Les baigneuses

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

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.