As a professional viola** **player, writer-director Denis Dercourt has a rare insight into the musician’s psyche. Consequently, this account of Mélanie’s (François) steely determination to exact her revenge on Ariane (Frot) — the self-absorbed pianist whose lack of interest at an audition destroyed her hopes of becoming a teenage prodigy — has a chilling air of authenticity.
Frot excels as the emotionally fragile prima donna who comes to depend on François, while remaining oblivious to the malevolent web being woven around her family. The echoes of Theorem and Harry, He’s Here To Help are unmissable. But it’s the Hitchcockian variations that strike the truest chords.