Swimming Pool

2003 Drama

François Ozon's psychological thriller Swimming Pool stars Charlotte Rampling as a mystery writer. When Sarah (Rampling) is offered the use of her publisher's vacation home, she accepts the offer. The conservative, repressed Sarah clashes with the house's other inhabitant, Julie (Ludivine Sagnier), the uninhibited daughter of the publisher. Julie's promiscuous sex life intrigues Sarah and starts to lead to the thawing of the emotional deep-freeze between the two. The death of one of Julie's nightly assignations complicates their lives. Swimming Pool was screened in competition at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival.

Director: François Ozon

Starring: Charlotte Rampling, Ludivine Sagnier, Charles Dance, Marc Fayolle, Jean-Marie Lamour

 30 Reviews  13 Awards

Reviews

  • Charlotte Rampling is the best reason, though far from the only one, to see Swimming Pool, a mesmerizing mystery, plus a wonderfully sensuous fantasy.

    Joe Morgenstern - The Wall Street Journal

    27 April 2013

  • The narrative logic of Swimming Pool slips through our hands like cool water, shimmery and light-dappled, leaving behind the pleasures of summer heat and goose bumps.

    Lisa Schwarzbaum - Entertainment Weekly

    27 April 2013

  • Ultimately, Swimming Pool belongs to Ozon, and while incorporating a carefully measured, quietly menacing style that summons up vintage Hitchcock and Chabrol, he has made it unmistakably -- and entertainingly -- his very own.

    Michael Rechtshaffen - The Hollywood Reporter

    27 April 2013

  • After it is over, you will want to go back and think things through again, and I can help you by suggesting there is one, and only one, interpretation that resolves all of the difficulties, but if I told you, you would have to kill me.

    Roger Ebert - The Chicago Sun-Times

    27 April 2013

  • It's Sagnier, a young Bardot, who lifts the movie, and Rampling, 58, who gives it nuance, not to mention a nude scene that shows off a body Demi Moore would envy. These two make it seductive fun to be fooled.

    Peter Travers - Rolling Stone

    27 April 2013

Awards

  • François Ozon

    Bangkok World Film Festival (2003)

  • Best Supporting Actress

    Boston Society of Film Critics Awards (2003)

  • Best Foreign-Language Film

    Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards (2004)

     

  • François Ozon

    Cannes Film Festival (2003)

     

  • Best Actress

    Chlotrudis Awards (2004)

     

Lists

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