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
Concert pianist Ariane Foucherot(Catherine Frot)unknowingly slights a young girl mid recital who is unable to regain her composure and fails the examination.Years later Melanie(Deborah Francois)the girl all grown up insinuates herself into the pianist's life in order to exact revenge.
Director Darcourt ratchets up the chills as he plays the ice cold Melanie off against the angst ridden and vulnerable Ariane.His constant use of close up nicely accentuates the relentless and subtle nature of Melanie's plan juxtaposed against Ariane's utter helplessness and ignorance of her"fate".
Frot and Francois are terrific and although it peeters out a little at the end,catch this in the right mood and you will be gripped.
A previous reviewer was evidently watching another film and got confused with this one as his review was "hilarious".
 Disappointing November 12, 2007
0 out of 8 found this review helpful
Unintentionally hilarious at times*, The Page Turner is a bog standard vengeful-nutter-infiltrates-family thriller in which the nutter changes her blank expression no more than once. Gushing reviewers should watch more Hollywood films to see how it's done.
(*The funniest sequence has to be the evil plot to turn up the son's metronome so he plays piano too fast and injures himself.)
A fine, unsettling movie that makes us assume the worst may -- or may not -- happen May 29, 2007
20 out of 23 found this review helpful
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.
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