Swimming Pool [HD]

tension and eroticism is experienced through the eyes
This film creeps up on you and is absolutely spellbinding. It's the simple story of an aging mass-market crime-fiction writer called Sarah Morton (Charlotte Rampling) who rambles off to the French countryside to find relaxation and hopefully inspiration for her next-in-the-series mystery book. While staying at her publisher's luxurious yet quaint summer retreat, she is confronted by his young daughter Julie (Ludivine Sagnier). Subsequently, all sorts of wild, unpredictable mischief ensues as the prim and proper Englishwoman clashes with the sexually carefree vixen, who evolves into an unexpected muse to the older woman.

My pal Oscar and I have spent the summer watching a number of French films, and one thing we both have learned and agree on is that for the most part, unlike most mainstream American films, they are mostly unpredictable. SWIMMING POOL is no different. Just when I thought I had it figured out, a number of odd plot twists move the narrative down an unsettling and...

Just a theory
A theory: The writer made up the whole story. She does indeed take the house in France, and maybe makes phone calls to the editor, which he ignores, but staring at the swimming pool from her window gives her another idea for a book. I think she's sick of herself, her books and her readers. (Think of her reaction in the editor's office when the other author says his mother can't wait for her next book. Also on the subway she doesn't acknowledge that she's the author of the book the pudgy middle-aged lady is reading.)

In my opinion, the characters: Julie, the waiter, all those men; the situation: the murder, the diary, the story of Julie's mother, the editor as a libertine - all made up. She includes herself in the story, acts it out in her mind, and what we see is the acting out. She'd rather be the person she portrays herself as. Know what I mean? She makes herself sexier and more attractive (remember how pleased she was that the waiter preferred her to Julie?). She makes herself...

Pool of Blood
Intelligent, expertly written, extremely well acted and story-lined for the adults, "The Swimming Pool" is Francois Ozon's first film in English. Ozon has no trouble maneuvering his way around and into a difficult, non-linear story, especially after seeing his "Under the Sand" and "8 Women." And he proves it once again here.
Charlotte Rampling plays Sarah Morton, a successful English detective novelist who is experiencing a bad case of writer's block. Her publisher, John Bosload (Charles Dance) offers her his French Country home for a vacation to re-energize her writing juices. And it works as Sarah begins a new book. But then Bosloads daughter Julie (Ludivine Sagnier) shows up with the nubile sex appeal of a young Brigitte Bardot. And basically all hell breaks loose.
In her early scenes with Bosload, Rampling plays Sarah with an outward cool, yet it is obvious she is repressing a strong attraction to him. At this point Rampling is the picture of English spinsterhood: all...

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