Swimming Pool
Release Date:
July 2, 2003
Limited release
French director François Ozon has been steadily gaining a following in the United States, having a minor breakthrough in 2001 with Under the Sand, starring Charlotte Rampling, and then adding to that in 2002 with 8 Women, which featured Ludivine Sagnier among its ensemble cast. In Ozon’s first film primarily in English, he brings Rampling and Sagnier together. Rampling plays an uptight mystery writer hoping to spend a quiet vacation at her publisher’s chateau. Her solitude is interrupted by the appearance of the publisher’s young and sexually adventurous daughter (Sagnier).
For a while it seems like a sexier odd couple, as the uptight older woman clashes with the younger rebellious daughter, but the author becomes somewhat intrigued with the wild life and begins to co-opt some of the behavior she witnesses into her new book. When a possible murder occurs, the innocent eaves-dropping grows more serious as the world of the author’s murder mysteries collides with real life.
The absence of subtitles certainly will help Ozon’s latest be more appealing to American audiences, who generally don’t like to read at the movies. The presence of the gorgeous Sagnier won’t hurt matters either. Swimming Pool could represent Ozon’s big breakthrough in the U.S.
Comparison films for Swimming Pool |
Title |
Date |
Opening |
Adjusted Opening |
Screens |
PSA |
Adj PSA |
Total BO |
Adjusted Total |
Mult |
8 Women |
9/20/02 | 0.14 |
0.14 |
9 |
9829.00 |
9829.0 |
3.08 |
3.20 |
20.36 |
|
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