Swimming Pool
Most [male] people are going to see Swimming Pool thinking the following: “ooh look it’s a good arty film, but its also got that exceptionally fit French chick in it and/or there’s lots of shagging” (but obviously they wouldn’t think the “and/or” bit). To an extent, yes, this is the essence of the film. There’s a lot of other stuff in there, but it doesn’t really measure up to the simple fact that it’s an arty French film avec nudity. There’s another big ‘but’ coming, by the way.
BUT …This is not Betty Blue. The sex is definitely not provocative, the sexy French girl is neither as sexy nor as messed up as Beatrice Dalle, and it isn’t even as competently arty. What, then, is left for us to ponder? Not a huge amount, come to think of it. The first half an hour involves getting acquainted with one of the most irritating characters in screen history – Charlotte Rampling’s frustrated writer is stuck writing mundane murder mysteries, and appears to lash out at absolutely everything as her response. I know people love Rampling’s previous efforts, and many also appear to have enjoyed this one, but if you ask me, she just doesn’t seem at all convincing in her transformation throughout the film. When Julie enters the picture, things perk up a little (and not just for the obvious reasons). François Ozon apparently wrote the film around Ludivine Sagnier, and so you rightly might hope that she’d stand out more than the mundane editing or camerawork. Thankfully, she does so fairly admirably, being the focus of many slow, lavish shots which perform the cinematic equivalent of ‘checkin’ out her fine-ass bootay’. She isn’t spectacular by any means, but without her support, the film would have to rely on… other things.
Namely, the plot. Now I’m not an expert in deciphering extremely subtle plot twists, but there are moments in this one that require a little more deliberation than most. I also had the misfortune of having gone for a piss at one of the most confusing moments, namely when Sarah (Rampling) is looking for information on Julie’s mother. Without giving it away, let’s just say there’s a freaky dwarf involved. Otherwise there really isn’t anything too spectacular about this one. The struggle between the two clashing personalities, and the realisation that they aren’t so different, has been seen before, as has the transformation of a ridiculously irritating conservative woman to a free-thinking liberal. Sagnier will use this as another step on the ladder to art-house stardom, but otherwise there isn’t too much to look at in this film.
Although its tempting to give it 6.0 for ‘man’ values;
4.8
MD 12:11 27/08/2003