This is one of those films that will give you goose-bumps, mainly because of the powerful performances of the two female leads. Veteran Catherine Frot is the renowned concert pianist Ariane Fouchecourt who is prey to stage fright and Deborah Francois is the resolutely determined young woman who comes into her life. The two women actually met ten years earlier when the young Melanie was attempting to pass the conservatory’s entrance exam. Her performance was interrupted when the well-known pianist signed an autograph in the middle of her playing. Angered and disappointed, Melanie gave up her music studies. But ten years later she ends up living in Ariane’s house, looking after her son and turning pages for her at concerts.
Director Denis Dercourt was a professional musician, playing solo viola with the French Symphony Orchestra for 5 years. The drama develops into a suspenseful tale of retribution, played out against a backdrop of Bach, Schubert and Shostakovich. The icy Melanie is polite and controlled, and she soon becomes indispensable to Ariane at a level that goes far beyond that of a hired help. The tension increases alarmingly as the young woman watches and waits for all the strands of her plans for vengeance to come to fruition and it takes a while to piece together the enormity of young Melanie’s plan. Ariane has no memory of the girl who crossed her path briefly a decade before and it is only as the film comes to an end that the ramifications of Melanie’s coolly calculated sabotage come to light. As it plumbs the dark recesses of human nature, this horror film has far more impact than those that concentrate on shock and gore.
The Page Turner screens at Somerville 19-25 March and at Joondalup Pines 26 March – 1 April, commencing at 8pm.
