Review: Pom Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold

Reviews

La Tourneuse de Pages|The Page Turner

Something sinister is brewing

By PETER KEOUGH | April 18, 2007

3.0 Stars

LA TOURNEUSE DE PAGES: Mélanie plays Ariane like a piano, but to what end?

A girl needn’t go to the trouble of losing her leg and replacing it with an assault rifle, à la Grindhouse, to get even. In Belgian director Denis Dercourt’s The Page Turner, all it takes is patience, cunning, and concentrated malice. Ten-year-old Mélanie, the butcher’s wizened daughter, auditions for the conservatory, but one of the judges, famed pianist Ariane Fouchécourt (Catherine Frot), can’t be bothered to pay attention and Melanie is distracted. Ten years later, played by the blank, angelic beauty Déborah François, Mélanie has insinuated herself into Ariane’s household, first as an au pair, then as her page turner at concerts. Let’s just say Mélanie plays Ariane like a piano and the older woman’s feelings soon go beyond the professional. Something sinister is brewing, you can tell by the icy colors, by the lovely but unsettling Bach and Shostakovich, by the reflections of the swimming pool reminiscent of Jacques Tourneur’s Cat People. More ambiguous mood music than page-turning revenge thriller, this dish is ice cold.

Related: War stories, Told right, Magical Mystery Tour, More

Topics: Reviews , Media, Books, Book Reviews, More

| More

Most Popular

The Current Issue

Table of Contents

Cover Archive

Masthead | Authors | Contact us

Blogs

Mind The Binder
Talking Politics | October 16, 2012 at 10:46 PM

Spectacular Massachusetts Politics Election Prediction Contest!
October 16, 2012 at 2:07 PM

[breaking news] Passion Pit to play Madison Square Garden in February
On The Download | October 16, 2012 at 12:05 PM

[dance party review] Two channel rocking: Miss Jennifer @ Underbar, 10.13.12
October 16, 2012 at 11:42 AM

Lena Dunham’s risky book deal
Phlog | October 12, 2012 at 3:43 PM

ARTICLES BY PETER KEOUGH

REVIEW: GIRL MODEL | October 10, 2012
As seen in David Redmon and Ashley Sabin's somber, sometimes poetic, Fred Wiseman-like documentary, the international model trade ranks just above human trafficking in legitimacy.

REVIEW: WAKE IN FRIGHT (1971) | October 10, 2012
Combining elements of Heart of Darkness , After Hours , and Groundhog Day , Ted Kotcheff's brutally brilliant Outback thriller follows the moral degradation, or perhaps redemption, of a snooty schoolteacher (Gary Bond) traveling from the backwater where he's assigned to Sydney for his Christmas vacation.

REVIEW: SEVEN PSYCHOPATHS | October 11, 2012
As in his debut In Bruges , Martin McDonagh here plays self-reflexive games while undermining the gangster genre.

TY BURR'S GODS LIKE US | October 09, 2012
Boston Globe film critic Ty Burr's provocative new book Gods Like Us: On Movie Stardom and Modern Fame (Pantheon) traces the evolution of screen idols from Florence Lawrence (the Biograph Girl of 1909 — remember?) to Snooki. But he himself had a rough introduction to the celebrity world.