Silence and music have an interesting relationship, a fact oft reiterated but rarely practised. Here's a film that respects both.

| Apr 29, 2019

This must be what a French movie-of-the-week look like, deemed art here because of the subtitles.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Dec 7, 2007

In the movies, there's nothing quite as sinister as the antagonist who's willing to wait for her revenge.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jun 2, 2007

The serving temperature of revenge has seldom been colder, nor the time of preparation longer, than for this gourmet French plat froid from writer-director Denis Dercourt.

| May 11, 2007

It's a small French delicacy, tart, acerbic and cynical, that focuses on three or four characters and yet manages to bring them and their dilemmas to vivid life.

| May 3, 2007

The stakes in this story seem too low to justify its audience's attention. If The Page Turner were a novel, it would hardly be a page turner. Why should we hold films to a lower standard?

| Original Score: 2/4 | Apr 20, 2007

[Director] Dercourt's manipulation of his characters and his imagery can be a little heavy-handed, but there's nary a wrong note in the performances of his exceedingly fine cast.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 7, 2007

In retrospect it's clear that when the filmmakers had a chance to hammer something they tapped it, instead.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Apr 7, 2007

This film, like Melanie in her fitted suit and straight, blond ponytail, is a taut little affair, clocking in at a no-nonsense 85 minutes. She gets in, gets out, her work is done, much like her long-ago audition.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Mar 30, 2007

This premise may sound all right on paper, but on-screen it doesn't really wash.

| Mar 30, 2007

An impeccably made psychological melodrama. It's a story of destruction, dependence and betrayal set not only in the world of classical music but in the French culture of politeness where form and decorum are everything.

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | Mar 29, 2007

A classical music thriller.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Mar 29, 2007

There's little recognition of the difference between simmering suspense and sluggish pacing, a sure kiss of death for a thriller.

| Original Score: 3/6 | Mar 24, 2007

What makes The Page Turner effective is that nothing about François' plan seems immediately obvious or predictable.

Full Review | Original Score: B+ | Mar 24, 2007

Elegant and subtle.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Mar 23, 2007

Director and co-writer Denis Dercourt infuses Melanie's calculating seduction of the family with a sense of genuine menace. You will not be bored.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Mar 23, 2007

The Page Turner is finally ersatz Chabrol, absent the master's perverse wit, complex psychology, social sensitivities and visual flair.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Mar 23, 2007

The schematic requirements of the setup, combined with the tight-lipped demeanor of the two lead characters, makes for arid moviegoing. Eighty-five minutes can seem much longer than it really is when you spend the entire time waiting for a shoe to drop.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Mar 22, 2007

A fine example of the excellence of French genre film right now: A dark tale of revenge with an inscrutable heart, ice in its veins and an electric undercurrent of eroticism, it also might be the best-photographed picture I've seen so far this year.

Full Review | Mar 22, 2007

The movie saves the full strength of her toxicity for a kicker that's almost gleeful in its sangfroid; Dercourt's parting coup de grâce is like getting shanked with an icicle.

Full Review | Mar 20, 2007