Francois Ozon's "Swimming Pool": The Truth is.
A 2002 Cannes Film Festival Award winning "Swimming Pool" by Francois Ozon guarantees 103 minutes of leisure if you just watch. Should you choose to dive in - proceed at your own risk. .
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Simply looking at that house with a swimming pool in southern France makes you relaxed enough. Add plenty of sunshine and a luscious 16-year old blonde (Ludivine Sagnier as Julie) and you forget that you are watching this film only because you trusted your girlfriend a ticket. Drama unfolds by that pool ever so slowly but Ludivine Sagnier's almost nude body and, hmm, French ways convince you that artsy films can be enjoyable, too. It isn't even a disappointment to see that Mademoiselle Sagnier's counterpart is played by Charlotte Rampling (as Sarah Morton). Though by no means another Playboy bunny, she plays one hell of a sophisticated lady. And frankly she is superb. Just at all the right moments her coolness balances out the atmosphere of sensuality; otherwise you start feeling rather bare as if it's you exposed by the camera lights rather than the actors. Sarah displays her exquisite writer's mind in a concise and convincing manner. Don't expect her to grant you the luxury of feeling superior. Right where you"d expect a sparkling phrase she leaves you suspended in her odd silences. Weather it is your imagination, her brilliance or another trick of the shrewd French director; you are compelled to discover.
Whenever there is a writer, there is writer's block, and to overcome hers .
Sarah Morton goes off to Provence in search of the usual remedy: inner peace and inspiration. Instead she finds Julie. If Julie is Sarah's muse, indeed she is an obnoxious and blunt one, though often too sharp and clever to be real. By disturbing Sarah's very British routine the daring teenager unbolts a creative channel for her, but Sarah is not ready to accept the gift. She rations her low fat yoghurt too carefully and chooses her outfits with obsessive precision.