The Page Turner: Grade B

B
The Page Turner (2006)
Catherine Frot, Deborah Francoise. Co-writer and director Denis Dercourt. (French, subtitled).

A ten year old girl in a piano competition is distracted by a teacher who signs an autograph in the middle of her performance. The girl loses her train of thought and the competition, and never plays again. That’s not very likely, but it is necessary to set up the revenge story that follows. Ten years later, the girl, now young woman, gets a nanny job at the home of the teacher, who does not recognize her. Eventually the girl is trusted with the job of turning pages for the teacher, now a concert pianist, during an important concert. But the act of revenge is not the obvious thing you expect. Instead it is far more subtle and for that, hurtful. Very nice, though it raises the question: if the victim never knows that the grief was due to revenge rather than fate, does it still count as revenge? There’s not much action in this psychological thriller, but the acting by the two women is very good. Sets and costumes are luscious, and the music is lovely. It is a very "inner" movie.