![\"It's](\"https:\/\/jonesing4movies.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/pageturner.jpg\" "\\"pageturner\\"")
It's like... like she's studying you, like you was a play or a book or a set of blueprints: How you walk, talk, eat, think, sleep<\/p><\/div>\n
Rondo Vizioso pi\u00f9 Agitato<\/span><\/em><\/span><\/h1>\n[xrr rating=4\/5]<\/p>\n
The Page Turner (La Tourneuse de Pages)<\/em>. Starring Catherine Frot, D\u00e9borah Fran\u00e7ois, Pascal Greggory, Xavier de Guillebon, Christine Citti, Clotilde Mollet, Jacques Bonnaff\u00e9, Antoine Martynciow, Julie Richalet, Martine Chevallier, Andr\u00e9 Marcon, and Ari\u00e8le Butaux. Music by J\u00e9r\u00f4me Lemmonier. Cinematography by J\u00e9r\u00f4me Peyrebrune. Editor-in-Chief, Fran\u00e7ois G\u00e9digier. Written by Denis Dercourt and Jacques Sotty. Directed by Denis Dercourt. (Tartan Films\/Diaphana Films, 2006, Color, 85 minutes, in French with subtitles. MPAA Rating: Not Rated).<\/strong><\/p>\nThanks to the people of France\u2014who\u2019ve finally come to their senses and reversed the course of national suicide on which they were careening, by electing Nicholas Sarkozy as their president\u2014I can now avail myself of fine products of that nation, which I had hitherto been boycotting. I am now free to gorge on toasted Camembert and wash it down with my favorite Bordeaux wine, Mouton Cadet Ros\u00e9\u00a0(I know, I know–Ros\u00e9!<\/em>–how gauche<\/em> of me). My little boy Evan can now laugh at the looney shenanigans of Pepe Le Peu. More significantly, I am able to once again treat myself to Gaul\u2019s outstanding film exports.<\/p>\nJust in time, too: Writer and director Denis Dercourt\u2019s The Page Turner<\/em> is quite a brilliant gem of filmmaking. I first approached watching it with trepidation, because the poster touted a suspense movie in the tradition of Alfred Hitchcock and Claude Chabrol. Usually such laudatory advertising hype bears little relation to what\u2019s actually on the screen, by semi-competent directors whose pictures usually bear only superficial resemblance to these masters of suspense, but with only the most vague understanding of what makes<\/em> a movie suspenseful. Fortunately, such is not the case here: The Page Turner <\/em>is a brilliantly paced psychological flick that recalls Hitchcock\u2019s Marnie<\/em>, but more so than Chabrol, it reminded me of Fran\u00e7ois Truffaut\u2019s revenge thriller The Bride Wore Black.<\/em><\/p>\nD\u00e9borah Fran\u00e7ois, in just her second leading role (her excellent debut was in The Child <\/em>in 2005), is icily persuasive as M\u00e9lanie Prouvost, an alluring and duplicitous femme fatale<\/em>. As the credits dissolve, we find her a young girl of eleven, practicing the piano in hopes of winning a coveted scholarship to a musical conservatory. She lives in a comfortable bourgeois flat above her parents\u2019 butcher shop. Her audition, however, is rudely interrupted when a classical music fan rudely asks jury member, famed pianist Ariane Fouch\u00e9court (Catherine Frot), for an autograph. Unable to pick up where she left off, M\u00e9lanie fumbles her way through the rest of the piece. Fuming as she leaves the audition, she goes home and stows away the bust of Beethoven that graced her family\u2019s upright piano, presumably forever.<\/p>\nWe next see M\u00e9lanie as an attractive young lady, working as a filing clerk at a Paris law firm. Although of demure demeanor, she nonetheless projects an intense determination in her hard-set eyes. She quickly obtains a position from her boss (Pascal Greggory) as nanny for his son, at his country estate. Soon, we learn the reason why: M. Fouch\u00e9court\u2019s wife is the musician whose insensitive autograph signing crushed the younger M\u00e9lanie\u2019s hopes of embarking on a career as a concert pianist a decade before.<\/p>\n
In short order, M\u00e9lanie insinuates herself into the family\u2019s daily life, as she goes outside of her job description to help their son Tristan (Antoine Martynciow) with his piano studies, and by becoming Ariane\u2019s assistant. Instead of the arrogant virtuoso of ten years before, M\u00e9lanie finds Ariane shaken by an automobile accident, and humbled by a case of nerves and stage fright. As if on cue, M\u00e9lanie volunteers her services as Ariane\u2019s page-turner. Because of her pianistic knowledge, she proves herself an adept and sensitive collaborator during rehearsals of the trio to which Ariane belongs, and immediately wins the older woman\u2019s trust and friendship.<\/p>\n
Methodically, M\u00e9lanie exploits the situation through a series of connivances that places Ariane in a desperate state of dependence upon her charge. She\u2019s as calculating as Anne Baxter in her defining role in All About Eve,<\/em> but, strangely, M\u00e9lanie is so cold that she\u2019s oblivious to the bounties of fame and fortune; her sights are set solely on Ariane\u2019s demise.<\/p>\nPhotography director J\u00e9r\u00f4me Peyrebrune\u2019s shots are almost all static, objective; this tale of deceit is told almost entirely through editor Fran\u00e7ois G\u00e9digier’s exactingly tight montage. The tension is further notched up through composer J\u00e9r\u00f4me Lemmonier\u2019s minimalist score for strings, which underscores M\u00e9lanie\u2019s monomaniacal obsession. The use of Schubert\u2019s \u201cNotturno\u201d trio and Shostakovich\u2019s agitated Second Piano Trio are brilliant counterpoint in foreshadowing her evil intentions: Ariane, her violinist and \u2018cellist are oblivious to M\u00e9lanie\u2019s ploy, but through juxtaposing the young prot\u00e9g\u00e9\u2019s fixed stare with the slashing strings and percussive piano beat, director Dercourt skillfully evinces her ruthless cruelty.<\/p>\n
By the end of the film, through an intricate series of twists and turns, M\u00e9lanie has wreaked lasting destruction on the entire Fouch\u00e9court family. Although there are many striking parallels between Fran\u00e7ois\u2019s character and Rebecca De Mornay\u2019s chilling performance in The Hand That Rocks the Cradle,<\/em> the revenge M\u00e9lanie exacts is of a bloodless variety. Superficially, it\u2019s appropriate payback since the only murder being avenged is the death of M\u00e9lanie\u2019s childhood dreams at the negligent hands of Ariane.<\/p>\nI found both Fran\u00e7ois\u2019s portrayal of M\u00e9lanie and her visual depiction quite unsettling: When she is shown outside the context of her plot against Ariane, M\u00e9lanie\u2019s life is pitifully empty, her lonesome existence preoccupied with quotidian household tasks and perfunctory phone calls to her parents. After her dirty work is done, she is seen walking along an empty farm road to the train station. But, her face is still an emotional cipher\u2014she exudes neither elation nor guilt. Life goes on, but to what <\/span>sort of life<\/span><\/em> will M\u00e9lanie return?<\/p>\nUsually, a revenge tale is meant to instill cathartic emotions, either for the hero who has undone a great evil (such as Charles Bronson in Death Wish<\/em>) or against a villain who\u2019s gone too far (think Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction<\/em>). Yet, Dercourt does not let M\u00e9lanie off so easily: there is no catharsis offered here\u2014only stasis.<\/p>\nCertainly, we will never be privy (unless there\u2019s a sequel, which is unlikely) to the trebling effects of the pain suffered by Ariane and her family. But, we have<\/em> witnessed a young girl shoulder a grudge for half her brief life that any sane person would have gotten over in a few months, perhaps a year, and gone back to the drawing board.<\/p>\nSubtly, Dercourt\u2019s visual narrative turns the tables on its antagonist without her even being aware. By dedicating her life to righting a largely imagined wrong, M\u00e9lanie permanently and irrevocably has robbed herself of any semblance of a productive and fruitful life. Disturbingly, The Page Turner <\/em>demonstrates how placing one\u2019s self-esteem at the mercy of others sabotages any hopes of actually attaining self-esteem. The pages M\u00e9lanie turns are only those in a piano score, but fates herself to never turning over a new page in her own life\u2019s book.<\/p>\nThe Page Turner<\/em> is an instance of a film that truly invokes thought long after the audience has left the theater, and is the most tantalizing suspense movie I\u2019ve seen since David Mamet\u2019s The Spanish Prisoner<\/em>. Its particular genius is that in an age when most directors today will try to overwhelm viewers with C.G.I. special effects and obvious cinematic pyrotechnics, Denis Dercourt is able to send a shiver right through the viewer through the forgotten art of dramatic understatement and virtuosic montage.<\/p>\nRobert L. Jones is a photojournalist living and working in Minnesota. His work has appeared in\u00a0<\/span>Black & White Magazine<\/span><\/span>,\u00a0<\/span>Entrepreneur<\/span><\/span>,\u00a0<\/span>Hoy! New York<\/span><\/span>, the New York\u00a0<\/span>Post<\/span><\/span>,\u00a0<\/span><\/em>RCA Victor\u00a0<\/span>(Japan)<\/span><\/em>,\u00a0<\/span>Scene in San Antonio<\/span><\/span>,\u00a0<\/span>Spirit Magazine<\/span><\/span>\u00a0(Canada),\u00a0<\/span>Top Producer<\/span><\/span>,\u00a0 and the Trenton\u00a0<\/span>Times<\/span><\/span>. Mr. Jones is a past entertainment editor of\u00a0<\/span>The New Individualist<\/span><\/span>.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u00a0 Rondo Vizioso pi\u00f9 Agitato [xrr rating=4\/5] The Page Turner (La Tourneuse de Pages). Starring Catherine Frot, D\u00e9borah Fran\u00e7ois, Pascal Greggory, Xavier de Guillebon, Christine Citti, Clotilde Mollet, Jacques Bonnaff\u00e9, Antoine Martynciow, Julie Richalet, Martine Chevallier, Andr\u00e9 Marcon, and Ari\u00e8le Butaux. Music by J\u00e9r\u00f4me Lemmonier. Cinematography by J\u00e9r\u00f4me Peyrebrune. Editor-in-Chief, Fran\u00e7ois G\u00e9digier. Written by Denis […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,45,37,3,46],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-213","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dramas","category-foreign-films","category-independent-films","category-mreview","category-suspense-movies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonesing4movies.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonesing4movies.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonesing4movies.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonesing4movies.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonesing4movies.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=213"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/jonesing4movies.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":526,"href":"https:\/\/jonesing4movies.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213\/revisions\/526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonesing4movies.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonesing4movies.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonesing4movies.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Thanks to the people of France\u2014who\u2019ve finally come to their senses and reversed the course of national suicide on which they were careening, by electing Nicholas Sarkozy as their president\u2014I can now avail myself of fine products of that nation, which I had hitherto been boycotting. I am now free to gorge on toasted Camembert and wash it down with my favorite Bordeaux wine, Mouton Cadet Ros\u00e9\u00a0(I know, I know–Ros\u00e9!<\/em>–how gauche<\/em> of me). My little boy Evan can now laugh at the looney shenanigans of Pepe Le Peu. More significantly, I am able to once again treat myself to Gaul\u2019s outstanding film exports.<\/p>\n Just in time, too: Writer and director Denis Dercourt\u2019s The Page Turner<\/em> is quite a brilliant gem of filmmaking. I first approached watching it with trepidation, because the poster touted a suspense movie in the tradition of Alfred Hitchcock and Claude Chabrol. Usually such laudatory advertising hype bears little relation to what\u2019s actually on the screen, by semi-competent directors whose pictures usually bear only superficial resemblance to these masters of suspense, but with only the most vague understanding of what makes<\/em> a movie suspenseful. Fortunately, such is not the case here: The Page Turner <\/em>is a brilliantly paced psychological flick that recalls Hitchcock\u2019s Marnie<\/em>, but more so than Chabrol, it reminded me of Fran\u00e7ois Truffaut\u2019s revenge thriller The Bride Wore Black.<\/em><\/p>\n D\u00e9borah Fran\u00e7ois, in just her second leading role (her excellent debut was in The Child <\/em>in 2005), is icily persuasive as M\u00e9lanie Prouvost, an alluring and duplicitous femme fatale<\/em>. As the credits dissolve, we find her a young girl of eleven, practicing the piano in hopes of winning a coveted scholarship to a musical conservatory. She lives in a comfortable bourgeois flat above her parents\u2019 butcher shop. Her audition, however, is rudely interrupted when a classical music fan rudely asks jury member, famed pianist Ariane Fouch\u00e9court (Catherine Frot), for an autograph. Unable to pick up where she left off, M\u00e9lanie fumbles her way through the rest of the piece. Fuming as she leaves the audition, she goes home and stows away the bust of Beethoven that graced her family\u2019s upright piano, presumably forever.<\/p>\n We next see M\u00e9lanie as an attractive young lady, working as a filing clerk at a Paris law firm. Although of demure demeanor, she nonetheless projects an intense determination in her hard-set eyes. She quickly obtains a position from her boss (Pascal Greggory) as nanny for his son, at his country estate. Soon, we learn the reason why: M. Fouch\u00e9court\u2019s wife is the musician whose insensitive autograph signing crushed the younger M\u00e9lanie\u2019s hopes of embarking on a career as a concert pianist a decade before.<\/p>\n In short order, M\u00e9lanie insinuates herself into the family\u2019s daily life, as she goes outside of her job description to help their son Tristan (Antoine Martynciow) with his piano studies, and by becoming Ariane\u2019s assistant. Instead of the arrogant virtuoso of ten years before, M\u00e9lanie finds Ariane shaken by an automobile accident, and humbled by a case of nerves and stage fright. As if on cue, M\u00e9lanie volunteers her services as Ariane\u2019s page-turner. Because of her pianistic knowledge, she proves herself an adept and sensitive collaborator during rehearsals of the trio to which Ariane belongs, and immediately wins the older woman\u2019s trust and friendship.<\/p>\n Methodically, M\u00e9lanie exploits the situation through a series of connivances that places Ariane in a desperate state of dependence upon her charge. She\u2019s as calculating as Anne Baxter in her defining role in All About Eve,<\/em> but, strangely, M\u00e9lanie is so cold that she\u2019s oblivious to the bounties of fame and fortune; her sights are set solely on Ariane\u2019s demise.<\/p>\n Photography director J\u00e9r\u00f4me Peyrebrune\u2019s shots are almost all static, objective; this tale of deceit is told almost entirely through editor Fran\u00e7ois G\u00e9digier’s exactingly tight montage. The tension is further notched up through composer J\u00e9r\u00f4me Lemmonier\u2019s minimalist score for strings, which underscores M\u00e9lanie\u2019s monomaniacal obsession. The use of Schubert\u2019s \u201cNotturno\u201d trio and Shostakovich\u2019s agitated Second Piano Trio are brilliant counterpoint in foreshadowing her evil intentions: Ariane, her violinist and \u2018cellist are oblivious to M\u00e9lanie\u2019s ploy, but through juxtaposing the young prot\u00e9g\u00e9\u2019s fixed stare with the slashing strings and percussive piano beat, director Dercourt skillfully evinces her ruthless cruelty.<\/p>\n By the end of the film, through an intricate series of twists and turns, M\u00e9lanie has wreaked lasting destruction on the entire Fouch\u00e9court family. Although there are many striking parallels between Fran\u00e7ois\u2019s character and Rebecca De Mornay\u2019s chilling performance in The Hand That Rocks the Cradle,<\/em> the revenge M\u00e9lanie exacts is of a bloodless variety. Superficially, it\u2019s appropriate payback since the only murder being avenged is the death of M\u00e9lanie\u2019s childhood dreams at the negligent hands of Ariane.<\/p>\n I found both Fran\u00e7ois\u2019s portrayal of M\u00e9lanie and her visual depiction quite unsettling: When she is shown outside the context of her plot against Ariane, M\u00e9lanie\u2019s life is pitifully empty, her lonesome existence preoccupied with quotidian household tasks and perfunctory phone calls to her parents. After her dirty work is done, she is seen walking along an empty farm road to the train station. But, her face is still an emotional cipher\u2014she exudes neither elation nor guilt. Life goes on, but to what <\/span>sort of life<\/span><\/em> will M\u00e9lanie return?<\/p>\n Usually, a revenge tale is meant to instill cathartic emotions, either for the hero who has undone a great evil (such as Charles Bronson in Death Wish<\/em>) or against a villain who\u2019s gone too far (think Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction<\/em>). Yet, Dercourt does not let M\u00e9lanie off so easily: there is no catharsis offered here\u2014only stasis.<\/p>\n Certainly, we will never be privy (unless there\u2019s a sequel, which is unlikely) to the trebling effects of the pain suffered by Ariane and her family. But, we have<\/em> witnessed a young girl shoulder a grudge for half her brief life that any sane person would have gotten over in a few months, perhaps a year, and gone back to the drawing board.<\/p>\n Subtly, Dercourt\u2019s visual narrative turns the tables on its antagonist without her even being aware. By dedicating her life to righting a largely imagined wrong, M\u00e9lanie permanently and irrevocably has robbed herself of any semblance of a productive and fruitful life. Disturbingly, The Page Turner <\/em>demonstrates how placing one\u2019s self-esteem at the mercy of others sabotages any hopes of actually attaining self-esteem. The pages M\u00e9lanie turns are only those in a piano score, but fates herself to never turning over a new page in her own life\u2019s book.<\/p>\n The Page Turner<\/em> is an instance of a film that truly invokes thought long after the audience has left the theater, and is the most tantalizing suspense movie I\u2019ve seen since David Mamet\u2019s The Spanish Prisoner<\/em>. Its particular genius is that in an age when most directors today will try to overwhelm viewers with C.G.I. special effects and obvious cinematic pyrotechnics, Denis Dercourt is able to send a shiver right through the viewer through the forgotten art of dramatic understatement and virtuosic montage.<\/p>\n Robert L. Jones is a photojournalist living and working in Minnesota. His work has appeared in\u00a0<\/span>Black & White Magazine<\/span><\/span>,\u00a0<\/span>Entrepreneur<\/span><\/span>,\u00a0<\/span>Hoy! New York<\/span><\/span>, the New York\u00a0<\/span>Post<\/span><\/span>,\u00a0<\/span><\/em>RCA Victor\u00a0<\/span>(Japan)<\/span><\/em>,\u00a0<\/span>Scene in San Antonio<\/span><\/span>,\u00a0<\/span>Spirit Magazine<\/span><\/span>\u00a0(Canada),\u00a0<\/span>Top Producer<\/span><\/span>,\u00a0 and the Trenton\u00a0<\/span>Times<\/span><\/span>. Mr. Jones is a past entertainment editor of\u00a0<\/span>The New Individualist<\/span><\/span>.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a0 Rondo Vizioso pi\u00f9 Agitato [xrr rating=4\/5] The Page Turner (La Tourneuse de Pages). Starring Catherine Frot, D\u00e9borah Fran\u00e7ois, Pascal Greggory, Xavier de Guillebon, Christine Citti, Clotilde Mollet, Jacques Bonnaff\u00e9, Antoine Martynciow, Julie Richalet, Martine Chevallier, Andr\u00e9 Marcon, and Ari\u00e8le Butaux. Music by J\u00e9r\u00f4me Lemmonier. Cinematography by J\u00e9r\u00f4me Peyrebrune. Editor-in-Chief, Fran\u00e7ois G\u00e9digier. Written by Denis […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,45,37,3,46],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-213","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dramas","category-foreign-films","category-independent-films","category-mreview","category-suspense-movies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonesing4movies.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonesing4movies.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonesing4movies.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonesing4movies.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonesing4movies.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=213"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/jonesing4movies.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":526,"href":"https:\/\/jonesing4movies.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213\/revisions\/526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonesing4movies.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonesing4movies.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonesing4movies.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}