Swimming Pool (2003)

Directed by François Ozon. Starring Charlotte Rampling, Ludivine Sagnier, Jean-Marie Lamour, Charles Dance, Marc Fayolle, Mireille Mossé.

Crime fiction novelist Rampling stays at her publisher’s house in the South of France during the off-season to recharge her creative batteries, but her isolation is interrupted by the arrival of the publisher’s nubile, free-spirited daughter (Sagnier). Leisurely-paced thriller bristles elegantly while keeping the audience at a distance; whenever humor or humanity threaten to invade, director Ozon will insert a passage of removal—brittle glares, aloof ambiguity, and so on. Rampling’s fractious personality obscures her secretly inquisitive nature and subtle, mature sexuality; Sagnier spends most of the movie in a bikini top or none at all and teems with enigmatic desires and a confrontational spirit. The definitive particulars of the twist ending can be spotted far in advance, but the implications behind them (and structure of the revised reality) are more elusive and, if taken as the only logical possibility, somewhat ruinous of what came before. Not for all tastes, especially for those who prefer clear-cut resolutions or lots of action/incident, but has a sinuous way of inspiring rapt attention upon every shot, every verbal exchange, every insinuation. Reflecting on the whole, however, is less than the sum of its parts.

70/100