Swimming pool (film)

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Movie
German title swimming pool
Original title swimming pool
Country of production France
original language French and English
Publishing year 2003
length 99 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director François Ozon
script François Ozon, Emmanuèle Bernheim
production Olivier Delbosc , Marc Missonnier
music Philippe Rombi
camera Yorick Le Saux
cut Monica Coleman
occupation

Swimming Pool is a film by François Ozon with Charlotte Rampling and Ludivine Sagnier in the leading female roles. It was filmed in the Luberon ( southern France ) and Great Britain in 2002 and premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2003 .

action

Sarah Morton is a crime writer in England and unsatisfied with her life. She therefore accepts the invitation of her publisher and friend John to go to his remote villa in France to write her new novel there alone.

Surprisingly, on the second night, a young blonde woman arrives who introduces herself as John's daughter Julie. Sarah is outraged because she was hoping to find peace.

Julie has one-night stands with other men every night. Sarah has a sudden change of heart. Instead of complaining in a stiff manner about Julie, she is suddenly very interested in her life and the relationships with her parents and starts a new novel. When Julie sneaks into Sarah's room, reads the story and sees herself in it, she is furious. The following night she comes home with the waiter Franck, who runs the café where Sarah has breakfast every morning. Things don't go quite the way Julie imagined, because Franck is more interested in Sarah and later wants to go home early. He and Julie argue loudly at the swimming pool, which is why Sarah puts earplugs in her ears so she can sleep. When she wants to have breakfast in Franck's café the next morning, as usual, it is closed and she learns that Franck has not appeared. Sarah, who immediately suspects that something might have happened to him, drives to his house in the neighboring village, where she does not meet him either. Sarah finds Julie crying on her bed. As a result of the shock, Julie believes that Sarah is her mother, who was killed in an accident, and sobs thanks that she came back. It turns out that Julie killed Franck with a stone that evening and hid the body in the garage. Sarah and Julie bury the body together at the edge of the garden. Marcel, who takes care of the house, wonders about the grave, but Sarah is distracted with sexual advances.

Back in London, Sarah finished the book. Since it does not correspond to her usual writing style, John does not want to accept it. Sarah, who was already expecting this, publishes it with another publisher, which surprises her publisher. As she leaves the premises, she meets a blonde girl, the publisher's daughter, not Julie (French), but the younger Julia (English), obviously the daughter of his current marriage.

It is not only open whether there are two daughters or whether Julie from France only existed in the imagination of Sarah the whole time, inspired by Julia. The openness and vagueness of the cinematic narrative allows for further interpretations, as the quote below from the interview with Ozon from the taz shows.

criticism

"A fabulous, excellently played, stimulating and delicately conceived puzzle game about creative design, which circumscribes and profoundly at the same time revolves around existential questions, demands for existence and needs, fears and their coping."

- film service 17/2003

"Ozon wrote the role of Sarah for his main actress, Charlotte Rampling ... convinces as a woman withered early, whose femininity gradually blossoms again."

- femundo.de


"Ozone is not about a crime thriller here, but about atmosphere," wrote Oliver Hüttmann in the Spiegel . “He follows the two women with voyeuristic distance, some scenes seem like a sultry daydream. Whether Julie is an inspiration or just a fantasy figure for Sarah, possibly her alter ego, you can still figure out for yourself at the end of the day. But above all, "Swimming Pool" is a film by the two great leading actresses. In addition to the sovereignty of Charlotte Rampling, Ludivine Sagnier shines as a slut with an unprecedented touch of unsteadiness and tragedy. Your eroticism does not lie in the freedom of movement. "

information

In an interview with the taz on August 14, 2003, the director said about his film: “At a certain point in the film you no longer know whether you are in the film, in the book that Sarah is writing, or in the imagination of Sarah Morton is located. "

The feature film is not a remake of Jacques Derays The Swimming Pool with Romy Schneider ; the director Ozon, by his own admission, only saw this film again after it was shot: “I only saw it again afterwards. But he has aged badly in my opinion. Even if the early seventies are now back in fashion. I liked the atmosphere, but the plot was a bit lengthy. However, Romy Schneider and Alain Delon are very sexy together, and you can feel the attraction between the two, especially in the sadomasochistic scene, which was very provocative in the seventies. "

literature

  • Eberhard Ostermann: The unconscious sources of creativity in “Swimming Pool” . In: ders .: The film count. Eight exemplary analyzes. Fink, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-7705-4562-9 , pp. 61-77.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Release certificate for swimming pool . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , July 2003 (PDF; test number: 94 579 K).
  2. ^ Lascivious tension in the Luberon . femundo.de
  3. ↑ Oliver Hüttmann: "Swimming Pool": Luder, Lust, Literatur . In: Spiegel Online . August 14, 2003 ( spiegel.de [accessed December 14, 2019]).
  4. ↑ Kira Taszman: "The artist is a thief" . In: The daily newspaper . No. 7130 , August 14, 2003, ISSN  0931-9085 , p. 15 ( taz.de [accessed December 14, 2019]).
  5. ↑ Michael Althen: Interview with François Ozon: "'Swimming Pool' is almost a self-portrait" . Ed .: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. No. 187 , August 14, 2003, ISSN  0174-4909 , p. 34 ( faz.net [accessed December 14, 2019]).