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Swimming Pool (2003)
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Reviews Counted:149
Fresh:126
Rotten:23
Average Rating:7.1/10
Consensus: A sensual thriller with two engaging performers demanding our undivided attention.
Runtime: 1 hr 43 mins
Genre: Dramas
Synopsis: Swimming Pool is world-premiering In Competition at the 2003 Cannes International Film Festival. With Swimming Pool, Europe’s most daring and inventive writer/director, François Ozon, reunites with... Swimming Pool is world-premiering In Competition at the 2003 Cannes International Film Festival. With Swimming Pool, Europe’s most daring and inventive writer/director, François Ozon, reunites with his two favorite leading ladies, Charlotte Rampling (of Under the Sand) and Ludivine Sagnier (of 8 Women). Deliciously sophisticated and sexy, Swimming Pool, the first of Mr. Ozon’s movies to be made in the English language, revisits the sense of mystery that infused Under the Sand. Sarah Morton (Charlotte Rampling) is a famous British mystery author. Tired of London and seeking inspiration for her new novel, she accepts an offer from her publisher John Bosload (Charles Dance) to stay at his home in Lubéron, in the South of France. It is the off-season, and Sarah finds that the beautiful country locale and unhurried pace is just the tonic for her – until late one night, when John’s indolent and insouciant French daughter Julie (Ludivine Sagnier) unexpectedly arrives. Sarah’s prim and steely English reserve is jarred by Julie’s reckless, sexually charged lifestyle. Their interactions set off an increasingly unsettling series of events, as Sarah’s creative process and a possible real-life murder begin to blend dangerously together. François Ozon wrote the original screenplay in collaboration with French novelist and screenwriter Emmanuèle Bernheim (with whom he previously worked on Under the Sand). The film is produced by Mr. Ozon’s longtime collaborators, Fidélité’s Marc Missonnier and Olivier Delbosc. Mr. Ozon’s most recent film was the award-winning Focus Features release 8 Women, one of France’s top-grossing films of 2002. Prior to making 8 Women, Mr. Ozon attained international attention for his features Under the Sand, Water Drops on Burning Rocks, Criminal Lovers, and Sitcom; his hourlong film See the Sea; and several award-winning short films, among them A Summer Dress. The Paris native is a graduate of the French national film school (FEMIS). A Focus Features presentation of a Fidélité co-production with Headforce Limited, France 2 Cinéma, Gimages Films, and Foz with the participation of Canal +. Charlotte Rampling, Ludivine Sagnier, Charles Dance. A Film by François Ozon. Swimming Pool. Director of Photography, Yorick Le Saux. Costume Designer, Pascaline Chavanne. Art Director, Wouter Zoon. Editor, Monica Coleman. Original Score, Philippe Rombi. Produced by Olivier Delbosc and Marc Missonnier. Screenplay Collaborator, Emmanuèle Bernheim. Written and Directed by François Ozon. [More]
Starring: Charlotte Rampling, Ludivine Sagnier, Charles Dance, Marc Fayolle
Starring: Charlotte Rampling, Ludivine Sagnier, Charles Dance, Marc Fayolle, Jean-Marie Lamour, Mireille Mosse, Michel Fau
Director: Francois Ozon
Director: Francois Ozon
Screenwriter: Francois Ozon, Emmanuelle Bernheim
Studio: Focus Features
Reviews for Swimming Pool
The film is enthralling while it lasts, even if it doesn't completely hold together on further reflection.
The swimming pool in the film, as depicted by Ozon, is a self-reflexive epicentre...
A titillating and unhurried character drama with all the trappings of a thriller, but with erotiscm substituted for danger driven tension.
Bracingly adult and ripe with an ambiguity that will promote coffee-house conversations for hours afterward.
The payoff is so murky that audience members will recognize they have been fooled, but not with what that trick ending actually means.
You'll leave entertaining pleasant theories of what just happened, but not feeling bewildered enough for your head to hurt.
Ozon simultaneously manages to make his film lazily sexual and crisply suspenseful.
Ozon even steals from himself...Eventually, [his] compulsion to imitate becomes an end in itself, taking his movie in directions it hasn’t been built to travel.
Two parts psychological thriller and one part pretentious French art-house head-scratcher that leaves you mumbling, 'Duh.'
The basis is classic mystery, yes, and that should be respected, but Ozon is using the form to arrive at a much deeper character study in a manner that is almost Polanski-esque.
It's a provocative experience, one that floats peacefully yet makes us wonder what might be lurking beneath the surface.
An erotic thriller, with an emphasis on eroticism, presumably because Ozon couldn’t come up with real thrills.
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