Best movie of this year hands down!

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

The French are the masters of the slow, quiet, civilized, sophisticated psychological thriller, and "The Page Turner" is one such film. Only a few drops of blood are spilled, in just one scene; this is a story of brutal psychological manipulation. Writer-director Denis Dercourt almost out-Chabrols Claude Chabrol; he keeps teasing us about how far Melanie's character is prepared to go, and about the possibility of her having second thoughts. But even if we are certain that she is going to go through with her revenge, we don't know how or when she will exact it. Déborah François underplays beautifully - the viewer can't read what she's thinking or feeling, which is exactly the point. This is a pitch-perfect little thriller. *** out of 4.

During the first half of The Page Turner, I was wishing that it would get a move on. Then I realised that I was being impatient and relaxed into the pace dictated by the film. After that, it was like savouring an ice cream knowing that the end would be messy -- but exactly HOW messy? There was, however, no need to worry about unnecessary blood and guts (well, maybe the former made a brief appearance), as Melanie gently inserted a psychological knife and turned it gently.I'm still not sure who's side I am on, though. If Melanie had not allowed herself to be distracted by the thoughtlessness of her examiner and had completed the piece, she may have gone on to become a professional musician. So it was really her own fault in the first place.But, accepting that she believed Ariane to be at fault, she exacted her revenge very sweetly indeed. My question is: did she plan it all or just take her opportunities as they manifested themselves? Did she know who her boss's wife was? Did she apply for the job specifically because of that? Had she been stalking Ariane before the start of the film?In the end, I enjoyed it despite my many questions, so a very acceptable 7/10 and I hope to see Deborah Francois on screen again soon.

Responding to Alison's request for the name of the Shostakovich piece played, it is his Piano Trio No. 2 in E Minor, Opus 67. It's Shostakovich in rare "Jewish" mode (he was not Jewish, but when he used Jewish idioms it was usually to commemorate a Jewish friend). I have a recording of it played by the Beaux Arts Trio, and it's very fine. And it's 24 minutes long, not the 2 minute excerpt played in the Radio France concert in the movie. Sadly, and for no reason I can detect, the composer of the film's incidental music found it necessary to intrude and impose his "talents" on this and other established classics, rendering the effect of the Bach, Schubert, and Shostakovich pieces fairly impotent. Not this guy's finest hour, by any means.Oh, and the equally brief excerpt of a Schubert Piano Trio played for the American in the movie -- that's one of two he wrote in his maturity, and the two are easily found recorded by many artists. Two recommended recordings are the Stern-Rose-Istomin Trio and again the Beaux Arts Trio.Although a bad page turner can be deadly during a concert, the performer really ought to know the piece well enough to be able to play through a page break up to the next opportunity to turn the page oneself. That is the central disconnect with real life that this movie displays. And if the pianist is so shell-shocked from her accident that she gets stage fright so easily, she really would not be able to last very long on the concert circuit in any event. In that respect, Melanie actually did Ariane a big favor by doing what she did. So there's lots to puzzle about in this movie, things that strike directly at the heart of characters' motivations and so weaken the story.

Horribly marketed in the U.S. with such a bad (easily forgettable) title. Where are the good producers to lead the U.S. marketing teams (who even fell short with Stardust and oddly enough, with Live Free or Die Hard -- which should have done bigger numbers)? Done with economy and precision, the Page Turner is a little masterpiece. Brokeback Mountain received a lot of attention because of superstar McMurtry and the other savvy writer/ producers. This film deserved the same accolades -- not just because of the gay factor, but because of the updating factor of the French-New-Wave+Hitchcock model, like Brokeback was to the Western model.