La Piscine (film)
| La Piscine | |
|---|---|
 French film poster | |
| Directed by | Jacques Deray |
| Written by | Jacques Deray Jean-Claude Carrière |
| Starring | Alain Delon Romy Schneider Maurice Ronet Jane Birkin |
| Cinematography | Jean-Jacques Tarbes |
| Edited by | Paul Cayatte |
| Music by | Michel Legrand |
Release dates | France: January 31, 1969 Italy: April 5, 1969 |
Running time | 120 minutes |
| Countries | France Italy |
La Piscine (The Swimming Pool)[1] is a 1969 Italian-French film directed by Jacques Deray, starring Alain Delon, Romy Schneider, Maurice Ronet and Jane Birkin. Set in summertime on the Côte d'Azur, it is a drama of sexual jealousy and possessiveness.
Plot
Jean-Paul, a writer, and Marianne, his girlfriend of just over two years, are holidaying at a friend's villa. There is a tension in their relationship which excites Marianne: the film begins with a scene in which they are together beside the villa's swimming pool and she urges him to claw her back. He does as she asks, but then throws her into the pool and jumps in after her. In a later scene he takes a branch and uses it to lash her bare buttocks, playfully but with a force that increases as the scene cuts away.
Harry, an old friend and record producer, arrives for a visit, surprising the couple by bringing his 18-year-old daughter Penelope of whose existence they have not previously known. Before Jean-Paul knew Marianne, Harry was her lover.
The four stay together. As the days go by, Harry draws Marianne back towards him. He taunts Jean-Paul for having given up serious writing to work in advertising, and drinks a great deal, throwing a surprise party while Jean-Paul, a recovering alcoholic, stays sober. Meanwhile it becomes clear that Penelope neither likes nor respects her father, whom she has barely known while growing up. She and Jean-Paul become close. They spend a day alone together by the sea; what happens there is left unshown, but if their relationship has not yet become sexual, clearly it soon will.
That night, while the women are asleep, the two men finally confront each other. Harry falls into the pool and is too drunk to swim. Jean-Paul, who has also been drinking, at first stops him from climbing out of the water, then deliberately pushes him under and holds him down till he is drowned. He covers up the crime, making it look like an accident.
After the funeral a police detective, Inspector Lévêque, visits the house more than once. He confides to Marianne his reasons for doubting the story of an accident. She tells Jean-Paul; when he confesses everything to her, she helps get rid of evidence that would have given him away, and the inquiry is dropped.
Penelope returns to her mother. Marianne sees her off at the airport. She and Jean-Paul are also about to leave the villa when she tells him that they will not go together. She is about to call a taxi when he places a hand on the telephone, cutting off her call and silencing her. In the end, neither leaves; in the film's last shot they are side by side. They look out through the window at the swimming pool, then embrace.
Notes
Delon and Schneider had been real life partners from 1958 to 1963, and it was he who presented her posthumous Honorary César in 2008.
Cast
- Romy Schneider as Marianne Leroy
- Alain Delon as Jean-Paul Leroy
- Maurice Ronet as Harry Lannier
- Jane Birkin as Penelope Lannier
- Paul Crauchet as Inspector Lévêque
References
- ^ Histoire du Cinéma Français 1966–1970, eds. Maurice Bessy, Raymond Chirat and André Bernard; ISBN 978-2857043799; entry 235
External links
- La Piscine at IMDb
