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The Criterion Channel Presents: La Piscine (1969)

From the very first scene of La Piscine I observed that it looked like what a Luca Guadagnino movie would be in the 1960s. And sure enough, it was apparently a major influence on the modern master of lush sensuality -enough so at least to be loosely remade in his 2016 film A Bigger Splash. But one can see why it left such an impression, an incredibly heated (in more than one way) sexually driven thriller set against the most gorgeous backdrop of the south of France seen in any movie, certainly of that era -possibly ever. It didn’t quite belong to the strand of the more ambitious, intellectual movies of the French New Wave, rather it is a movie supported by a ripple of tension and the mere vibes of its setting and emotions.
Alain Delon stars as Jean-Paul with Romy Schneider as his girlfriend Marianne, vacationing together at a villa in Saint-Tropez, spending most of their time frolicking or making love by the luxurious swimming pool. Their secluded bliss is interrupted though by the arrival of his old friend and her ex Harry (Maurice Ronet) and his previously unspoken-of daughter Penelope (Jane Birkin). Their reconnecting and socializing is eventually coloured by the appearance of Harry’s lingering feelings for Marianne and insinuations of an attraction by Jean-Paul towards Penelope.
This is one of the most purely sultry movies I have ever seen -the heat and beauty of the exotic locale matched by the heat and beauty with which director Jacques Deray shoots his actors, Schneider in particular. Both she and Delon, always hanging around the pool, spend a majority of the movie nearly nude in their swimwear, hands all over each other in multiple sequences. And it's not just the sexual insatiability itself but the tenor of it, Marianne being turned on by conflict -there's a light streak of playful masochism to their relationship, their chemistry no doubt bolstered by Delon and Schneider's real romance, which despite having ended before filming, still inspired considerable passion. Delon, in a way, found himself playing Harry during production, as he attempted to reignite it.
Eroticism drips off the movie like the water droplets on the accentuated bodies, and it fuels the underlying sense of tension. Deray clearly made the film for a male audience, not just through his luxurious shots of Schneider but through his clear attempt to cut into a perceived primacy of male heterosexuality -emphasizing the allure of Marianne's body as mere captivating token for both his male leads, and to a lesser degree doing the same with Penelope's youth on Jean-Paul. But if the movie were just this trashy spectacle of skirt-chasing, it might be amusing but not particularly good. The key interesting facet is the subtlety with which he plays it -Harry never directly propositions Marianne and by that virtue neither does Jean-Paul seduce Penelope, although she does come on to him -seemingly out of the emotional distance and resentment she feels for her own father.
For most of the movie then, the sexual battle is left purely psychological -until it is forced to the surface in violence. Perhaps unawares, but Deray is studying a side of toxic masculinity here -and I'm sure that is some of what appealed to a filmmaker like Guadagnino. But though Delon is quite good, it shouldn't be assumed the women are mere vessels for the men -much as the script and Deray's camera may suggest so at times. Indeed it is Schneider's charisma that is another part of what is attractive about her. Her off-camera career history with the record producer Harry is a potent point amidst exposition that otherwise couldn't matter less. She is intuitive, and very spirited initially -a distinct contrast from where she is at the end. Birkin is also a stand-out, for the scenes that hone in on her mystery and mood.
Though Jean-Paul is suggested to be relatively modest, the film can't help but bathe in the wealth of his and his companions’ environment and habits. Each morning one brings the other breakfast in bed -multiple courses on fine china- laying it down precariously close to where the waking partner is poised to upset it. Harry owns a luxury car that Jean-Paul is eager to drive, they socialize with other elite vacationers, and of course spend so much time at that exquisite pool. Pristine evocative imagery is everywhere, the cinematography by Jean-Jacques Tarbès so deep and tangible -and all of it just as reflective of desire as the people. Yet once the crime comes into it, it gradually looks less sunny, less perfect. In the end it is positively dim -obviously so, but the visual symbolism is still potent. On the relationship between Jean-Paul and Marianne, I don't know that Deray made the right choice, but at the end of La Piscine, when everything else has changed between them, it is right that the pool is drained.

Criterion Recommendation: Decision to Leave (2022)
It remains appalling, as I noted a couple years ago, that Park Chan-wook has still seen none of his movies added to the Criterion Collection. And while Oldboy or The Handmaiden are probably the more obvious choices for inclusion, perhaps my favourite Park movie and a severely underrated one since it released is Decision to Leave -his masterful Hitchcockian thriller of desire and obsession. Starring Park Hae-il as the detective heading up a murder investigation where he becomes transfixed with the widow and potential suspect played by Tang Wei, who in turn flips the tables on him in a daring kind of cat-and-mouse romance, it was the movie that won Park the Best Director award at Cannes. And it is a mesmerizing movie, visually exquisite and technically original and stupendously suspenseful as it plumes the extremes of enigmatic desire with as much intensity as Oldboy did with vengeance. Vertigo pushed to eleven! Decision to Leave was grossly overlooked in 2022, got a limited release before streaming exclusively on MUBI. In light of this, it is the kind of movie that would be particularly cool to see Criterion adopt, before or when they finally get around to noticing Park's filmography.

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