Les baigneuses

That about sums it up. Bathers is interesting for the first 10 minutes or so... but it's soon apparent this is a very static, repetitive story. The girls dance, the girls talk, the girls dance, the girls talk. It's like the cinematic equivalent of a really bad, too-long disco song. For some, seeing nekkid women may be entertaining enough, but The Bathers just goes nowhere. Some of the acting and dialogue is fairly good, though.

The director shows a clear talent to create atmospheres, and develop a narrative out of what -at first- seems desperately casual. The whole movie is shot behind the doors of a sex-shop, except a few scenes. You are taken into a theatrical universe, where different streams collapse : the everyday life of the strippers coming to work, the strip-show and video rooms in the back of the shop, the front shop and the "customers" stepping in. All these are intermingled in the eye of the camera: the shop labyrinthal architecture (dressing rooms, cabinets, closets, corridors, mirror rooms); the showrooms exiguity (mirrored circular stages surrounded by private cabinets, pay-time shutters); the sexy videos and video-surveillance play-back... The director manages an absorbing, dark reverie. The acting is quite good. The "overdosed" character, played by Michel Kalfon, finally opens a way to dream and hallucination into the whole picture. Well done. 7/10