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Swimming Pool (2002)

Director: François Ozon

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Movie review

From Time Out Film Guide

Bored by her successful series of crime mysteries, uptight British novelist Rampling agrees to take a break in her publisher's Provençal holiday home, and finds the relaxed paradise creatively stimulating until his teenage daughter (Sagnier) turns up unannounced. Tensions and jealousies develop, coming to a head when the promiscuous girl brings home a handsome local waiter the older woman has been slowly befriending. For all its many twists (which by the end probably become a little perplexing for the inattentive), Ozon's film is predictable and derivative: why do blocked crime writers always fantasise themselves into a scenario which will restore creativity, and when is a swimming pool movie not about the return of the repressed? Moreover, some of the scenes in English are clumsily written and performed, and several details are downright implausible (has Ozon any idea how the publishing world functions?). Yorick Le Saux's sumptuous camerawork succeeds in building a mood of febrile sensuality, but can't compensate for the superficiality of the film's hackneyed premise.

Author: GA 0000-00-00 00:00:00

Time Out Film Guide

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User reviews of this film

  • Nathan said...
    Posted on Jul 20 2007 10:38 Hot film. Ludivine Sagnier is so hot in this film.
    Watch it with your girlfriend!
    Report as inappropriate

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Cast & crew

Director: François Ozon

Producer: Olivier Delbosc, Marc Missonnier

Cast: Charlotte Rampling, Ludivine Sagnier, Charles Dance, Marc Fayolle, Jean-Marie Lamour, Mireille Mossé full cast

Duration: 103 mins

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