#24
Post
by britcom68 » Mon Aug 16, 2021 1:14 pm
So after finishing the special feature-interviews and finally watching both the English-language and non-English language version of this film, I felt the need to post to see what others felt about the issues this film has.
Firstly, I do feel the film is as others have said before here that this is good and re-watchable but perhaps not Earth-shattering in of itself. I can understand how this film may have an aesthetic legacy, but then again, if this repairing of Romy Schneider -Alain Delon-Maurice Ronet had not taken place, then such laudatory remarks about the legacy of this film’s Riviera sun-drenched style would go rather to their earlier outing in Plein Solei where such remarks are deserved instead.
Before I watched the interviews for Criterion’s supplements, I was already wanting to read up more as I felt unfulfilled by my first viewing of La Piscine. I had not seen La Piscine before watching Ozon’s own “Swimming Pool,” the aforementioned “Plein Solei” or even been able to watch La Piscine right after watching those films for the first time many years ago. I am struck that Ozon did improve in some ways, but in only very specific ways on Derary’s film, but they are so subtle as almost not worth mentioning.
The only single aspect of La Piscine that I wish the supplements had discussed and to which I am trying to look up online (but my French is rusty so translating articles myself is not advisable) is whether or not the unpublished novella to which La Piscine had been based on had clarified if Delon’s character already previously encountered “Penelope” before her existence was made known to him as the daughter of Ronnet’s character. In both the English and non-English language film versions, Delon’s character is shown to be inside the house when Jane Birkin arrives with Ronnet’s character outside and that is the first time Penelope’s name is first spoken onscreen (and spoken too softly by Ronnet to boot, so that Delon’s character could not possibly have heard him from where he was inside the house). At no time does “Marianne” or Ronet’s character onscreen tell Delon’s character the name of Ronet’s daughter but Delon knows it and states it when first introduced to her. If it is an unintended error of continuity, well, these things do happen. But such a complication would be a more welcomed motivation for the murder of Ronet’s character (sleeping with the daughter of one’s friend once is bad enough but more than once is almost reason enough to get into a fatal argument). I prefer to live in hope that this was done subtly as to introduce just a possibility that perhaps Delon’s character and Birkin’s character already had met somewhere or even hooked up previously. Of course speculation like this will irritate many, but it is interesting to consider the possible interpretation since this film lives in an atmosphere carefully crafted by Jean-Claude Carriere to be as dialog minimal as possible. Rather like Janet Leigh’s character in Frankenheimer’s “Manchurian Candidate,” there is an enjoyable awkwardness between the female characters and their perspective partners in La Piscine, and this reaction heavy-handedness can help in some scenes, but also grate in others.
As for the sexual politicking of this aspect of the film, it is a bit like in Mart Crowley’s “Boys in the Band” (both the stage production and the original film adaptation) in the casualness which two specific characters had hooked up with each other before the plot even begins, but presented as hooking up only for the sex and that such actions are already a part of their identity and did not change or impact their characters in any discernable way but still could have been blown out of proportion by their new partners had the partners chosen to do so. In La Piscine, the improvement on that scenario is the prior relationship between Romy and Ronet is neve defined clearly enough to judge if it was only a sexual relationship and, for that matter, how their relationship ended is given almost no discussion. The reaction Romy has to learning that Ronnet’s character even had a daughter and did not tell her during their own time together is echoed by Ozon’s film perhaps more realistically. However, it is the curious reaction by Romy to first learning about the daughter’s existence in La Piscine that helps prepare the viewer to focus on the abundance of reaction shots in place of clarifying dialog (both useful and irritating depending on which moments in La Piscine one wants to give weight to).
Had Delon’s character previously met or even hooked-up with Birkin’s character, this would explain the sharp gestures and glances that they have right upon arrival at the villa and in the yellow chairs after where Delon asks Penelope her age. It also bothered me also that Birkin’s character, upon arrival at the villa,, looks away from “Marianne” and glances around the villa and then stares at Delon when he enters frame. “Penelope” is presented as having a stable home with her biological mother and is upset about Ronet’s very psyche and actions towards her and is fully aware of Ronet and Romy’s characters’ past relationship and Birkin is even shown reading some sort of paperback murder-mystery, so one would imagine her character would more realistically want to scrutinize “Marianne” closely upon arrival to prove or disprove any hypothesis rather than glance and walk away immediately upon their first introductions.
The final other curious moment of La Piscine which is given no discussion in the film itself or in the supplements starts at 31.28 (in the non-English language version) where Delon is shown on the white couch watching TV from a small portable white set while wearing a mostly white shirt and black pants. We do not even see his clothing at first as he is framed cropped from the neck down by the TV itself. This to me is an allusion to a similar moment in The Graduate, when Dustin Hoffman is similarly framed during the “Sound of Silence/April Come She Will” montage. Since none of the interviews in Criterion’s supplements discussed this coincidental moment, I will choose for myself whether it was intended or not, but since this particular framing in La Piscine comes right up after Delon’s character speaking to Ronet but his unfulfilling career as they sit in an Italian sports car, I will choose to consider it a sly play by Deray to intentionally echo The Graduate. (I hope no one tries to question the allusion since it would be nice to think that Deray was trying to ape not only Hitchcock in this film but rather other filmmakers too).
The biggest difference between the editing of the English and non-English language would seem to me not the actual ending but starting at 24.26 in the non-English version (the morning after the arrival of Ronet and Birkin). I found it odd that in the supplements they talk about the biggest difference being the ending for the US audiences (the cut is labeled as the Spanish ending on the supplements) but while the final scene can actually play with or without any added tension of the police arrival in their van, the tension leading up to the actual death itself is not only more crucial to show but more interesting. In the non-English version, a curious little scene where Ronet woofs down coffee and toast and then appropriates the breakfast tray from Delon before Delon’s character even eats anything to eat, and then states he is going to wake up Marianne creates a tension that can play as both weirdly almost comedic (the character of Harry is presented as a jokester) but also gives palpable tension in the air for Delon’s character. After all, even though Romy and Delon’s characters are not married or even engaged, they are shown to be in love with each other and who would allow or want to sit idly by and watch the lover’s ex-boyfriend go wake up their nude girlfriend in her own bed and bring breakfast and coffee in the process? Again, a very subtle use of curious actions by Ronet’s character without any dialog to clarify why he feels he can do this, but with a generous close-up showing Delon’s reaction which makes the viewer fully cognizant he is not pleased by the turn of events. Why the English-language cut that feels more to do with pacing rather than censorship since by 1971 the US was using the ratings system rather than overt codes to enforce cuts, but it is another example of building the tension from reactions that is much more needed than actually showing the police van arriving in the final moments. And if you want a slow-build approach to two characters circling each other over a crime while in a stylish venue, Norman Jewison’s “Thomas Crowne Affair” still sets a bar of this particular era in time post-Hitchcock’s prime.
All in all, for me La Piscine feels all the better for not taking the Hitchcock approach to having a score underlying the actions, but the intended dialog-minimalizations (as stated by Carriere in the documentary) at times leaves almost too much to the imagination and ultimately the payoff is not delivered. Then again, Ozon’s own film has a similar issue in that we are not entirely sure ultimately how much of the personal and dialog of Charles Dance’s publisher-character is real or imagined by Rampling’s character which calls into question the very titular character and those around it. A more rewarding ending for Ozon’s feature would have been along the lines of “Three Days of Condor” where the viewer is let in to know all has been written down and turned in but left helpless wondering if it will be published or not. In Ozon’s ending the viewer knows “Sarah Morton” has had her work published but is instead left frustratedly wondering what exactly was and was not written into her book as (now) published.
Deray’s first major foray into making a more mystery-based film does have moments to enjoy, but ultimately the balance of not knowing more about the characters left me feeling that any psycho-sexual analysis of this film will get you no further than trying to approach this film just as a murder-film and view it within that light. La Piscine may be a film that just barely comes together and will work just fine – provided you have not already seen “Purple Noon,” Ozon’s “Swimming Pool, “ The Graduate, or even the following-in-Graduate’s footsteps Frank Perry’s “The Swimmer.” If you want a Riviera-set “whodunit” that also has some sarcasm there is always “The Last of Shelia” but La Piscine fails as a who-did-it as well as fails a procedural study of the aftermath/investigation or look at why the death occurred.