Soirée Cinéma: La Piscine (Swimming Pool)

Swimming Pool is a 2003 French-English psychological thriller and mystery film, directed by François Ozon and starring Charlotte Rampling and Ludivine Sagnier. The plot focuses on a British crime novelist, Sarah Morton (Rampling) who travels to her publisher's upscale summer house in Southern France for solitude to work on her next book. However, the arrival of Julie (Sagnier), the publisher's daughter, induces complications and a subsequent crime. While the film's protagonist is British and both of the lead characters are bilingual, the majority of the story takes place in France - thus, the dialogue throughout the film is a mixture of French and English, which is appropriately subtitled. Swimming Pool premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2003, and was released in France a few days later. It was given a limited release in the United States that July, and was edited in order to avoid an NC-17 rating due to its sexual content and nudity. The film also ignited controversy with audiences over its ambiguous nature and unclear conclusion which can be interpreted and argued in various ways.

Ciné-Club films are shown at the Alliance Française office: 1721 25th Street, Sacramento CA 95816. Admission is free, but donations are gratefully accepted. Please bring snacks to share.