Incannerax
What a waste of my time!!!
Organnall
Too much about the plot just didn't add up, the writing was bad, some of the scenes were cringey and awkward,
Sharkflei
Your blood may run cold, but you now find yourself pinioned to the story.
Claudio Carvalho
The failing writer Jean-Paul (Alain Delon) and his lover Marianne (Romy Schneider) are together for more than two years and spending vacation in a mansion in Saint-Tropez that belongs to a friend of them. They spend most of the time in the swimming pool that is the main attraction of the real estate. Jean-Paul is an insecure man and tried to commit suicide because of the reviews of his last novel but now is recovered. When the successful composer Harry (Maurice Ronet), who had been Marianne's lover for four years, calls her and tells that he is passing by Saint-Tropez with his teenage daughter Pénélope (Jane Birkin), she invites them to come to the mansion to stay with Jean-Paul and her. Soon Harry woos Marianne trying to rekindle their former relationship and there is a tension in the house. Jean-Paul does not react and seduces Pénélope instead that discloses the true feelings of Harry towards him. One night, Harry comes late night drunken and argues with Jean-Paul, telling that he is a loser. However he falls in the swimming pool and Jean-Paul does not let him leave the water. Harry is drowned by Jean-Paul that forges a situation indicating that Harry has accidentally died. However the smart Inspector Lévêque (Paul Crauchet) does not buy the evidences of accident. What will happen to Jean-Paul? "La Piscine" is a movie with a simple, sensual and tense story with a sexy beginning. Romy Schneider is among the most beautiful women in the world and her eyes, her face and her body mesmerize any male viewer. The characters are not well developed and keep a mystery of their true intentions, leaving to the viewer's interpretation. The cinematography is bright like the weather in Saint-Tropez, and the beauty and the eyes of Romy Schneider, Jane Birkin and Alain Delon are highlighted by the camera. The most impressive is that this movie has not aged after almost fifty years. My vote is seven.Title (Brazil): "A Piscina" ("The Swimming Pool")Note: On 28 January 2017, I saw this film again.
Milan
This fine French crime drama, is not appreciated as it should be. The cast may be the reason, but there is no one, that comes to mind of contemporary French actors, at the time, that could have added something more to this. The centerpiece of this tale, of moral and emotional decadence is the swimming pool by beautiful villa, somewhere near Saint-Tropez and it radiates summer passion, it's turquoise waters filled with guilty conscience, calling for trouble between three old friends and lovers. Burden each of them carries, would lead to crime even without "sweet Jane" stirring it up to boiling point. Her presence is so light and she almost appears as a mirage, in between scenes of old passions, lust and grudges not forgotten.The film is everything but slow paced and boring. There is no surplus scene, and I can't imagine how it could be done differently. Of course such films in general are not for audiences of ready-made movies, but for those who will savor Jacques Deray's fine direction, and beautiful cinematography of Jean-Jacques Tarbès. They did a fine job in submerging a willing viewer into exquisite beauty of Romy Schneider, Alen Delon's cool in portrayal of insecure, troubled man that finds his life utterly pointless, Maurice Ronet's subtle acting performance of a successful composer who is afraid of his success, and Jane Birkin's girlish naiveté, ruffle the pool of love and hate. Interraction between Schneider, Delon and Ronet adds another level to it, and the story glides well with every scene serving the story of superficial, emotionless people trapped in their small worlds, in witch they are suffocating. Beautiful film, worth every minute of your time, and not just in cold winter months.
filmalamosa
On the French Riviera near St. Tropez a beautiful couple Jean Paul (Alain Delon) and his girl friend (Remy Schneider) are vacationing when unexpected house guests "Harry" and his daughter show up.Turns out that Harry is an ex of Schneider's and she pays a little too much attention to him but nothing that crosses the line. Delon meanwhile has some interest in Harry's daughter...these attentions cause some friction between the couple. Harry's daughter reveals to Jean Paul that her father despises and mocks him.Harry comes back one night drunk insults and hits Jean Paul and falls in the swimming pool. Jean Paul then actively helps him drown. A police inspector shows up investigating.Beware the film starts out so slow that I stopped watching it the first time I tried. The second half of the movie is good and worth it all.Recommend... great late 60s bourgeois drama.
lazarillo
An incredibly attractive bourgeois couple (Romy Schneider and Alain Delon) are luxuriating in an idyllic French villa when they receive a visit from an old friend of the husband and old flame of the wife (Maurice Ronet) who had actually first introduced them to each other. Their visitor is accompanied by his temptingly nubile 18-year-old illegitimate daughter (Jane Birkin). Infidelity, jealousy, and eventually murder ensue.This film in some ways resembles the emerging Italian gialli thrillers(especially the early ones with Carrol Baker and/or Jean Sorel), but it is much more staid and psychological and less over-the-top than the Italian films. And of course, it also fit squarely in the tradition of French thrillers somewhere between "Diabolique" and Claude Chabrol. The three leads are very good, but Jane Birkin is pretty miscast--she was too old for this role and seemed to be trying to overcompensate by running and skipping around, acting more like a 12-year-old girl than an 18-year-old one (and the result, needless to say, is pretty bizarre). Birkin also tragically keeps her clothes on (although she does spend most of the movie modelling various bikinis), but the equally gorgeous Schneider more than makes up for it. Ironically however, the major flaw in this movie is that the four principals are all SO glamorous and beautiful that it's hard for us normal folk to relate or sympathize with them.Schneider and Birkin would appear together again with better results in "Love at the Top" (where the latter more than makes up for her regrettable lack of skin here). I suspect this movie not only partially inspired the likes of Claude Chabrol, but also the very recent sexy French thriller with same name ("Swimming Pool" in the English-speaking world) in which Charlotte Rampling and Ludivine Sagnier seemed to be respectively channeling the erotic spirits of Schneider and Birkin. One thing's for sure, France has never looked more beautiful than it does here.
