The Page Turner (2006)

This slow but chilling French drama from director Denis Dercourt reminded me of the accomplished psychological films of Chabrol and the developing air of menace was nearly tangible.  The story starts with a 10-year old butcher's daughter who is preparing for her first piano examination.  She has incipient talent but the thoughtless behaviour of one of the judges -- a famed pianist who sign's an autograph for a fan during the girl's performance -- puts her off her stride, and she fails.  She goes home and locks the piano, never to play again, but a grudge is slowly burning.

Flash forward some 10 years and the girl Natalie is now sedate but sexy Deborah Francois.  She takes an internship at a law firm and inveigles herself into the senior partner's home as a temporary nanny; his wife, as we must assume Natalie already knew, is the same famous pianist, but one who is having a crisis of confidence after a serious car accident.  Natalie ingratiates herself into the household looking after their piano-prodigy son and helping his mother, played by Catherine Frot, prepare for an important forthcoming concert by acting as her page turner.  After the concert's success, Frot becomes more and more dependent upon her and is also oddly attracted to her, when Natalie makes minor advances.  However the girl's lust for revenge continues to grow and does not manifest itself in the expected ways; she does not, for example, kill the boy's pet hen, when the audience is led to think that she might.  Instead, the net result of her deeds is to lead to the destruction of Frot's career and marriage and to possibly ruin the musical future of the young boy as well.  None of this is actually spelled out, but we have seen enough to know that her revenge will be devastatingly complete.

Tags: Page Turner, revenge