''The Page Turner'' (french: La Tourneuse de pages) is a 2006 French film directed by

Denis Dercourt Denis Dercourt (born 1 October 1964) is a French film director and screenwriter. Biography Denis Dercourt's grandfather directed documentaries, his father was a film producer and his brother is also a film producer. From 1988 to 1993, Derco ...

. It was screened in the

Un Certain Regard (, meaning 'a certain glance') is a section of the Cannes Film Festival's official selection. It is run at the Debussy, parallel to the competition for the . This section was introduced in 1978 by Gilles Jacob. The section presents 20 films w ...

section at the

2006 Cannes Film Festival The 59th Cannes Film Festival was held from 17 to 28 May 2006. Twenty films from eleven countries were in competition for the Palme d'Or. The President of the Official selection Jury was Wong Kar-wai, the first Chinese director to preside over t ...

Plot

A young girl, Mélanie Prouvost, aspires to be a pianist and auditions in front of famous pianist Ariane Fouchécourt for a place at a conservatoire. Ariane signs an autograph for an admirer during the recital, distracting Mélanie and affecting her performance. She leaves the audition with her mother, heartbroken. Some years later Mélanie, having studied hard, finds a work experience placement at a solicitors. Perhaps coincidentally we find the husband of the famous pianist for whom she previously auditioned. The story develops as the young woman ingratiates herself into the life of the family, becoming a holiday carer for the young son who the family hopes will follow in the footsteps of the mother as a famous pianist. Befriending the boy, Melanie encourages him to prepare a full piano recital performance for the father's return to the family home after a business trip. She also manages to become indispensable to Ariane, both practically and emotionally. Melanie's perfectly timed page turning, combined with her composure and apparent empathy, enable Ariane to recover a confidence in performance that she thought she had lost after a traumatic car crash. A very close and intimate relationship is established between the two women with Mélanie becoming obsessed with Ariane in order to get revenge for the humiliation that she suffered as a child. She manages to seduce Ariane and then abandons her but twists the emotional knife by revealing the relationship to Ariane's husband.

Cast

Catherine Frot Catherine Frot (; born 1 May 1956) is a French actress. A 10-time César Award nominee, she won the awards for Best Actress for '' Marguerite'' (2015) and Best Supporting Actress for ''Family Resemblances'' (1996). Her other films include ''Le D ...

– Ariane Fouchécourt *

Déborah François Déborah François (; born 24 May 1987) is a Belgian actress. She is best known for her starring role in the Palme d'Or-winning film, '' The Child'' (2005), directed by the Dardenne brothers. In 2009, she won a César Award for Most Promising ...

– Mélanie Prouvost *

Pascal Greggory Pascal Greggory (born 8 September 1954) is a French actor. Personal life Greggory is openly gay. He had long-term relationships with Patrice Chéreau and François-Marie Banier. Filmography * '' Les Sœurs Brontë'' (1979) by André Téchiné * ...

– Jean Fouchécourt * Clotilde Mollet – Virginie * Xavier De Guillebon – Laurent *

Christine Citti Christine Citti (born 26 October 1962 in Paris) is a French actress, director and writer. Personal life Her brother, Marc Citti, is also actor. Her father was mayor of Ramoulu in the Loiret Loiret (; ) is a department in the Centre-Val d ...

– Madame Prouvost *

Jacques Bonnaffé Jacques Bonnaffé (born 22 June 1958) is a French actor and stage director. He has appeared in more than ninety films since 1980. Debut Jacques Bonnaffé was formed at the Lille Conservatory after his high school years in Douai (North) where he ...

– Monsieur Prouvost * Antoine Martynciow – Tristan Fouchécourt * Julie Richalet – Young Mélanie Prouvost *

Martine Chevallier Martine Chevallier (born 1949 in Gap, Hautes-Alpes, France) is a French actress. Career Martine Chevallier joined the Conservatoire national supérieur d’art dramatique in the class of Antoine Vitez and won the first prize in 1974. In 1986, ...

– Jackie Onfray * André Marcon – Werker * Michèle Ernou – Monique

Reception

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

the film has a score of 67% based on reviews from 16 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

References

External links

* 2006 films 2006 psychological thriller films French psychological thriller films 2000s French-language films Films about classical music and musicians Films directed by Denis Dercourt French films about revenge 2000s French films {{2000s-France-film-stub