Intermission: 'Swimming Pool' challenges viewers with twisting plot

Jim Wunderle is a Springfield free-lance writer and musician.

Franois Ozon is the French "auteur du jour," and "Swimming Pool" is his first film shot in English following the success of "Under the Sand," "8 Women" and the chilling short, "See the Sea."

In his latest endeavor, Ozon relies on directorial nuances firmly entrenched in the Alfred Hitchcock bag of tricks. The result is a film some will love, many will hate, few will completely understand and those who think they understand might find themselves arguing with others who understand it differently.

It may have been deemed somewhat slow in the early going, but "Swimming Pool" is a film that challenges the viewer and makes us really give some thought to what we've just seen unfold. This is not typical of a summer release, and "Swimming Pool," on the whole, is not a typical film.

Charlotte Rampling, the beautiful actress who has made a career playing femmes fatale, stars as Sarah Morton, a rather reserved (even repressed) English novelist who writes mystery novels featuring Inspector Dorwell, a character who is much beloved to the author's rapidly aging audience. Morton is going through a life crisis and seems to have long felt the burden of her popular creation weighing down on her need as a writer to explore new worlds and ideas.

Her publisher offers Morton his house in the French countryside as a much-needed retreat. While there, she can clear her mind and get back into the swing of writing. The publishing company, of course, wants more Dorwell, but the writer is still leaning in other directions.

As Sarah settles into her new vacation home, we learn a lot about her through a series of beautifully filmed scenes with very little dialogue. Morton is prim and proper, and could be described as borderline frumpy, although it's hard to be a plain Jane when the actress who gives you life is as stunning as Rampling remains in her late 50s. Rampling inhabits Sarah Morton well, and there is a sadness, a bit of a secret, in the expression that lets us know the still surface waters of Morton must indeed run deep.

Morton's newfound peaceful atmosphere is quickly derailed when a young Frenchwoman shows up at the house. Julie is the daughter of Morton's publisher, and this place is her sometimes home. She cares little about disrupting the author's tranquility and immediately goes about her assigned duties in life, which include nude swimming and bedding any willing male within the vicinity.

French bombshell Ludivine Sagnier plays Julie to the hilt. The frequent nudity in the film is not gratuitous in the least; it simply is the way a 19-year-old French girl with a blossoming body would behave in the privacy of her own estate. Rampling does a fully nude scene as well, and again it makes perfect sense, and the filmmakers aren't simply showing skin to add to the box office.

The two polar opposites have a rather rough time coexisting in the house at first. Morton needs quiet and structure in order to focus on her work while Julie merely needs a pool, some liquor, a man and a bed. Being quiet or calm is not in her repertoire.

Slowly Julie begins to wear off on Morton, and the author finds herself loosening up a bit here and there. She also learns much about Julie's past. The young woman suffers from a feeling of abandonment and loss.

She tells Morton that her mother, long estranged from her publisher dad, also was an author, but her one novel remains unknown since Julie burned the only copy upon her mother's death.

Julie keeps a diary, which soon furnishes grist for Sarah's mill and possibly the creative spark she so desperately needs.

When dining in town one evening, Sarah gets rather friendly with Frank, a new waiter.

Sarah has found her sexual desires have been kicked up a notch of late, due to being in such close proximity to Julie. She has desires for the waiter, but their affair simply is not to be, as Frank becomes another in the long line leading to Julie's bedroom.

It's here the film takes a big turn and promises to become a different sort of mystery, which it may well have done in the hands of someone other than Ozon. But "Swimming Pool" never quite does what we expect it will. While I thought I had a major plot device figured out early on, I wasn't so sure by the end of the film.

Ah, the end of the film. It's these last few scenes that will bring all of the viewer's earlier assumptions into question and spark the inevitable "What really happened?" discussions. I suspect that upon seeing it a second time, the viewer may pick up clues and nuances that were missed the first time around.

Ozon has crafted a truly original piece here and it's always enjoyable when a film brings about so many opportunities for viewer opinions. And hats off to Charlotte Rampling for bringing such class and fearlessness to a challenging role.