Nocturne 2019

Juliet and Vivian Lowe are twin sisters navigating their final year at Lindberg Academy, a prestigious boarding school dedicated to the performing arts. Both are steeped in classical music, with Vivian already seen as a prodigy who has earned a spot at Juilliard, while Juliet, often in her sister’s shadow, chooses to take a gap year to forge her own path. The campus hums with ambition and pressure, bound together by competition, collaboration, and the unspoken ache of being compared.

The mood darkens when the violinist scheduled to perform at the senior showcase, Moira, dies by suicide. With the coveted slot suddenly empty, auditions are organized to find a replacement, turning the focus onto Juliet and Vivian. Each sister signs up, but in a twist of rivalry and fate, Juliet decides at the last minute to perform the same piece as Vivian: the powerful and technically demanding Saint-Saëns Piano Concerto No. 2.

After a late practice session, Juliet follows the haunting sound of a violin into Moira’s room and discovers a sun symbol on the wall that mirrors one found in Moira’s theory notebook. She dares to play an untitled piece from the notebook, only to be interrupted by Dr. Cask, who reveals the actual title—The Devil’s Trill by Giuseppe Tartini—and questions why Juliet altered her audition without informing Vivian. The moment is charged with tension, as Juliet’s choices become a measure of her own ambition versus her sister’s established path.

During the audition, Juliet slips into a dreamscape where she envisions herself at the showcase receiving roses, a moment that feels both intoxicating and out of reach. She awakens to realize she fainted during the audition and discovers a drawing of three balls in her hand, a clue connected to the tablets she had ingested earlier. The emotional strain between the sisters reaches a breaking point: Vivian lands the showcase, and Juliet’s sense of betrayal and inadequacy thickens the unease that binds them.

Juliet’s relationship with her mentor Roger grows fraught as she accuses him of underestimating her talent. The clash ends with Roger slapping her and facing suspension, a scandal that frees Juliet to collide with Dr. Cask, who becomes her new mentor and a direct link to Vivian. In a startling discovery, Juliet finds bloody tampons on her shelf, a detail that hints at the unsettling things happening beneath the surface. When she confronts Vivian about the incident, Vivian’s curt reply—“they’re now ‘even’”—leaves Juliet feeling more isolated than ever. Dr. Cask asks about Juliet’s motive for changing the piece, and Juliet admits she simply wanted to outdo her sister; Dr. Cask counters that Juliet can rival Vivian technically but lacks her passion.

The tension crescendos at a secret senior party, where Juliet overhears Vivian on a call claiming she’s “done fucking” someone. Juliet flirts with Vivian’s boyfriend Max and shares information about Moira’s notebook, only to be caught by Vivian, which triggers a heated confrontation and a desperate flight from the scene. A blinding light, reminiscent of the one depicted in Moira’s notebook, stops Juliet, while Vivian, unaware of the danger, chases after her and tragically falls off a cliff. The next day, Juliet awakens at her desk to find pages in which Vivian’s name appears repeatedly, with the second page hinting at Roger’s downfall and the third paralleling Moira’s fate. Juliet is offered Vivian’s role in the showcase, a twist that earns her both acclaim and a heavy burden as Vivian is suspended.

Seeking truth, Juliet revisits Moira’s notebook online and learns about her family’s past—her mother’s fall from a ski-lift leaving her in a coma, and her father’s burning of the family home and himself. Juliet confides in Max about Moira and the notebook, revealing that Vivian had cheated on him; the ensuing breakup leads to a complicated, charged night in which Juliet engages with Max. On Juliet’s birthday, she hosts a dinner for Dr. Cask and Vivian; a furious Vivian flings the cake at Dr. Cask and storms away. A drunk father and a tense household push Juliet into a private moment with Dr. Cask, who rejects her advances. In retaliation, Juliet reveals the affair between Dr. Cask and Vivian and burns the trophy that once symbolized his prestige. The notebook’s disturbing drawings continue to pull Juliet toward a reckoning she can’t ignore.

As the senior showcase approaches, Vivian confronts Juliet about her perceived sabotage, and Juliet experiences a paralyzing panic on stage. She bolts to the roof, where a vision of a different outcome—one in which she finishes the performance to a standing ovation—haunts her. In the chilling final moment, Juliet’s lifeless body is found on a statue, bloodied and smiling, while the campus carries on around her as if unaware of the tragedy that has unfolded.

• Note: In this narrative, Moeder is portrayed by Bien de Moor.