Swimming Pool (2003)
Average Rating: 7.1/10
Reviews Counted: 150
Fresh: 126 | Rotten: 24
A sensual thriller with two engaging performers demanding our undivided attention.
Average Rating: 6.9/10
Critic Reviews: 39
Fresh: 35 | Rotten: 4
A sensual thriller with two engaging performers demanding our undivided attention.
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Average Rating: 3.3/5
User Ratings: 28,982
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Movie Info
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
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Cast
-
Charlotte Rampling
Sarah Morton -
Ludivine Sagnier
Julie -
Charles Dance
John Bosload -
Marc Fayolle
Marcel -
Jean-Marie Lamour
Franck the Waiter -
Mireille Mosse
Marcel's Daughter -
Frances Cuka
Sarah Fan on Subway -
Jean-Claude Lecas
Julie's Lovers #2 -
Tricia Aileen
John's Secretary -
Michel Fau
Julie's Lovers #1 -
Keith Yeates
Sarah's Father -
Lauren Farrow
Julia -
Sebastian Harcombe
Terry Long
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All Critics (162) | Top Critics (39) | Fresh (129) | Rotten (24) | DVD (17)
Ozon simultaneously manages to make his film lazily sexual and crisply suspenseful.
Top CriticTwo parts psychological thriller and one part pretentious French art-house head-scratcher that leaves you mumbling, 'Duh.'
Rampling and Sagnier play women for whom danger means different, opposing things, women who become unlikely allies in a tidy little mystery. Inspector Durvell -- and Alfred Hitchcock -- would approve.
Swimming Pool offers something few other movies this summer can match: A dreamy, intoxicating sensuality.
The story occasionally wanders, but Swimming Pool is definitely worth a dip.
A delectable and daring psychological drama.
Confusing thriller is absolutely NOT for kids.
Rampling and Ozon clearly enjoy working together. Rampling relishes psychologically complex roles. Ozon respects his leading ladies enough to give them challenges.
Charlotte Rampling is engaging in this intriguing little whodunit that seems more intent on exposing internal paranoia than it does on real world murder.
... sensual and enigmatic
Tiene que ver con eso de la ficción y de ser espectadores, y hasta qué punto creemos lo que se ve en la pantalla como una realidad y no como el antojo de un director de cine.
[An] interesting character study of the two women [portrayed].
Although copious amounts of French nudity constitutes, to some degree, its own reward, Swimming Pool is marred by stupor and a fake-as-Lee-Press-On-Nails coda.
As in Chabrol, the plot's not the thing: what drives Swimming Pool is the transformations that take place within its characters. Rampling is a pleasure.
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Foreign Titles
- Der Swimmingpool (DE)
Ludivine Sagnier sizzles every moment she's on screen, but Charlotte Rampling, who always seems to be troubled by some hidden existential quandary, fizzles. The story is far from interesting, and it's only Sagnier's allure that keeps our attention on the film's characters: after all, when we boil this story down, it's merely about a woman briefly seduced by youth. The end. The third act is mostly senseless, and the final reveal is "senseless-er."
Overall, maybe it's only Sagnier's eyes and body and charm and eroticism that kept me interested in the film, but that's good enough for two stars.