THE PAGE TURNER, which screened at the 2006 Toronto International Film Festival®, is an elegant, hauntingly mysterious drama that features an absolutely stunning performance by Déborah François, who made such an impression as the put-upon young mother in the Dardenne brothers’ 2005 Palme d’Or-winning THE CHILD. Denis Dercourt’s THE PAGE TURNER is THE CHILD’s polar opposite – a cool, precise and beautifully controlled meditation on a young woman’s desire to confront a defining moment from her past.
The film opens on young, impressionable Mélanie (Julie Richalet) as she nervously appears in front of an examination board for her entrance to a music conservatory. Despite her efforts, her concentration is interrupted by the thoughtless behaviour of the jury’s chair, famous concert pianist Ariane Fouchécourt (Catherine Frot). Mélanie stumbles badly and her audition quickly becomes a disaster. Her dream destroyed, Mélanie mournfully puts the piano behind her. We then jump ahead in time: Mélanie (now played by François) is now a prim and proper young woman. She gets a job in a prestigious law firm as a file clerk and quickly impresses the senior partner, M. Fouchécourt, with her studiousness and hard work. When he finds himself looking for someone to care for his young son, he persuades her to move in with his family at their rambling mansion in the countryside. There, Mélanie is introduced to Fouchécourt’s wife, Ariane, a pianist who has lost confidence and reached a point of crisis that has many people questioning whether she should continue to play in public. Somehow, Mélanie’s quiet presence clams Ariane’s nerves. Since she can read music, Mélanie becomes Ariane’s page turner, sitting beside her during rehearsals and turning the pages of the sheet music. Dercourt (himself a professional musician and conservatory professor) uses this as his departure point for an acerbic and penetrating study of mutual dependence, carefully and delicately exposing the intricacies that lie behind the women’s relationship.
THE PAGE TURNER is a beautifully controlled and disciplined film; Dercourt never releases his assured grip on this fascinating study of two women’s hidden motivations.
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