The Page Turner (2006, Denis Dercourt)

Effective enough psychological thriller, with next to no violence to speak of and a creepy mood that is sustained fairly well over the 85 minute running time. However, it's also close enough in feel to Chabrol that I kept thinking how Chabrol would have avoided the occasional pitfalls that Dercourt makes- the sometimes overbearing score, the occasional obvious bit of foreshadowing, etc. Chabrol also would have ended the film a scene earlier, I dare say, but one thing he certainly wouldn't have done was cast an actress besides Déborah François as the revenge-bent protagonist. François' chilly, elegant performance is about 180 degrees removed from her turn as the homeless single mom in the Dardenne brothers' L'ENFANT, and for my money it's at least as good. François has the looks of a cutie-pie version of Virginie Ledoyen, but she has an interesting screen presence in her own right, and hopefully she'll continue to choose her roles as wisely as she has thusfar. Rating: 6 out of 10.