Swimming Pool

Swimming Pool is a first rate film from French genius François Ozon. This thriller makes best use of everything that makes cinema great, and it is therefore a delight to view. Swimming Pool follows Sarah Morton, a British author that travels to her publisher's dream home in France in order to have a rest while she works on her new book. However, her tranquillity is soon disturbed when her publisher's daughter; a sex-crazed, good time girl, turns up out of the blue and turns Morton's rest into something quite different. One criticism that could be, and has been, made of this film is that not a lot a lot happens. That, however, depends on your viewpoint; the action is stretched, but the relaxed tone of the film blends magnificently with the beautiful French scenery, and Ozon's attention to detail with the characters ensures that, although slow, Swimming Pool never descends into boredom and there's always something on offer for it's audience to enjoy. I, personally, was completely entranced from start to finish.

The casting of Charlotte Rampling as the uptight British novelist really was an inspired move. She's absolutely brilliant in the role, and you can't imagine anyone else playing that character to such a degree. Speaking of great casting choices, Ludivine Sagnier is similarly brilliant as Rampling's sexy co-star. She brings just the right amount of insecurity and lustfulness to her role, and it's not hard to see why Ozon continues to cast her in his movies. The film is very melodramatic, but never overacted; and this is a testament to the quality of acting on display. Swimming Pool benefits implicitly from a haunting soundtrack, which perfectly accents the happenings on screen, and certain points in the movie where the soundtrack is used are truly electrifying. François Ozon is truly one of cinema's greatest assets at the moment. This is only my second taste of his work (the hilariously fabulous 'Sitcom' being the other), and if his backlog and future releases match the quality of the two films I've seen from him so far; he may well become one of cinema's all time greats.

This film is beautifully staged and acted, with some good dramatic tension and lovely scenery. Unfortunately, the payoff falls a little flat. It's kind of like a really long joke with a punchline that's not quite funny enough to justify having sat through the telling.

Swimming Pool (2003)

All I had heard before recently viewing Francois Ozon's Swimming Pool is that the lead actress, Ludivine Sagnier, was searingly sexy. Well, if that's what you want in a movie, you might agree. But it lowered my expectations, nearly to the point of not watching it. In the end, Sagnier's character is mostly coy and bratty, and her nudity, in France around her own very private swimming pool, shouldn't really be an issue-- except maybe for the viewer. For me, there was sometimes a mismatch in my head between watching the actress and watching the character, and if this is a flaw in some movies, here, in some basic way, it ties into the intention.

This is an odd starting point, for sure, but it is Sagnier's brazen outwardness that makes the more complex role played by Charlotte Rampling take on interest. How else to portray the theme of a woman who uses her body and her confidence to seduce the other characters in front of an older woman who wishes she could do the same? Swimming Pool really isn't about sex, but it absolutely is about the appearances that lead to sex--of being sexy, to put it a little stupidly--and Rampling increasingly takes on the role of viewer within her own character, and she ends up as perplexed as we do. All to good effect.

The minimal plot is about the failure by a successful novelist to see alluring from allusion, fact from fantasy. It's about storytelling, fiction, and ultimately fear of failure. The reconstruction of the past becomes the inner confusion in the mind of the main character, a charming and effective Rampling playing a novelist who was once, by all the hints, the very seductress suggested by the younger woman.

This is certainly a film worth watching. For some it will seem willfully confusing to the point of manipulation--the viewer is fooled and taken for a ride, and it feels confusing for the sake of confusion. For others it will seem endlessly mysterious and clever, even if requiring a kind of blindness to certain narrative conflicts (which may or may not be logically resolved by the end--I watched parts a second time to check). Right from the start there is an ingenious mismatch of facts that you start to brush off, and when things develop in ways I don't dare suggest for fear of ruining it, these clues grow in meaning. It will certainly be great for discussion, heated or not, and that's a sign (for me) of a good experience, though not necessarily a superior movie.

It is notable how economical the filming is--the setting is limited, the characters few, the range of situations reasonable and not requiring trickery or effects. And it comes down to Rampling, above all, holding the psychology together. It shows how little you need to take a good plot idea and flesh it out, sexist voyeurism or not.

This film owes a great deal of gratitude to the second collaboration between Francois Ozon and his leading lady, Charlotte Rampling. They ought to team up more.

As with the previous film, Under the Sand, this is an enigmatic piece of cinema. This film, I believe, has more to do with Sarah Morton's imagination than with the actual story presented to us. There are so many hidden clues within the story that everyone will have a different take in what is presented in the film and what the actual reality is.

Francois Ozon is not a boring director. He will always present an interesting story, fully developed, with many twists to get his viewer into going in different directions trying to interpret it all.

Charlotte Rampling is magnificent as Sarah Morton, the repressed author of mystery novels. Ludivine Sagnier is very good as the mysterious Julie, the alleged daughter of Sarah's publisher, but now, is she really that person?

The ending will baffle the viewer. This is a film that will stay and haunt one's mind for days.

A British mystery novelist called Sarah Morton (Charlote Rampling) is really blocked, so she's bored by her successful series de mysteries and while seeking inspiration for her new book. She then accepts an offer from her publisher John Bosload (Charles Dance) to stay at his home in Luberon, in the South of France. So Sarah arrives in her publisher's home in the South of France, where she eventually finds inspiration. Sarah takes a fine break at thr Provencal holiday home and finds the relaxed paradise creatively stimulating until his teenage daughter (Ludivigne Sagnier) turns up unannounced. Sarah interaction with his unusual daughter sets off some touchy dynamics. Tension coming to a head when the promiscous girl brings home a handsome local waiter (Lamour) the older woman has been slowly befriending. Tired of London and Dive into this summer's sexiest mystery !. On the surface, all is calm !.

An interesting drama in which tensions, jealouses , suspense and nudism developing throughout. For all its many twists which by the end probably become a little perplexing for the inattentive. It's a decent film with colorful cinematography, intriguing score and nice interpretation, but all of them can't compensate for the superficiality of the movie's hackeyed premise. Moreover, some of the scenes in English are clumsily developed and some details are downright implausible. Ozon's movie is derivative and predictable , that's why do blocked crime writers always fantasize themselves into a scenario which will restore creativity. Terrific performances from Charlotte Rampling as the uptight, repressed British mystery author who seeks a wrong place to rest and Ludivigne Segnier as as the tempting and seductive young woman who arouses unspeakable passions.

Yorick Le Saux's sumptuous camerawork succeeds in build a mood of febrile sensuality. Adding a suspenseful and mysterious musical score by Philippe Rombi in the wake of the composer Bernard Herrmann, Hitchcock's regular. The film was professionally directed by Francois Ozon, but turned out to be a bit slow and implausible at times, though definitively engaging the viewer. Ozon is considered to be one of the best French filmmakers. His favorite director is Rainer Werner Fassbinder, that's why he made 'Peter Von Kant'. Ozon considers filmmaking a "parallel world", in which he flees the boring everyday life. Ozon calls actress Romola Garai his muse. Member of the 'Official Competition' jury at the 62nd Berlin International Film Festival in 2012 and he has won several prizes. Ozon is a prolific writer and director who has made all kinds of genres with penchant for comedy and drama, such as: ¨By the Grace of God' , 'Été 85', 'Le Refuge', 'Peter Von Kant', '5x2' , 'Angel', 'Dans la maison', 'Swimming pool' , 'Le temps qui reste', 'Criminal lovers', 'Everything Went Fine', 'Sitcom', among others. And his last one, a crime comedy titled 'Mon crime' (2023). Rating Swimming Pool: 6.5/10. The flick will appeal to Charlotte Rampling fans.