La Piscine
1969 French drama that takes a LONG time to get going, then REALLY goes.
La Piscine (1969). Grade: C+
This is an odd one. For film history fans, I’d definitely say, “see it.” The last act’s a knockout. It just takes FOREVER to get there. I can’t imagine ever watching it again, but I’m glad I watched it once.
Some movies do “slow burn” exceedingly well. Kelly Reichardt’s Night Moves is a masterclass in it. (It’s about three radical environmentalists who consider doing a violent, dangerous, extremist thing, and the buildup to that thing is careful, controlled, mesmerizing.)
This is less of a slow burn than one of those fireworks you light, and the fuse seems to go out… then it suddenly explodes. It’s surprising, but the wait isn’t fun anticipation. It’s just going, “oh, that didn’t work.” Most of the first part of the film is a real drag.
The story’s about two young-ish lovers in their 30s, Romy Schneider and Alain Delon. Who had been a widely publicized real-life couple, but broke up several years before this was made. Delon insisted that Schneider get the part here, and threatened to quit if she didn’t. Per Wiki, even though he’d been the one to dump her (because he knocked up someone else), Delon kept pressuring Schneider to restart the affair, even while shooting this. Which, yuck.
He’s an advertising exec; she’s a writer, or someone who used to write (what sort of writing isn’t specified, as the filmmakers don’t care). They’re on vacation in the French Riviera. Fairly soon, they’re joined by an old buddy, record producer Maurice Ronet, who was Delon’s best pal when they were younger, although in later years they’ve drifted apart. And Ronet’s traveling with his teenage daughter, Jane Birkin. (The three older actors were already big stars in France, Birkin well on her way to becoming one. Her song “Je t’aime… moi non plus” came out right after this movie, and was a huge international hit.)
The problem is, in the movie, Ronet and Schneider used to be an item. Delon says he doesn’t care about her past, yet he clearly does. There’s a huge amount of competitive ego-puffing going on between the two old friends. Maybe this is common in many male friendships? I hope not. When I’ve known people who act this way, I’ve generally learned to avoid them.
Meanwhile, the daughter, Birkin, is really quite the coquette, doing her best to “pout sexily” all during her time onscreen. I couldn’t help myself and started doing what a 1980s Valley Girl would sound like with a French accent. “I am so totally bummed, my dad is way bogus, can we like, go to ze mall?” There’s a lot of what’s supposed to be “smouldering sensuality” between all the performers and it comes off mostly like models preening on the catwalk. The only one who really radiates any kind of sexiness is Schneider, and that’s not from her skimpy outfits or flashes of boob, it’s because her face has more curiosity than anybody else’s. You actually do want to know what she’s thinking. With the others, you don’t mostly care.
We ended up just commenting on how spectacularly awful everything looks, in a movie that’s theoretically showing the pure indulgent pleasure of being beautiful and rich. The house and pool area has chic modern furniture; it looks stupid. All the art inside the house is cluttered and pointless. The shirts and pants and dresses are weird and bad. Even an expensive sportscar that all the older characters drool over is ugly, and not ugly in the fun odd way a Delorean is; it’s ugly just for looking exactly like every other boring muscle car.
About the only interest to be had here is waiting to see if Schneider/Ronet and Delon/Birkin actually get it on. And they don’t. There’s some light caresses, and that’s it. Which, I don’t understand at all. There’s a rational plot reason for not having anybody screw around with people they shouldn’t — they’d be hesitant, even if they were curious/horny. They’d be worried about crossing a line and making everyone hugely uncomfortable and feeling like crap. But once you’ve started caressing somebody, you’ve already crossed that line. So I don’t get why they just don’t all bonk each other. (One writer thought that it’s implied they did, but we didn’t see it. OK. Still dull.)
Maybe the idea is to build up sexual tension? I found it boring. We were fully mocking everyone and everything in this movie from about 30 minutes in for most of the rest of the way. (Oh, and they listen to music, and it’s 1969, so you’d hope it would be good music, but it is crap. And then you hear the crap again.)
However…
At around the 80-90 minute mark (the movie’s just a shade over two hours), there is an EXTREMELY dark turn. It’s surprising, yet it’s also believable, given what we know of these characters. And everything from that point on in the movie is quite good.
So… worth watching? That’s gonna be up to you.
If it were 1969, I’d say, “sure.” A moviegoing audience isn’t going to get bored as quickly as a modern at-home audience is; there’s no option to switch DVDs or streams. Plus a bigger screen would provide more opportunity to look at the pleasant (not stunning, just pleasant) scenery.
But, in 2025, I’d say “it depends.” For the average movie fan, who just wants to find something interesting to see, this probably ain’t good enough. 35 compelling minutes won’t make up for 85 dull ones. (I didn’t exactly time when it started getting interesting, so don't hate me if I got the time marker wrong, I'm guesstimating.)
For the more intense movie nerds, though, I’d say you actually should catch this. You won’t regret it, it’s just gonna be a wait while the dull stuff’s going on.
What makes the conclusion so interesting isn’t merely the dark turn itself. It changes the dynamics of the characters, too. The real development is with Schneider, who finds herself in a really unusual position. She’s suddenly forced to see things in a different, much more repellent light, and it’s also a position where she possesses almost all the power. In the end, she appears to make a decision… but there’s no reason to assume it’s going to be a permanent one.
There’s an extra, alternate ending on the second Criterion disc. Feel free to skip it. It’s only one longshot of a car arriving. It was added onto the Spanish version of this, as it was feared the movie’s amoral conclusion would offend censors under the Franco regime. Oddly, the same shot was added to English-language versions in Britain and America, even though censors in both countries had mostly stopped banning movies for content.
Now, about that bodyguard murder…
Alas, yes. During the shooting of this film, star Alain Delon’s bodyguard was found dead in a public dump.
Not anywhere near where this was filming. The movie would have had its own security team, so the bodyguard, Stefan Marković, was back in Paris.
Marković was a major gambler, so that’s always gonna involve being mixed up with some shady individuals. Plus, he was alleged to have secret cameras all over the house where he’d host high-society guests, and tried selling some photos to newspapers. Reportedly, some of the photos were of Delon himself. So those are all reasons that various people might have wanted him gone.
Then there’s the political wife sex photos! The police said that they found naughty photos in Marković’s car. And a rumor went around that the photos were of French politician Claude Pompidou’s wife. (Pompidou was already considering a run for President, and would be elected the following year.)
Later, a police chief said he’d planted the photos, which were of a prostitute he hired who looked like Pompadou’s wife. And that police chief had ties to the French version of the C.I.A.! Oh, and furthermore, Marković was buddies with a notorious French gangster, who actually was arrested for suspicion of murder but eventually released. Nobody was ever charged or tried for the murder.
And yup, that all took place while this movie was being made/being released, and it featured one of France’s biggest stars re-united with his ex-girlfriend, and so, it was Big Movie News in France in 1969. Now, I look at Delon and think “he’s if Tony Curtis were crossed with Louis Jordan” and the effect isn’t a pleasant one. But then again, he may be playing a shallow annoying character very well. Perhaps in other movies he’s good. (He and co-star Maurice Ronet were both in an earlier version of Patricia Highsmith’s Talented Mr. Ripley, that might be decent.)
The director here, Jacques Deray, mostly made crime movies and thrillers, and was very highly regarded for doing so. He does a fine job here. I think he could have cut about 30 minutes and vastly improved the film — there’s way too much bored lounging — but the final act shows that Deray could really convey story and character in an efficient, effective way when he set his mind to it. The musical score, by Michael Legrand, is sly; it tricks you into thinking you’re watching a very different movie.
Critic Jessica Kiang’s Criterion essay points out that this is an unusual film for its time, in that it takes place in France — a country, like many others, undergoing heavy political turmoil in 1969 — and yet outside events and public unrest aren’t even mentioned. That could be because the writer & director don’t care… or it could be a commentary on the characters, like the way the impending war is ignored in The Rules of the Game. Except that those characters, for all their wealthy self-absorption, are somewhat sympathetic. These ones are not.
I also don’t know if director Deray intends this world to look as tacky and lousy as it does, to make a point about the characters… or if it's meant to seem cool, the sort of life that 1969 people would crave (well, the tackiest, lousiest people). Sometimes, when movies show the High Life, it doesn’t look bad — all those classy nightclubs of the 1940s. This world looks boring as heck, besides the part about having sex with Romy Schneider. And when it comes to “sexy tickling with plant leaves,” count me out.
Incidentally, this was somewhat-remade in 2015, with Ralph Fiennes and Tilda Swinton among the actors. Sounds intriguing, right, especially if they picked up the pace a little? Well, hold your horses. It’s directed by Luca Guadagino, who ruined Queer. That movie was directed by a complete moron, which is a shame since Daniel Craig was really doing something interesting with the part. Here’s an interview where Guadagino mentions the remake and sounds like a damn fool. So see it if you wanna.