Swimming Pool

The only English language film of master filmmaker Francois Ozon. Swimming pool is a multi-layered mystery/realist film about two women, British Sandra Morton (Charlote Rampling) and French Julie (Ludivine Sagnier) who are worlds apart but united by a similar past and a grisly murder. Sandra is a mystery writer quite advance in age and has achieved respectable status in the literary and publishing circle. Bored with life and with her relationship with her publisher/lover John (Charles Dance) taking an unromantic turn, she decides to take John's offer to visit his summer house in the Lacoste provence of France so she could write whatever she wants.

Unbeknownst to her, John's daughter Julie also decides to live in the house. The two ladies are off with a bad start when Sandra mistakes Julie for a thief. She is dismayed to learn later on that Julie is staying for good and will not give her the peace of mind she needs to concentrate on her new novel. Things turn nastier when Julie brings home every night a different man with whom she engages with rough and wild sex. Shocking secrets are revealed when Julie accidentally kills Franck (Jean Marie Lamour) who excites Sandra's interest. Together the two women forge a pact not to reveal the murder and together they liberate themselves from their horrid past and traumatic experiences.

Stellar performances worthy of Oscar and Cannes nod by Rampling and Sagnier. Masterful story-telling and suspenseful plot. Intelligent, disturbing and riveting. A mystery wrapped in a mystery incapable of being exhausted by watching the movie alone. Hauntingly beautiful....

Director: Francois Ozon (See the Sea, Under the Sand, Summer Dress, Water Drops on Burning Rocks).
Cast: Charlotte Rampling, Ludivine Sagnier, Charles Dance, Jean-Marie Lamour
Released: January 2004