Swimming Pool (2003)

Such a frustrating disappointment

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Swimming Pool's director seems end the movie while leaving the audience with a burning mystery: Who was that "Julie" girl at the house in France? Was she really the publisher's daughter, was she an impostor, or was she something else entirely? Here's the spoiler --- and this is the REAL spoiler. In the next-to-last scene (which takes place in France), Sarah and the sexy "Julie" prepare to say their goodbyes. Julie crosses the room, and in doing so, passes in front of a full-length mirror. Now, if you saw the movie, did you notice that Julie's image never appears in the mirror?! It's no mistake. That "empty" mirror scene was the KEY to the plot. So the sexy "Julie" did not exist! She was a creation by fiction writer Sarah Morton, who was ALONE at the house the whole time. Later, in London, Sarah sees what his publisher's daughter really looks like, but this last scene only confirms that "Julie" was not really Julie. Clear enough? What a plot! And what a great movie!

Swimming Pool (2003): Dir: Francois Ozon / Cast: Charlotte Rampling, Ludivine Sagnier, Charles Dance, Jean-Marie Lamour, Marc Fayolle: Spellbinding erotic mystery about beauty, lust, age, dysfunction, and what emerges from the pool whether it be fall leaves or the captivating image of young skin. It stars Charlotte Rampling as a successful mystery writer who is sent to her publisher's holiday home to rest and regain her composure for writing. Peace and quiet are interrupted by the arrival of her publisher's French daughter played by Ludivine Sagnier who is loud, obnoxious and brings home an array of males for a night of sinful passion. What is most fascinating is its reality and fantasy base that is never clear but then again, that is the point. Was a murder committed or is it just the prize of a latest bestseller? Director Francois Ozon brings viewers deep into the mind and reality and is backed by tremendous performances by Rampling and Sagnier with an underwritten role by Charles Dance as the publisher who is only present when convenient for the plot. Jean-Marie Lamour appears as a male caught within Sagnier's web of passion and regrets it severely. Marc Fayolle also makes an appearance as a character named Marcel. While some elements aren't exactly clear, it does play like a mystery novel within slick compelling filmmaking and peep show. Score: 7 ½ / 10

Actress Ludivine Sagnier shined in the previously reviewed "Love Crime", but her breakout role came in the 2003 film "Swimming Pool". This time she is paired with the impeccable English actress Charlotte Rampling, who's long career has also spiked with this role. Sagnier's raw sexuality and self confidence sets this film on fire. Not to mention the much older Rampling who also gives a shockingly brazen performance.The story revolves around Rampling's character of Sarah Morton a best selling author of crime fiction novels. Based in London and fighting a loss of inspiration for her new novel her publisher suggests staying at his French villa to relax and recharge. She accepts and in short time finds the peaceful serenity of the Mediterranean to be as relaxing as it sounds. Being a writer Sarah prefers to be on her own and welcomes the quiet and sleepy surroundings. She is very conservative and quite British. She does call her publisher back in London and asks when he will join her but he keeps brushing her aside. She visits the local café on numerous occasions and chats up the mustached waiter Franck who comes into play later on.Sarah's peacefulness is shattered with the introduction of Julie (Sagnier), the publishers daughter who arrives to crash for a few weeks. Julie is young, impulsive and very in touch with her sexuality. They are exact opposites and are usually at odds with each other, but Sarah also finds her quite intriguing. Is she jealous? probably. Does she see a story there? Definitely. Julie brings home a different guy each night, and the sounds of them getting' busy awakens something in Sarah. She snoops around Julie's things and finds a diary, which she starts to spin into literary gold. She then asks her to dinner to get some more details. While Julie is skeptical of her kindness she eventually becomes wise to her plan.Then there's the swimming pool. When Sarah arrives the pool is covered and unloved. It is only when Julie arrives that it starts to heat up. It seems that when the pool comes to life so does Sarah. Julie spends most of her day lounging around the pool and sometimes wearing a bikini. When Julie brings Franck home one night they drink, smoke and dance. After Sarah goes to her room for the night she can't help but watch them as they go for a swim, she interrupt their interlude then goes to bed. The next morning Franck is gone and their is blood by the pool. Julie has a sort of breakdown as she thinks she killed him. She regains her composure and Sarah starts to help her get away with it."Swimming Pool" has one of those endings that results in good discussions afterward. You end up rethinking all of what you have just saw. Make sure to seek out the unrated version to get the full experience. The film contains copious amounts of sex and nudity and would be teen boys holy grail, but really its more that just a skin flick. It's French for cryin' out loud. The R-rated version is available on Netflix watch instantly.

(Spoilers!) This film is not for those who want everything spelled out for them, since it is open to many interpretations. I add mine here.The movie gave me some insight into how fiction writers create their work, since it delves into the things that spark an author's imagination. The writer in this movie is Sara Morton (Charlotte Rampling), a popular British author of crime fiction. When we first meet her, Sara is a bit burned out and when her publisher offers her his country house in the south of France as a temporary retreat to get her back on track, Sara accepts.We get to know some things about Sara as we see her settle into the house in France. She dresses rather plainly and is quite reserved. Even though she speaks French well, she is not very adventuresome, sticking close to the house with occasional visits to the local village. She seems to be immune to the French obsession with food, settling for fruit and yogurt. She hopes for a more intimate relation with her married publisher, John, and is disappointed when he reneges on coming to join her for a weekend on occasion. Nearing sixty, Sara seems sexually frustrated and very much alone.The movie moves into a different gear when Sara starts to conceive of a storyline for her next novel that involves an imagined visit from Julie, a fictitious version of John's daughter. For many reasons I think that there never was a real Julie. For one thing, when still in London in John's office, Sara asks him, "Would you come and visit me?," John answers, "Well, I have got my daughter." He didn't say, "I have got my younger daughter," or "I have got one of my daughters," but, "I have got my daughter." This indicated to me that John indeed had only one daughter. Sara never talks to John directly about Julie. When Julie is seen talking to her father and passes the phone to Sara, John is not on the line, and when Sara calls back, he is out of the office. If John's French daughter frequented his country home, wouldn't John tell her that Sara would be staying there? Also, the ending makes sense if there was never a Julie, since Sara's waving goodbye is seen as waving goodbye to her imagining of John's daughter for her fiction as well as her imagining of John's real daughter, whom we see at the end she has never met. Indeed I think John's comment, "I have got my daughter," was probably the initial spark for Sara's vision of an attempt at a novel.Most of what we see is Sara's conception of her novel. It is interesting how certain real events weave themselves into her fiction. Franck, the waiter at a local café becomes a character in the fiction, fantasized as one of Julie's lovers, but also fantasized by Sara as a lover for herself. Engaging to see how fiction writers may actually become involved with their imagined characters in a non-trivial way. Sara identifies with her imagining of Julie's mother to the point of wearing a dress she ascribes to her. Perhaps like actors, authors can temporarily take on the identity of their characters.Sara's fiction moves on as a rather unbelievable crime story that has Julie killing Franck and covering up the murder. At this point I think that Sara became disenchanted with what she was writing as being just another crime story; she had indicated earlier in the movie that she was tired of writing such stories. And this story seemed particularly uninspired and unbelievable (I think I have never seen a more artificial looking rock than the one Julie uses for the murder). I think that Sara, realizing the inanity of where her story was headed, then abandoned that whole effort in favor of writing the novel that Julie's mother supposedly had written. At one point Sara is sharing a meal with Julie and, after asking Julie a lot of questions, Julie remarks that Sara is showing a little too much interest in her life. Sara then says, "I am not so much interested in you as I am in your mother." I think that signaled the turning point when Sara started thinking about jettisoning the Julie story in favor of writing the romantic novel that Julie's mother supposedly had written.As to what Julie represented for Sara is anybody's guess I think. Was she an imagining of what Sara would like to have been as a young woman? Was Julie realized as part autobiography? What is real and what is imagined in a work of fiction seems to be a tricky thing. Perhaps a good deal of fiction is an expression of wish fulfillment on the part of the author.There are many elements in the movie whose interpretation is totally up for grabs. For example, what is the meaning of the egg that we see in several scenes that is constructed of several interlocking pieces? Is it a puzzle to be cracked, like this story? Is it the symbol of a new beginning for Sara? Or is it simply an ornamental knickknack? And what is the significance of the dark red inflatable mattress? How does the caretaker fit into the puzzle? Ozon and his screenwriter Emmanuèle Bernheim have presented the audience with a skeletal story that can be fleshed out in a multitude of ways.Whatever you think of the story, the movie is crisply filmed. We get a peek into what it might be like to live in a secluded area in southern France. Charlotte Rampling is in good form; it is a treat to see that she is getting good roles as she ages. Ludivine Sagnier is remarkably comfortable playing the voluptuous Julie and Charles Dance has a good turn as Sara's publisher. The score is suitably low key, but not without effect.