Swimming Pool

Makers of erotic thrillers need to be careful, as that is a genre that, if not handled carefully, can quickly fall prey to silliness and excess (think "Fatal Attraction"). "Swimming Pool" is a thriller in the style of "The Deep End," and more than once I was struck by similarities between the two in their respective tones and reliance on water as a recurring visual motif. Also, both films have a middle-aged female as the protagonist who becomes involved in covering up for the actions of a child (in "The Deep End" a literal child, in "Swimming Pool" a figurative one). Also, both films are completely unpredictable. Neither goes the direction in which the viewer thinks it's going to. However, "Swimming Pool" is much more abstract, and its ending leaves you wanting to watch the whole thing over immediately with an entirely different perspective on the action. This gimmick always makes for a memorable ending in movies that employ it, but too often it makes the rest of the movie seem somewhat pale in comparison, and this is the case here. "Swimming Pool" plays tricks with your perceptions, but the finale to which the film builds seems somewhat anti-climactic when it finally comes.

It's a leisurely paced film, and you'll need to have patience with it. You'll also need to have patience with the main character, played by Charlotte Rampling. Rampling gives a fine performance, but her character is really unlikable (intentionally so), and it's always a liability for any story that focuses almost solely on one person to make that person unlikable, or at least sympathetic.

"Swimming Pool," though billed as an erotic thriller, is really about the creative process (I think), and I won't say anymore about that because to do so will give away the ending. It's an interesting idea, imperfectly executed.

Grade: B

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.

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.

I first saw this film on HBO in 2005 and now own it. HBO and others continue to run it. It is a very mature, engrossing film with a metaphorical plot. From the opening credits it immediately begs for your attention and once it has you in its grasp, you will find you cannot escape. A successful author of a series of mystery novels but bored with her work, Charlotte Rampling goes to the south of France for looking for fresh ideas for a new book, begins down one avenue and then changes direction. The location, photography and performances are exceptional as is the set design, replete with elegant simplicity that flows past your eyes. You are drawn in so well you can taste the wine and feel the pool's water flowing around you. The actors, especially Rampling and the actress who plays Julie, are impeccable. The Swimming Pool is a totally wonderful experience. Dive in!

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.