Summer Classics

La Piscine (The Swimming Pool) is a 1969 Italian-French film directed by Jacques Deray.

It is set in a villa with a pool in August at the Côte d'Azur. Alain Delon, Romy Schneider, Maurice Ronet and Jane Birkin get emotionally and erotically entangled. The film is not to be mistaken with another, later film with the similar title Swimming Pool.

A couple, Jean-Paul (a writer) and Marianne (a journalist), are having a seemingly lazy and idyllic holiday at a villa on Saint-Tropez heights in Southern France. Harry, an old friend and record producer, arrives for a visit, surprising the couple by bringing his 18 year-old daughter Penelope (of whom they had not heard until now). Jean-Paul is instantly attracted to Penelope, while Marianne and Harry look to be rekindling their old romance.

After several days of slowly intensifying emotions, arguments, and excessive alcohol consumption, and while Marianne and Penelope are asleep, Jean-Paul deliberately drowns an equally drunk Harry in the pool, and then covers up the murder. After the funeral, a detective investigates the so-called accident, leading Marianne to realise that Jean-Paul murdered her former lover.

Marianne does not turn Jean-Paul over to the police but also wants nothing more to do with him, claiming she does not know who he is any more. However, her cold fury reignites his passion for her, which in turn weakens her resolve, and the couple stay at the villa, staring out at the pool.

source:wikipedia