Underplayed Gems

Swimming Pool (2003)

Swimming Pool poster
Directed by
François Ozon
Genre
drama film, erotic thriller, thriller film
Country
United Kingdom, France
Runtime
1h 39m
Rated
R
Rating
6.5 of 10 from 798 voters
Elsewhere
IMDb
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How it feels

A crime novelist goes to her publisher's French summer house to finish a book. When a young woman claiming to be the publisher's daughter arrives, tensions and a crime disrupt the peace.

suspensefulambiguouserotictenseslow-burnunsettlingpsychologically chargedatmospheric

What happens

Swimming Pool is a 2003 erotic psychological thriller film co-written and directed by François Ozon and starring Charlotte Rampling and Ludivine Sagnier. The plot focuses on a British crime novelist, Sarah Morton (Rampling), who travels to her publisher's upmarket summer house in Southern France to seek solitude in order to work on her next book. However, the arrival of Julie (Sagnier), who claims to be the publisher's daughter, induces complications and a subsequent crime. Both lead characters are bilingual, and the film's dialogue is a mixture of French and English. Swimming Pool premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on 18 May 2003, and was released theatrically in France three days later with a U cinema rating, meaning it was deemed suitable for all ages. It was given a limited theatrical release in the United States that July and was edited to avoid an NC-17 rating due to its sexual content and nudity. It was subsequently released in North America on DVD in an unrated cut. The film ignited controversy with audiences because of its ambiguous nature and unclear conclusion which can be interpreted in various ways. In France many comparisons were made with Jacques Deray's 1969 film La Piscine (The Swimming Pool), starring Romy Schneider and Alain Delon. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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