{ "id": "ep14xtsy3m", "slug": "the-page-turner", "title": "The Page Turner", "updated": "2026-11-01", "topic_path": [ { "id": "culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture" }, { "id": "culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery", "label": "Crime, thriller, and mystery films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery.2005-2009-films", "label": "2005–2009 films", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery.2005-2009-films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery.2005-2009-films.yr-2005-2007", "label": "Released 2005 to 2007", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery.2005-2009-films.yr-2005-2007" } ], "geo": [ { "id": "geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery", "label": "Western Europe · 2001 to 2020: Crime, thriller, and mystery films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery", "path": [ { "id": "geo.weu", "label": "Western Europe", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t2001", "label": "Western Europe · 2001 to 2020", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t2001" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t2001.culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t2001.culture" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery", "label": "Crime, thriller, and mystery films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery" } ] } ], "excerpt": "The Page Turner (La tourneuse de pages) is a 2006 French psychological thriller by Denis Dercourt, 85 minutes, starring Catherine Frot and Déborah François, about a failed piano student's revenge as a concert pianist's page turner; Cannes Un Certain Regard, 77% on Rotten Tomatoes.", "snippet": "The Page Turner (La tourneuse de pages) is a 2006 French psychological thriller by Denis Dercourt, 85 minutes, starring Catherine Frot and Déborah François, about a failed piano student's revenge as a concert pianist's page turner; Cannes Un Certain Regard, 77% on Rotten Tomatoes.", "node": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery.2005-2009-films.yr-2005-2007", "markdown": "# The Page Turner\n\n**The Page Turner** (French: *La tourneuse de pages*) is a 2006 French psychological thriller directed by Denis Dercourt, in which a young woman takes quiet, methodical revenge on the concert pianist whose carelessness ended her own childhood career at the piano. It runs 85 minutes and stars Catherine Frot as the pianist Ariane Fouchécourt and Déborah François as Mélanie Prouvost, with Pascal Greggory as Ariane's husband.[1](https://cineuropa.org/fr/film/63986/) • [2](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0487503/)\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Original title | *La tourneuse de pages* (France, 2006), 85 minutes, in French[1](https://cineuropa.org/fr/film/63986/) |\n| Director and writers | Denis Dercourt, co-written with Jacques Sotty[2](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0487503/) |\n| Festival | Screened in the Un Certain Regard sidebar at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival[1](https://cineuropa.org/fr/film/63986/) |\n| Release | France and Belgium 9 August 2006; United Kingdom 3 November 2006[1](https://cineuropa.org/fr/film/63986/) |\n| Reception | 77% Tomatometer on Rotten Tomatoes (64 reviews); Metascore 67; IMDb rating 7.0/10[3](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/page_turner) • [4](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0487503/criticreviews/) • [5](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0487503/ratings/) |\n| Box office | $9,284,852 worldwide, of which $209,659 in the United States and Canada[6](https://www.imdb.com/fr/title/tt0487503/) |\n| Music | Original score by Jérôme Lemonnier; concert works by Bach and Shostakovich among others[1](https://cineuropa.org/fr/film/63986/) • [7](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/the-page-turner-film-review-by-paul-griffiths) |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n### Plot\n\nMélanie, the ten-year-old daughter of butchers in a small provincial town, shows a gift for the piano and enters the competition for a place at a conservatory. During her performance, the jury's chairwoman, the celebrated concert pianist Ariane Fouchécourt, pauses to sign an autograph for a fan; distracted, Mélanie falters and fails. She goes home, puts away her bust of Beethoven, locks the piano, and gives up playing for good.[8](https://www.allocine.fr/film/fichefilm_gen_cfilm%3D109000.html) • [9](https://www.sandiegoreader.com/movies/page-turner/)\n\nAbout ten years later, Mélanie takes an internship at a large law firm and arranges for its head, Jean Fouchécourt, to hire her as caretaker for his son Tristan. The employer is Ariane's husband, and Ariane, recovering from a car accident and preparing a comeback concert with her piano trio, does not recognize the girl she once failed. Impressed by Mélanie's musical knowledge and discretion, Ariane asks her to turn pages at rehearsals and performances. Mélanie settles into the family's country house and begins to undermine them: she fails to appear at a crucial performance, wrecking Ariane's fragile confidence, and encourages the boy to practice a Bach prelude at dangerous speed.[8](https://www.allocine.fr/film/fichefilm_gen_cfilm%3D109000.html) • [10](https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/revenge-is-suite-1.1024413) • [11](https://globalfilmbook.wordpress.com/2009/08/05/the-page-turner-la-tourneuse-de-pages-france-2006/)\n\nThe film keeps Mélanie's motives and feelings deliberately opaque. Critics noted the ambiguity of her relationship with Ariane, which can be read as hatred, seduction, or both, and the ending leaves her walking down a country road with an enigmatic smile.[12](https://www.timeout.com/movies/the-page-turner-1) • [11](https://globalfilmbook.wordpress.com/2009/08/05/the-page-turner-la-tourneuse-de-pages-france-2006/)\n\n## Production\n\n**Dercourt's double career.** Denis Dercourt was a professional viola player and chamber-music teacher at a conservatory before and during his film career, and *The Page Turner* was his fourth feature and first thriller. He said he wrote the script the way a composer writes, alternating phases of tension and release, and he composed it while working in Japan, where revenge tragedy is a strong element of traditional theater and cinema.[13](https://cineuropa.org/fr/interview/65328/) • [11](https://globalfilmbook.wordpress.com/2009/08/05/the-page-turner-la-tourneuse-de-pages-france-2006/) In his Cannes press notes he described the page turner's position on stage, seated beside the soloists yet seemingly uninvolved in their success, as carrying an unsuspected potential for danger: a page turned too early or too late could overturn everything.[14](https://cdn-media.festival-cannes.com/pdf/0001/44/5bbe99aae38451c3bc0acbcc19b88a70324b9c78.pdf)\n\nThe film was produced by Diaphana, Les Films à Un Dollar, and France 3 Cinéma, with Jérôme Peyrebrune as cinematographer and François Gédigier as editor.[1](https://cineuropa.org/fr/film/63986/) One sequence was shot at the Maison de la Radio in Paris, where the real France Musiques presenter Arièle Butaux plays herself.[15](https://www.allocine.fr/film/fichefilm-109000/secrets-tournage/) Catherine Frot, an experienced pianist, performed the piano pieces on screen, with the sound dubbed by a professional pianist.[11](https://globalfilmbook.wordpress.com/2009/08/05/the-page-turner-la-tourneuse-de-pages-france-2006/)\n\nFor Déborah François, a Belgian actress who had debuted in the Dardenne brothers' [Palme d'Or](https://www.edgepedia.org/palme-dor) winner *L'Enfant* (2005), this was only her second film, and a marked change of register: from naturalistic young mother to a composed, glacial avenger.[11](https://globalfilmbook.wordpress.com/2009/08/05/the-page-turner-la-tourneuse-de-pages-france-2006/) • [7](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/the-page-turner-film-review-by-paul-griffiths)\n\n## Reception\n\nThe film was warmly received at the 2006 Cannes Film Market after its Un Certain Regard screening.[16](https://www.cineuropa.org/en/newsdetail/65327/) Reviewers repeatedly placed it in the tradition of [Alfred Hitchcock](https://www.edgepedia.org/alfred-hitchcock) and especially Claude Chabrol, whose bourgeois psychological thrillers share its premise of a stranger entering a family with hidden intent; the Rotten Tomatoes critics consensus calls it \"elegant yet suspenseful, a revenge potboiler of a high degree.\"[3](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/page_turner) • [11](https://globalfilmbook.wordpress.com/2009/08/05/the-page-turner-la-tourneuse-de-pages-france-2006/)\n\nPraise centered on the two lead performances and the film's control. Kenneth Turan of the *Los Angeles Times* wrote that the formal, predetermined film builds interest through Frot and François, and the *Chicago Tribune*'s Michael Wilmington credited Dercourt, himself a musician, with directing the classical music world \"with a musician's precision and an insider's sly wit.\"[4](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0487503/criticreviews/) Paul Griffiths of Eye for Film highlighted Jérôme Lemonnier's score, which works with the visuals so closely that \"every note counts.\"[7](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/the-page-turner-film-review-by-paul-griffiths)\n\nDissenting critics found the film thin where it counted. Manohla Dargis of *The New York Times* called it \"a would-be psychological thriller with next to no psychology,\" and Duncan Shepherd in the *San Diego Reader* judged Mélanie \"something more of a hypothesis than a human being\" beside the nuanced Ariane.[4](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0487503/criticreviews/) • [9](https://www.sandiegoreader.com/movies/page-turner/) [The Irish Times](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-irish-times)' Donald Clarke questioned the plan's plausibility, asking whether anyone could reliably induce tendonitis by forcing a pianist to play Bach at reckless speed.[10](https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/revenge-is-suite-1.1024413) French audiences were cooler than critics: AlloCiné recorded a press score of 3.3 out of 5 against 2.8 from spectators.[8](https://www.allocine.fr/film/fichefilm_gen_cfilm%3D109000.html)\n\n## References\n\n1. [La Tourneuse de pages, Cineuropa film page](https://cineuropa.org/fr/film/63986/)\n2. [The Page Turner (2006), IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0487503/)\n3. [The Page Turner, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/page_turner)\n4. [The Page Turner (2006) Metacritic reviews, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0487503/criticreviews/)\n5. [The Page Turner (2006) Ratings, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0487503/ratings/)\n6. [La tourneuse de pages (2006), IMDb (box office)](https://www.imdb.com/fr/title/tt0487503/)\n7. [The Page Turner review by Paul Griffiths, Eye for Film](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/the-page-turner-film-review-by-paul-griffiths)\n8. [La tourneuse de pages, AlloCiné](https://www.allocine.fr/film/fichefilm_gen_cfilm%3D109000.html)\n9. [The Page Turner review by Duncan Shepherd, San Diego Reader](https://www.sandiegoreader.com/movies/page-turner/)\n10. [Revenge is Suite, The Irish Times](https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/revenge-is-suite-1.1024413)\n11. [The Page Turner (La tourneuse de pages, France 2006), The Global Film Book Blog](https://globalfilmbook.wordpress.com/2009/08/05/the-page-turner-la-tourneuse-de-pages-france-2006/)\n12. [The Page Turner, Time Out (2006 review)](https://www.timeout.com/movies/the-page-turner-1)\n13. [Denis Dercourt interview, Cineuropa](https://cineuropa.org/fr/interview/65328/)\n14. [La Tourneuse de pages press dossier, Festival de Cannes](https://cdn-media.festival-cannes.com/pdf/0001/44/5bbe99aae38451c3bc0acbcc19b88a70324b9c78.pdf)\n15. [Anecdotes du film La tourneuse de pages, AlloCiné](https://www.allocine.fr/film/fichefilm-109000/secrets-tournage/)\n16. [The Page Turner, Cineuropa review](https://www.cineuropa.org/en/newsdetail/65327/)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Crime, thriller, and mystery films (individual works) › 2005–2009 films › Released 2005 to 2007*\n\n*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/the-page-turner", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/the-page-turner.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"The Page Turner\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/the-page-turner. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[The Page Turner](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-page-turner)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/the-page-turner](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-page-turner). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"The Page Turner\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/the-page-turner. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "The Page Turner is a 2006 French psychological thriller by Denis Dercourt, 85 minutes, starring Catherine Frot and Déborah François, about a failed piano student's revenge as a concert pianist's page turner; Cannes Un Certain Regard, 77% on Rotten Tomatoes." }