young lady macbeth
Added 9/6/2009
I gave 3 stars for the acting and the execution, and because I didn't look at my watch.
Spoiler alert: It's a little hard to believe that a young girl would hold a grudge that long and then act on it against people who never did her any intentional harm. After all, the girl is from a loving, happy, hard working, well-adjusted family, so the malicious behavior is rather out of the blue -- maybe it was a class thing, a meaningful concept in France. Besides, I know a thing or two about music and I can tell you for a fact that little Melanie's piano playing was only a cut above chopsticks, and would have been told that by her teacher. Entering a competition is only done if one has the talent and the confidence, which Melanie did not.
What would have been interesting is to pursue Ariane's transformation once she realizes she's in love with Melanie, including the effect on her marriage and her husband. The two ladies are perfecttly cast and are clearly highly competent as actresses and could have pulled off portraying a believable relationship, if only the director had let them. Alas, he decided to go for the revenge angle and leave it at that. Too bad.
Incidentally, the husband is a big time lawyer in this film, wealthy and powerful. I'm predicting that Melanie will have a hard time finding suitable employment after this fellow gets done exacting his revenge. As for the fellow who will marry Melanie, well, dude ...
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The script never really sells the story
Added 4/16/2009
Spoiler warning: Why this young lady would hold such a vendetta, including promoting physical damage of a youth, over a slight at a piano competition is proposition that outstretches credulity. The story has a decent structure, and the choreography of a thriller, but virtually a complete absense of tension and suspense. Furthermore, the characters are all cold and the audience cannot embrace sympathy. Thumbs down.
1 out of 3 people found this helpful.
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Truly Missed Opportunity
Added 6/26/2008
You know, France has made many excellent thrillers with psychological depth underlying its apparently incredible, but still intriguing plot like "Les Diaboliques." If "La Tourneuse de pages" had been directed by someone like Henri-Georges Clouzot or Claude Chabrol, it might have been a great thriller As it is, we have to be content with the so-so direction of Denis Dercourt, who knows how to show the details of each scene, but not of the story.
[MILD SPOLIER INCLUDED IN THIS PARAGRAPH] The story is interesting. A young, quiet girl Melanie, daughter of a local butcher, wanted to be a pianist. But her dream was shattered because of the inconsiderate behavior of one juror during the competition. Well, that's how she thinks. Years later, grown-up Melanie shows up before the very person (who herself is a pianist) as a part-time nanny, and then sits by her as "page turner.".
This kind of story has a certain kind of format, so most people can predict what is coming in the final chapter. That is not a problem at all. What is really important is the way the film leads us to the ending and that is where "La Tourneuse de pages" disappoints us. The film suggests Melanie's rather simple plans and Melanie just does what she is supposed to do. Everything goes too smoothly; no twist, no surprise.
Despite several nice touches given to the details of the characters' traits, the film fails to explore the psychological aspects which the seemingly impossible story has: "What kind of people can hold a grudge against someone for such a long time?" "How do such people manage to be trusted by the very person they hate?" or "Why do such people rely on such a contrived and risky method?" and so on. Without insights into these questions, the thriller becomes only an awfully implausible potboiler, which the film actually becomes.
Still I must say the two leading ladies did a fine job. The director is very lucky as he could cast Catherine Frot and Déborah François as the leads. They make the detailed descriptions of the characters they play more convincing - Melanie's relation with the juror's young son, which occasionally reveals the hidden side of her personality, is one good example - but as a whole the film is a missed opportunity to create a more engrossing thriller.
3 out of 5 people found this helpful.
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Revenge is sweet but the script is confused
Added 6/15/2008
An young ambitious pianist is thwarted at a competition by disinterest on the part of a judge and years later gets revenge on everyone that is close to the judge. The plot could have been more amusing, more complicated (many missed opportunities) Still it was enjoyable
1 out of 2 people found this helpful.
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When music doesn't charm a savage beast
Added 6/9/2008
The film begins with 10-year-old Melanie Prouvost's preparations for a piano recital that could win her a place in a prestigious Parisian conservatory. She informs her working-class parents that she will quit the piano if she doesn't succeed. During the audition, a judge is asked for an autograph and this distraction causes Melanie to flub her piece. Angered by this perceived slight and convinced of her lost opportunity, she forever gives up her ambition. The story fast-forwards to ten years later and Melanie is now an intern in a law firm. She overhears her boss saying that his son needs a nanny. Melanie gets the job. We find out that the boss' wife is none other than the judge who caused her to fumble at the recital, Ariane Fouchecourt, a renowned pianist. Ariane is a fragile woman whose confidence at concerts eroded after an auto accident. Melanie ingratiates herself with Ariane and the life of the Bourgeoisie that Melanie can only imagine. In short order she becomes Ariane's trusted page-turner at concerts and a much-needed source of affection. We assume Melanie is acting out a part, biding her time, waiting for the opportune moment to exact her revenge. We don't know when, we don't know how, we just know it'll happen.
"The Page Turner (La tourneuse de pages)" is not an average revenge thriller. Sans bloodshed, hysterics and action, the thrills here are tepid compared to what we're accustomed to in American films, but it is the very absence of these elements that makes the revenge itself unique and satisfying. It is bone-chillingly delivered in an elegant package topped with a creepy bow. It is the kind of cerebral horror that the master himself, Alfred Hitchcock, would have wanted to make a cameo appearance in...after he's made some script changes and given director Denis Dercourt a few lessons, mind you.
At barely 80 minutes, the film gets to its meaty part rapidly, soon after the few and slow developments that don't necessarily terrify, but do make one nervous. The young Belgian actress, Deborah Francois as Melanie, is a study in understatement. Hardly reacting, blonde and cold, she's the epitome of beauty and menace combined. Catherine Frot, as Ariane, is a quivering bowl of Jell-O that doesn't quite gel, a tad difficult to accept that such an accomplished artist would allow a mere snip of a girl to overtake her life with nary a suspicion.
There is a subtext in this film, which I hope is not revealed as it is upon which the revenge hinges. Some have seen it as deficient, but it is what warranted my appreciation. The settling of scores, when it comes, is nothing as mundane as murder, and its effect is more devastating when compared to the quick release of death.
Comparisons to Claude Chabrol's films have been made, particularly to "La Ceremonie" (an adaptation of Ruth Rendell's `A Judgment in Stone'). Not quite. La Ceremonie was a tragedy that fully explored the circumstances behind the perversity of its characters. The Page Turner does not. We are left only to accept, without doubt, that a 10-year-old would have the wherewithal to nurse a grievance for so long and plan an annihilation ten years down the road. That is one messed-up kid.
(Language: French with English subtitles)
1 out of 3 people found this helpful.
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