The Page Turner

Belgian actress Deborah Francois, who impressed us in the Dardenne brothers' The Child, excels in this precise, cold-blooded revenge drama from writer/director Dercourt. She plays butcher's daughter Melanie, whose promising career as a pianist was unknowingly ruined by Ariane (Catherine Frot) when Melanie was only 12. The embittered girl gains employment in the household of Ariane who little suspects the real reasons for her new employee's scrupulous attentiveness. With a classical music accompaniment accentuating the tension and suppressed emotion, The Page Turner is pleasingly reminiscent of Claude Chabrol at his best.