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Review by Harvey Karten
3 stars out of 4
If you're like me, when you go on vacation you have certain
expectations. You may want peace and quiet, a place to dance
all night, or both. You look for great restaurants with the local
cuisine or you're content with Mickey D's, which can be found
almost everywhere. In the back of your mind, you're hoping for
something serendipitous, unplanned for, something that might
even change your life and make this the most memorable
holiday ever. Alas, such fortuitous occurrences are few, but you
can hardly beat the way a few weeks in Provence changed the
life of a London spinster as illustrated by Francois Ozon ("8
femme," "Sous le sable"). In "Swimming Pool," Ozon's first film
primarily in English, a writer famous for a series of mystery
stories, each book centering on a single inspector, is generously
afforded a place in the French home of her publisher. The
publisher (played by Charles Dance) who has made
considerable money with the crime-fiction of the writer, is eager
to get his writer's juices flowing, particularly when she hints that
her writing is slowing down.
The role of the author, Sarah Morton, is performed by the 58-
year-old Charlotte Rampling -a actress who gave a
heartbreaking rendition of a breakdown in Woody Allen's
"Stardust Memories," who made her debut in Richard Lester's
fast-moving 1965 comedy, "The Knack and How to Get It," and
who recently appeared in Ozon's "Under the Sand" an
imaginative story of a happily married woman who is in denial
after her husband's disappearance.
In "Swimming Pool," Sarah is delighted with the use of the
house in Provence, glad to arrive during the off-season when
she expects her muse to be pleased with the sunny days and
country air. Her repose is upset when the publisher's lusty teen
daughter, Julie (Ludivine Sagnier) arrives unexpectedly has, a
different man seemingly in tow each night, the party atmosphere
threatening to trash her concentration on yet another detective
story. Or does it? Perhaps this is Sarah's big chance to expand
beyond the Agatha Christie-Ruth Rendell-Patricia Highsmith
genre and knock out a novel about real feeling. Sarah may just
secretly welcome the presence of this sexually liberated girl who
could both loosen her up (she's described by Julie as having a
broomstick up her butt) and to restore emotions that have been
repressed for decades.
While "Swimming Pool" has its share of twists, particularly
since a murder changes the picture into the likes of a Hitchcock
thriller, the real joy is from Ms. Rampling who now in her late
fifties has no hang-ups about showing her perfect body in the
buff in a scene that marks her character's leap into a novel
persona. Ozon's direction is taut, moving suddenly from one
scene to another without the need for connective tissue. What
gives the film a special lift is Ozon's merging fantasy with reality
without the mistrust of audience that compels Hollywood studios
to cast the former in soft-focus. We in the audience will try to
guess what scenes are in Sarah's mind and which are actually
occurring. The final twist which I'm guessing that only a few
viewers will have predicted takes less than a minute, one of
those moments in cinema that will knock your socks off.
Copyright © 2003 Harvey Karten
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