Cannes. La Tourneuse de Pages.

Cinematical's James Rocchi finds Denis Dercourt's La Tourneuse de Pages (The Page Turner), screening in the Un Certain Regard section, to be "a careful, subtle handling of material that could have been sensationalized or phony that, instead, stays real and subtle - and, by doing so, becomes even more suspenseful."

Updated through 5/22.

Time Out's Geoff Andrew: "A beautifully judged, teasingly ambiguous suspense drama in the Hitchcock or early Chabrol mould."

Lisa Nesselson in Variety: "[S]pare but classy, with an impressively controlled perf by Déborah François (the young mother in the Dardenne Bros' L'enfant) opposite popular and spot-on vet Catherine Frot. A French pic in which a wealth of pregnant glances actually gives birth to something."

So far, then, it seems that the Hollywood Reporter's Ray Bennett is the only holdout: "So slight that it can bear almost no weight of examination, the film relies on a stately pace and a vague suggestion of potential mayhem to hold interest."

Update, 5/22: "While it tries to wedge itself in between the caustic social commentary of Claude Chabrol and Michael Haneke's notion of past guilt haunting the Western bourgeoisie, Denis Dercourt's psychological thriller La Tourneuse de Pages sadly has neither the wit nor the depth to play in such a lofty league," writes Dan Fainaru in Screen Daily.

Posted by dwhudson at May 21, 2006 5:34 AM