Swimming Pool (Unrated Version)

Rating:
Summary: cool movie
Review: this was such a great movie. and i have no idea why no one likes this movie except me.

Rating:
Summary: Nudity, yes; get over it!
Review: Wow! Swimming Pool is an intelligent, and fantastic film. Don't expect to be a passive viewer, and wait for everything to be explained to you. There is nudity. Enjoy it. Get over it. This is a film about a writer, who's become locked into a series of books she's sick of. At her publisher's house in France, she spends several days with writer's block. She creates a character, and writes the best book of her career. I recommend Secret Window starring Johnny Depp, to be seen with this movie!

Rating:
Summary: Quiet but fascinating thriller.
Review: It is difficult to discuss the movie without giving out spoilers. This is an interesting story that moves deftly between fact and fancy. It is about a successful writer who is in a personal bad moment, tries to go to rest and get her inspiration for a new book. It has its flaws, for example the excessively direct metaphor of the writer's eager eating, hinting to repressed sexuality. The writer of course is the incomparable and beautiful slim Charlotte Rampling, a treat to any cinema fan. She looks ravishing. So does the director's favorite actress, Ludivine Seignier. I think that she gives a perfect performance as the brash and ultimately troubled person who sparks in Rampling's character a number of reactions, professional and otherwise. I don't give it five stars because at some place the story becomes a bit sloppy and unnecessarily gruesome. In the assets of the film I'd put the candid depiction of the girl making love with a boy -her on top- she picks up -within the writer's longing sight-. It is excellent that actors don't shirk from showing on the screen fundamental facts of life, and this must be assumed with naturalness. The score also is very exciting, of the "mysterious" king. The director -who is also the author of the script- achieves an excellent local atmosphere, perfectly convincing, and on the whole, a development from realism to eeriness quite pleasant and unsettling at places. I watched the film at the theater, where it is most effective, and liked it so much that I bought later the DVD. Very enjoyable.

Rating:
Summary: A Fascinating look inside a writer's mind
Review: French director and writer Francois Ozon has created a moody and compelling film in "Swimming Pool." Charlotte Rampling stars as Sarah Morton, a prim and conventional English mystery writer who goes to the south of France in search of inspiration. There she encounters the other two main characters: An old swimming pool and her publisher's sensuous French daughter, Julie (Ludivine Sagnier). Sarah's pastoral serenity is soon disrupted as she becomes involved in the girl's unconventional and mysterious life.

I loved this movie. It has a leisurely pace and there is little in the way of action, and yet I found it mesmerizing. The hypnotic intimacy we experience as we watch Sarah write her new book is utterly compelling. There is an vague feeling of unease and fear from the moment Sarah arrives in France. While all is outwardly calm and controlled, events gradually build to a thrilling climax and beyond that, an ending that makes the viewer reevaluate the entire movie. The excellent musical score matches the enigmatic mood of the film.

Charlotte Rampling is perfect as the proper and cranky old maid who lets her hair down in a big way, once she is under the spell of the luscious Provence countryside. Ludivine Sagnier (seen recently as the delightful Tinkerbell in Peter Pan) is well-cast as the in-your-face, amoral young stranger who changes Sarah's life. I think this is mainly a chick-flick, although there is ample nudity to keep the guys watching, too. If you like quiet, atmospheric movies that make you experience the characters' emotions and really think about what you've seen, you'll enjoy "Swimming Pool."

Rating:
Summary: DO NOT BUY! BOYCOTT ALL FOCUS FEATURE/UNIVERSAL DVD'S!,
Review:
Don't get me wrong, this is a great movie. But by all means, borrow it, rent it, just PLEASE don't buy it!

Why am I advocating such a boycott? Upon inserting the disc into your DVD player, you will be unfortunately assaulted by a nasty hybrid of the lastest marketing scam and technology; THE UNINTERRUPTIBLE MOVIE PREVIEW.

That's right: While movie previews on a DVD may not be anything new, a complete lock-out of the player controls certainly is! Universal has 7 minutes and 21 seconds of movie previews and during that time, the disc is authored to lock out nearly the entire DVD player functionality suite;
*No Main Menu function
*No Chapter Forward function
*(and, most unbelievably) No Player STOP function!

You can't skip or even stop the player while the preview is running! The only function that responds is the Fast Forward key, programmed presumably with the inane logic that you are going to watch the previews, either in real time of in FF mode, but you are GOING to watch the previews, come hell or high water.

I verified this disc feature on three different DVD players: a Pioneer DV-38A, a Pioneer DVR-7000 DVD-R/W recorder and a JVC XV-N44 all-region unit.

This has to be one of the most offensive marketing tactics ever. Where are the studio marketing departments going to stop? What next? Is some studio marketing numbnut going to have my player opening and closing the disc tray repeatedly, the electronic equivalent of sticking its tongue out at me when I try to pass some inane preview or other marketing content?

Hey, Universal? I stopped going to theaters years ago, with crappy projection systems, dim projector bulbs, shoddy or non-functional surround systems, overpriced tickets & food, cell phone calls, babies screaming, sticky floors, and really bad commercials at theater system volume, not to mention just terrible films. So now, I can stop buying Universal DVD's, too, and post this encouragement for others to boycott you also:

If you absolutely need to see a Universal film, just rent it, don't buy it! Better yet, borrow it! Hit Universal in its pocketbook where it hurts!

BOYCOTT/DO NOT BUY THE FOLLOWING FOCUS FEATURES TITLES:
SWIMMING POOL
ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND
21 GRAMS
NED KELLY
THE DOOR IN THE FLOOR
SYLVIA
THE PIANIST
FAR FROM HEAVEN
THE GUYS
DELIVER US FROM EVA


Rating:
Summary: Miss Marple goes nuts...?
Review: I know. This is a clever film. And one is supposed to like that. But seriously... It's not enough to offer a clever twist, when the story doesn't really make sense to begin with. No it's not that something is missing and it gets explained. It's more like trying to cook a raw fish by pouring suger on it. Interesting idea, but it still is not eatable.

A middle aged authoress goes to live in her publisher's house in France in order to write her new book. She needs some peace and quiet, since she is rather tensed and uninspired. When the publisher's daughter turns up in the house, the tensed but now inspired authress turns out to be quite asocial and unfriendly. Maybe that's interesting too. The main character is not very likable. Unusual move.

From here on, not much happens. Well, one big thing happens, but writing about that would be giving away the plot.

Lots of uncalled for nudity. Of course, that's belongs to a good thriller. Sex and murder are neighbours. When someone is naked you know that death is around the corner. ...even if nothing happens.

If you want to see a film about a female detective writer who is under too much pressure and might be about to lose it, maybe this is for you. If you want a good thriller, there are lots of other options.

Rating:
Summary: mysterious
Review: Unfortunately as I watched this movie, I was too tired. As a result, the subtlety and understatement of the film were lost on me. Nevertheless I can always appreciate a great film when I see one. The perfect picture of repression, tension and sexual jealousy and guilt as embodied by the eminently talented Charlotte Rampling. Ludivine Sagnier, whom I had only seen before in 8 Women, was convincing in her role as a young temptress, who brings out a voyeuristic, more daring and more creative Rampling, who portrays a writer who has fallen into a kind of rut of writing the same things again and again. She is pulled more and more into a world of intrigue that the younger woman drags her into. I found myself spellbound when I was actually awake, but because it was arresting and subtly suspenseful, it is most definitely something I will watch again. The unfolding story and its conclusion leave you with more questions than answers, but the journey is the reward here.

Rating:
Summary: I'm disappointed!
Review: One word came out from my mouth after I finished this film,
that word is "Fxxx"

Too many things in this flim ain't make sense!

I don't think Julie is Sarah's Imagine!
Because in this film Sarah even give a phone to John and said he never told her his daughter will come!

So, I guess that girl is a whore and got a key of that house,
She got business every night and take man to house and give them sex service.
Why that girl got that key?
maybe she's the REAL Julie's Friend???

And why That "Julie" kill that man????

and the ending Sarah swing hands to Julie....
This ending really piss me off!!!

I'm pretty sure you'll say "Fxxx" after watching this!

that's all~
Although That "Fake" Julie is really nice......

Avoid it dude!

Rating:
Summary: Shades of Diabolique
Review: I enjoyed this film for the relationship between the two women. Their relationship is filled with tension and envy. At times you know the tension is pure envy. I won't reiterate much of what has already been written. The film has a slow "real time" kind of pace. This may seem too slow for people who are used to Hollywood throwing action into every frame. The movie does not feel slow to me though and has an interesting twist at the end.

Rating:
Summary: Snoozefest. Not the slick, racy film I expected
Review: Big letdown. Slow as molasses. Uptight, unattractive, middle-aged British woman goes to the French countryside to write her next novel. Sneers at her housemate (her publisher's teenage daughter), who's a bit rebellious and sleeps with some of the ugliest men I've ever seen. Spends a lot of time looking out the window at the swimming pool and wandering around in an drab granny nightgown and brown slippers. The daughter wasn't even pretty. Beautiful scenery, but story was quite uncompelling. Yawn.