History Film / ThePageTurner

11-year-old Mélanie Prouvost (Creator/JulieRichalet) undertakes an audition for the Paris Conservatoire, but her performance is disturbed when one of the jurors, distinguished pianist Ariane Fouchécourt (Creator/CatherineFrot), allows a fan to enter the room to get an autograph from her. Mélanie fumbles through the rest of the piece and leaves in tears, locking the piano and packing away her little Beethoven bust when she returns home, without a word to her parents.

Ten years later, Mélanie, as a young adult ([[Creator/DeborahFrancois Déborah François]]), is doing an internship for one of Paris' top lawyers, Jean Fouchécourt (Creator/PascalGreggory). When she finds out he is seeking a nanny for his son Tristan (Creator/AntoineMartynciow) while he goes on an extended business trip, she volunteers. His wife turns out to be Ariane, who is now emotionally fragile and suffers stage fright as a result of a traffic accident two years earlier. She does not remember Mélanie, who wastes no time in insinuating herself into the graces of the whole family, while planning her revenge.

''The Page Turner'' (French: ''La tourneuse de pages'') is a 2006 French psychological thriller created and directed by professional viola player Denis Dercourt. It tells the story of the revenge exacted by the titular young woman against the concert pianist whose carelessness ended the former's dreams of becoming a pianist herself.

11-year-old Mélanie Prouvost undertakes an audition for the Paris Conservatoire, but her performance is disturbed when one of the jurors, distinguished pianist Ariane Fouchécourt, allows a fan to enter the room to get an autograph from her. Mélanie fumbles through the rest of the piece and leaves in tears, locking the piano and packing away her little Beethoven bust when she returns home, without a word to her parents.

Ten years later, Mélanie, as a young adult, is doing an internship for one of Paris' top lawyers, Jean Fouchécourt. When she finds out he is seeking a nanny for his son Tristan while he goes on an extended business trip, she volunteers. His wife turns out to be Ariane, who is now emotionally fragile and suffers stage fright as a result of a traffic accident two years earlier. She does not remember Mélanie, who wastes no time in insinuating herself into the graces of the whole family, while planning her revenge.

* KarmaHoudini: Downplayed. [[spoiler:Mélanie gets away with her DisproportionateRetribution, but she is last seen walking alone to the station and it is implied that she has also hurt her own prospects in life.]]
* PayEvilUntoEvil:
** [[spoiler:Mélanie stabbing the lecherous Laurent through the foot with a cello spike]] is an example. However, the revenge she exacts against Ariane is not.
* PettyChildhoodGrudge: Ariadne signed an autograph at eleven-year-old Mélanie's audition for the Paris Conservatoire, which threw her off and caused her to fail the audition. Despite her parents' assurances that they'd continue paying for her lessons if she failed, Mélanie quits and harbors a decade-long resentment against Ariadne. She then manipulates her way into Ariadne's home, encourages Ariadne to fall in love with her before abruptly abandoning her, ruins her marriage, damages her career (possibly permanently), and encourages her son to play music that is too advanced for him, ruining ''his'' promising piano career and (it's implied) permanently disabling him.

* VillainProtagonist: Mélanie could be seen as one due to her revenge qualifying as DisproportionateRetribution.

* WouldHurtAChild: Subverted. Mélanie [[spoiler:appears to be trying to drown Tristan in the pool by holding his head underwater. Then she releases him and congratulates him on beating his own record for staying underwater. However, this disturbing gesture underscores the fact that she is deliberately harming him through her influence.]]

* YourCheatingHeart:
** Ariane cheats emotionally on her husband by falling in love with Mélanie. The final stage of Mélanie's revenge consists of [[spoiler:tricking Ariane into writing her a love letter on the back of one of her photographs, and then, just before departing from the house, planting this in Jean's office for him to find in order to ruin their marriage.]]
** Laurent cheats on his wife Virginie by [[spoiler:sexually assaulting Mélanie]].

* KickTheSonOfABitch: [[spoiler:Mélanie stabbing the lecherous Laurent through the foot with a cello spike.]]

** Laurent cheats on his wife Virginie by sexually assaulting Mélanie.

* AttemptedRape: When Mélanie is alone in a room with the (married) cellist in Ariane's trio, Laurent, he begins to sexually assault her by groping her breasts. She puts an end to that by stabbing him through the foot with the spike of his cello.
* BestServedCold: The poster trope for this film. Mélanie bides her time for a whole decade to exact a cold an thorough revenge on Ariane.
* CareerEndingInjury: Tristan is implied to have developed this as a result of Mélanie's bad influence.
* DisproportionateRetribution: As revenge for carelessly undermining Mélanie's audition to the Conservatoire, the latter deliberately ruins Ariane's career and her marriage, as well as crippling her son by encouraging him to play music that is too hard for him.
* HoneyTrap: Mélanie makes herself into this for Ariane, manipulating her into falling in love with her, for vengeful purposes.
* TheShowMustGoOn: Mélanie deliberately vanishes a few minutes before Ariane's trio is due to go on stage to perform for the American. Ariane, who is emotionally dependent on Mélanie, becomes inconsolable and wants to wait for her to reappear. In the end, an assistant is assigned to turn pages for Ariane instead. As a result, Ariane suffers terrible nerves and fumbles horribly through the whole performance, and the American responds by dropping the trio from their concert schedule, effectively ending Ariane's career (the other two players, being in an orchestra, are not so badly effected).
* VillainProtagonist: Mélanie could be seen as one due to her revenge being DisproportionateRetribution.
* WhatDoesSheSeeInHim: Ariane's friend, the violinist Virginie, is a lovely and empathetic person who cares for her friend; her husband, the cellist Laurent, is a slimy backstabber who sexually assaults Mélanie.

** Ariane cheats emotionally on her husband by falling in love with Mélanie, just as the latter planned. The final stage of Mélanie's revenge consists on tricking Ariane into writing her a love letter on the back of one of her photographs, and then, just before departing from the house, planting this in Jean's office for him to find in order to ruin their marriage.

'''The Page Turner''' (French: La Tourneuse des Pages) is a 2006 French psychological thriller created and directed by professional viola player Denis Dercourt. It tells the story of the revenge exacted by the titular young woman against the concert pianist whose carelessness ended the former's dreams of becoming a pianist herself.