Review of The Page Turner (2006) by Kate C — 30 Sep 2008

Excellent, taut little revenge drama set in the bourgoise classical music world. Deborah Francois is magnificent as Melanie, nanny and page turner to famous pianist Ariane, who was distracted by the pianist signing an autograph in an audition and failed the exam to allow her to continue her music dream.

Structured and paced like a piece of music, the tension (and I picked up definite sexual tensions at play as well) mounts like a Hitchcock or Chabrol film despite the seemingly banal premise. Catherine frot is also great as a woman on the verge of nervous breakdown, but the absolute star is Francois whose enigmatic ice maiden is simultaneously lethal, hard, fragile, vulnerable, beautiful, crazy.