SHEDDING INK

Swimming Pool

While Swimming Pool is hardly the taut thriller its promotional materials suggest it to be, it does take an interesting look at the twists of turns of the creative writing process. Writing can be a lonely, deliberate task, and that's how Ozon approaches the film, making sure we feel the isolation of the author. Rampling is excellent as a writer who feels trapped by her own success (a series of mystery novels featuring the same detective character), and the desire to break out of that mold plays a big part in the events that transpire over the course of her stay. Determining which of those events are real and what part they play in her book-in-progress is where Swimming Pool's real novelty lies.

- May 7, 2005

DVD Extras

There are only about 12 minutes of deleted scenes included here, some of which might have made the line between fiction and reality more clear, but also detracted from the mystery of it all. The film is in French and English with English subtitles when needed.

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Swimming Pool (2003)

A British mystery-writer retreats to her publisher's summer home in the south of France to work on her latest novel. When the publisher's promiscuous daughter shows up, the line between fact and fiction blurs.


Directed by François Ozon


Written by François Ozon and Emmanuèle Bernheim


Starring Charlotte Rampling, Ludivine Sagnier, Charles Dance

102 minutes
Not Rated (language, nudity, sexual content, violence, drug use)

Movie: B
Extras: C+