Capital Celluloid 2018 - Day 242: Sun Sep 9

La Piscine (Dertay, 1969): Cine Lumiere, 4pm


This screening is part of the Scalarama London season this year. You can find details of all the events in the capital during September here. The film is also part of the 'Stolen Summers' strand in Scalarama, the full list of films for which you can find by clicking here.

The film will be preceded by François Ozon’s short film A Summer Dress (Une robe d’été), 15 mins (cert. 15) and the afternoon will be introduced by Marion Hallet, PhD Candidate in Film Studies at King’s College London.

Guardian review:
Erotic languour turns gradually into fear and then horror in this gripping and superbly controlled psychological thriller from 1969, now on rerelease. 
Alain Delon
 and Romy Schneider play Jean-Paul and Marianne, lovers who appear to be gloriously happy in a sumptuous villa in the south of France: but more reflective moments reveal them both to be anxious and unfulfilled. Then Marianne's ex-lover shows up for a visit: breezy record producer Harry (Maurice Ronet) who makes no secret of his continued desire for Marianne. Meanwhile, Jean-Paul is fascinated by Penelope, the sexy teenage daughter Harry has brought along. The pool itself is the centre for all sorts of sensuality and something in the very lineaments of the pool itself creates their own awful destiny: it is a primordial swamp of desire, a space in which there is nothing to do but laze around, furtively looking at semi-naked bodies.
Peter Bradshaw


Here (and above) is the trailer.

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