La piscine

Four people meet around a swimming pool at a luxury villa in Saint-Tropez. Lovers Marianne (Romy Schneider) and Jean-Paul (Alain Delon) are visited by Marianne's ex-lover Harry and his young, attractive daughter Penelope (Jane Birkin). Things soon start to fall apart when Penelope attracts Jean-Paul’s lustful gaze.

In this sultry thriller, Alain Delon and Romy Schneider circle one another, as Jane Birkin lurks in the background. The atmosphere starts off light, languid and pleasant, but soon becomes oppressive. The men and women are caught up in a darkly erotic waltz, driven by base motives. The moves played out on this chessboard of relationships are unpredictable, the mood highly charged.

Seductive innocence

La piscine not only reunites Alain Delon with his former love Schneider, but also with actor Maurice Ronet, his co-star in the Patricia Highsmith adaptation Plein soleil. Romy Schneider is in top form as a striking character more than capable of dominating the men in her orbit. Jane Birkin, in her first major French-language role, is the archetype of corrupted, seductive innocence.

Clinical precision

Director Jacques Deray pares away the protective skins of his characters with clinical precision, exposing illusions, secrets and memories. He needs little text for this, stalking the actors with a camera that creeps up and spies on them in slow, fluid movements like a fifth character.