la piscine (spine 1088)

La Piscine
Directed by: Jacques Deray
1969
​Spine #1088

If you’ve ever wanted to experience the apex of movie star glamour merged with sexual chemistry at its most intensely palpable, look no further than the 1969 French thriller La Piscine. From the opening moments - in which Romy Schneider’s glistening, black bikini-clad body emerges from the shimmering depths of the titular swimming pool and she stands seductively over Alain Delon - lounging poolside like a bronzed Adonis - and the camera pans down her sculpted torso as rivulets of water drip off her thighs onto his impassive features - the film enmeshes you in its rapturously erotic grip. It’s a titillating reminder that a movie needn’t indulge in graphic or gratuitous nudity to radiate sensual heat.

Delon and Schneider were one of the reigning power couples of European cinema earlier in their careers… and their on-screen reunion carried a potent spark of anticipation. They play Jean-Paul and Marianne, a consummately chic couple engaged in a sybaritic, sun-dappled existence while on vacation on the French Riviera. Their idyllic routine of mid-afternoon lovemaking is disrupted by the unexpected arrival of their old friend Harry (Maurice Ronet) and his 18-year-old daughter Penelope (Jane Birkin)… who flits enigmatically around the periphery of the villa like a nubile sphinx. Neither friendly nor unfriendly, happy nor unhappy, innocent nor flirtatious, engaged nor bored, she’s an inscrutable wisp of a girl whose presence unsettles the dynamic between Jean-Paul and Marianne for reasons they can’t fully articulate.

There’s no real question, on the other hand, about the prickle of tension that Harry’s presence causes. A onetime lover of Marianne’s, he flirts openly and brazenly with her while taking jocular but pointed jabs at Jean-Paul - both in terms of his sobriety (he used to be a lot more “fun” when he was younger) and the fact that he put his writing career on hold to take an unfulfilling ad agency job. Jean-Paul initially attempts to undercut the alpha male bravado by taking Harry’s beloved Maserati Ghibli sports car for a high-speed spin… but it isn’t until he develops a precarious bond of sorts with Penelope that this particular mixture of chemicals represented by the movie’s main foursome starts to destabilize, then turn dangerously volatile.

La Piscine isn’t a conventional thriller. The film affects a leisurely stance, presenting itself very much like the placid surface of a swimming pool… but director Jacques Deray increases the unspoken tension roiling at the deeper depths, like a screw he keeps systematically tightening a millimeter at a time. Before long the sun’s once blissful rays have turned into a suffocating swelter, and the characters feel increasingly imprisoned, provoking one another in the picturesque villa that was once regarded as an oasis. It’s a rather scathing indictment of the sort of aloof, cosmopolitan attitudes embodied by characters like Jean-Paul and Marianne, who like to act as if they’re above such petty human encumbrances as jealousy and resentment… which, of course, they aren’t. No one is.

Alain Delon resides on the short list of movie stars who feel as if they were engineered in a lab. He’s as handsome as anyone who’s ever graced the big-screen, but he combined his otherworldly good looks with magnetic charisma and that particular brand of icy French menthol-cool - not to mention genuine acting talent. He and Schneider’s real-life history bleeds across the edges into the fictional narrative. Their chemistry has unspoken layers and dimensions to it - to the point that it’s almost jarring when Marianne reveals they’ve only been together for two years. It’s impossible to imagine the movie with a different pair of actors. Even when events come to a head and the film appears to be treading into more conventional territory, Deray keeps his cinematic eye rooted on his two leads. He’s more intrigued by the question of whether lovers as spiritually entwined as Jean-Paul and Marianne can disentangle from one another when their bond is tested. With that in mind, it’s hard to imagine a final shot more unsettling yet devastatingly romantic.