Swimming Pool by François Ozon

When trying to convince huzzbind to go to the movies with me, it is a good idea to be able to offer up a sexy mystery flick that takes place in the South of France. Who could resist? My only hesitation was a vague rumour that the ending might be a bit open-ended, not so fun for a mystery but we took our chances anyway.

Charlotte Rampling plays an irritable writer of mystery stories, who is so peeved with her editor for neglecting her that he offers her his villa in France so she can take a break and rejuvenate. As she arrives in France, the scenes of her settling in are almost excruciating in their pace. We see her slowly finding her way, riding into the village, buying her groceries for the day. It felt so amazingly real but I kept thinking, oh, this is not a sexy mystery now. Why is this film so popular? This is something we've experienced at this same pace, too hyper-realistic for words. So very odd, but a stylistic hint, I decided later.

Then the daughter of the editor arrives unannounced and voila, sexy mystery starts. She is a wayward child who brings a different village bloke home every night, and this quickly gets Rampling's knickers in a knot. All of this is very entertaining, and there is a little bit more plot, a bit of weirdness and even more weirdness for an ending. I won't give it away here, but let's just say that my own personal interpretation was that much of this film was about the creative, artistic process. Aha. Got you wondering now, hey? Well, even with this theory firmly entrenched in my brain I found myself surfing the web to read message boards of people sorting the movie out in wild and crazy ways online. There are some wacky theories about what it all means floating around out there, but somewhere also there is a certain logic. You don't leave the cinema saying, I suspended my disbelief and entered a wonderful escapist fantasy and now I am refreshed. But I highly recommend this film for the fun of nattering when it is done, and also for the perfect of vibe of holiday France and its characters, captured very realistically.

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