So what, exactly, has rendered La Piscine<\/em> so irresistible to New York City audiences in the summer of 2021? The simplest answer is that the picture is very, very good; the more precise one is that it is scorching hot, both literally and figuratively, which makes it an ideal entertainment for this Hot Girl Summer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It opens with a key image: Jean-Paul (Alain Delon) laying in the sun, sunglasses on his face, next to a pool, his hand moving lazily through the cool water. He has a drink in his other hand, which he pours languidly into this mouth, and the entire tableaux is like a mission statement for the picture, a potent mixture of heat, \u201ccool,\u201d and sex. He\u2019s soon joined at the pool by his lover Marianne (Romy Schneider); they touch and play and throw each other into the water, and the offhand intimacy of their interactions feels authentic. Jean-Paul and Marianne are impossibly attractive, financially comfortable, and extremely into each other. This kind of satisfaction and happiness can\u2019t last long! Especially in a French film from the 1960s!<\/p>\n\n\n\n What\u2019s remarkable about Deray\u2019s screenplay \u2013 written with Jean-Claude Carri\u00e9re and Alain Page \u2013 is how quickly and efficiently their bliss is unraveled. (The characters even note it, late in the film, in this exchange: \u201cAre you angry with me?\u201d \u201cFor what?\u201d \u201cFor how quickly everything can change.\u201d) Once their little poolside utopia is established, the couple\u2019s old friend Harry (Maurice Ronet) roars up in a gorgeous sportscar with a beautiful young woman in the passenger seat \u2013 his daughter, P\u00e9n\u00e9lope (Jane Birkin). \u201cYou two vanished without a word!\u201d he exclaims, seemingly oblivious to the idea that this may have been on purpose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The precise nature of the relationships are murky; Jean-Paul and Harry are old friends, their relationship pre-dating Jean-Paul and Marianne\u2019s, but there are whispers that before Jean-Paul and Marianne hooked up, she and Harry may have had a fling. These overlapping histories result in a palpable tension between the two men, barely hidden behind a front of affability. There\u2019s a specific way that Harry circles Jean-Paul, poking at him and hitting his softest spots the way that only longtime acquaintances can; he\u2019ll ask Jean-Paul, a novelist turned ad-man, \u201cSo you\u2019ve given up writing? I think that was the right choice,\u201d or wonder aloud if Marianne has let herself go a bit (as if<\/em>) while clearly still lusting after her himself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So there\u2019s an immediate sense of sexual curiosity, competitiveness, and jealousy, and that\u2019s all aside <\/em>from how clearly Jean-Paul wants to bed Harry\u2019s daughter. But that seems like a mere fantasy until the night Harry brings a couple of dozen \u201cfriends\u201d home with him for an impromptu party, and, as Jean-Paul puts it, \u201cSome nights anything goes \u2013 or almost anything.\u201d It becomes (via the picture\u2019s copious nervous glances and loaded silences) a question of if, not when, these things are going to happen: When is Harry going to make a move on Marianne? When is Jean-Paul going to have the opportunity he\u2019s longing for with P\u00e9n\u00e9lope? Will Marianne be more receptive to the former because of the latter?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Because Demy sets up these conflicts and temptations with such clarity, the film\u2019s sly pivot into thriller territory in the back half doesn\u2019t feel like a stretch; obviously something<\/em> bad is going to happen, and by the time we get there, a romantic betrayal seems about as harmful as an actual murder. The slow, knotty escalation of the sequence in question is agonizing; ditto the interrogation of the police inspector who comes a-calling afterwards, which Demy plays out in a series of long, lingering three- and four-shots, rendering those scenes mellow and low-key as Jean-Paul sweats out the questions and contradictions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s that combination of lust and dread that makes La Piscine<\/em> seem so ahead of its time; in its sexual candor and casual bloodlust, it plays like the embryo for the erotic thrillers of the \u201880s and \u201890s. But that combo may also be why it plays so well right now: we all thought we were going to have a summer of sex, lounging by the pool, drinking and screwing, and it turns out death is always just around the corner. \u201cLa Piscine\u201d is now playing on the Criterion Channel<\/a> and is available on DVD and Blu-ray<\/a> from the Criterion Collection.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/La-Piscine2-1024x576.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/crookedc-01.svg\")
<\/p>\n\n\n\n