Swimming Pool (2003) - Rampling and Sagnier stand out in Ozon's suggestive, sensual thriller

♥♥♥♥

+ Best Erotic Movie of the Year

A young and an older woman meet by a swimming pool in this poster for François Ozon's Swimming Pool

A British female crime novelist accepts boarding in a plush French residence belonging to her publisher to look for inspiration, but instead she finds her publisher's daughter Julie, who is missing a mother figure in her life ...

Swimming Pool is written by Emmanuèle Bernheim (Lucas (1993, TV movie)) and co-writer/director François Ozon (Under the Sand/Sous le Sable (2000)), with Sionann O'Neill (À Quatre Mains (1995, short)) doing translation. It is not the king of thrillers that keeps one captured in breathless suspense, SPOILER because the murder and resulting suspense is placed towards the end of the film. 
Countering this are alluring shots of magnificent France and a cinematic quality that is hard to describe in words. The acting is also fine; Charlotte Rampling (Broadchurch (2015, TV-series)) and Ludivine Sagnier (Water Drops on Burning Rocks/Gouttes d'Eau sur Pierres Brûlantes (2000)) are both excellent as women of different ages who are both searching for something elusive.
Swimming Pool is an underplayed and suggestive erotic-psychological thriller - with plenty of nice breasts.

 

Related posts:

 

2003 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II] 

2003 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

 

Ozon and stars arrive for the film's glitzy premiere in Cannes in this video

Cost: 7.8 mil. $
Box office: 22.4 mil. $
= Box office success (2.87 times its cost)
[Swimming Pool premiered 18 May (Cannes Film Festival, France, in competition) and runs 103 minutes. Shooting took place in France and in London, UK. The film opened #24 to a 287k $ first weekend in 13 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #16 and in 259 theaters (different weeks), grossing 10.1 mil. $ (45.1 % of the total gross), becoming a rare French breakout hit in the market. The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were main production country France with 4 mil. $ (17.9 %) and Germany with 3 mil. $ (13.4 %). Cannes' Palme d'Or was lost to Gus Van Sant's Elephant. The film was also nominated for 2 César awards, France's Oscar, and won 1/5 European Film awards. Roger Ebert gave the film a 3/4 star review, equal in rating to this one. Ozon returned with 5x2 (2004). Rampling returned in Imperium: Augustus (2003, TV movie) and theatrically in The Statement (2003); Sagnier in Little Lili/La Petite Lili (2003). Swimming Pool is certified fresh at 83 % with a 7.04/10 critical average rating at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Swimming Pool?

Life During Wartime (2009) - Too little is really going on in Solondz's guilt-themed Happiness sequel

♥♥♥

An adolescent boy with a white tulip against a cloudy sky makes up this strikingly drawn poster for Todd Solondz's Life During Wartime

A history of 3 sisters: One is a successful, conceited writer; the other a confused vegetarian, whose partners off themselves; and the last is a doped mother of three, whose ex-husband is a convicted pedophile.

Life During Wartime is the 6th feature from great New Jerseyite writer/director Todd Solondz (Fear, Anxiety and Depression (1989)). It is another film from him about the forbidden lust, the consequences of it and of guilt.
Guilt, guilt, guilt.
Despite good actors and few, piercing scenes, often of situations that in some way seem 'wrong', Life During Wartime is about fleetingly little, and mostly it's about excessively neurotic Jews with money. Mostly despicable people, objectively seen, (watch the film for yourself, if you don't believe me.) This is one in Solondz's output that you can calmly skip over: Instead watch his much better Welcome to the Dollhouse (1995), Happiness (1998), Storytelling (2001) and Wiener-Dog (2016).

Related post:

Todd Solondz: Wiener-Dog (2016) - Solondz's incisive and funny dog saga dramedy

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 4.5 mil. $
Box office: 791k $
= Box office disaster (returned 0.17 times the cost)
[Life During Wartime premiered 3 September (Venice Film Festival, Italy) and runs 97 minutes. It is a loose sequel to Solondz's Happiness (1998) with new actors playing the recurring characters. Shooting took place in Puerto Rico and elsewhere from October 2008 - ?. The film opened #43 to a 30k $ first weekend in 1 theater in North America, where it spread to 20 cinemas but never attained a higher placement, grossing 281k $ (35.5 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Italy with 194k $ (24.5 %) and France with 159k $ (20.1 %). Roger Ebert gave the film a 2.5/4 star review, equal to the rating in this review. The film was nominated for 2 Independent Spirit awards and won 1/3 nominations at the Venice Film Festival (for its screenplay). Solondz returned with Dark Horse (2011). Shirley Henderson (Tale of Tales/Il Racconto dei Racconti (2015)) returned in Meek's Cutoff (2010); Allison Janney (I, Tonya (2017)) in 6 non-theatrical performances before The Help (2011); and Ally Sheedy (Just a Dream (2002)) in Citizen Jane (2009, TV movie) and theatrically in Welcome to the Rileys (2010). Life During Wartime is fresh at 68 % with a 6.3/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Life During Wartime?