"The Swimming Pool" is not a bad movie nor is it a very good one. Instead, it starts with a reasonably interesting premise and infuses it with almost zero energy and passion. The end result is like a diet of tap water and bread--not especially satisfying.The film starts off horribly. There is a really, really annoying opening song--one of the worst I've heard in fact. Fortunately, the film does get better--it couldn't get any worse! Alain Delon and Romy Schneider are a couple enjoying their time together on vacation. They mostly just lounge around the pool and make love--and considering how beautiful this couple is, I am sure many folks didn't mind this slow portion of the film. It certainly was very sexy.An old lover of Schneider's shows up uninvited (Maurice Ronet) and brings his 18 year-old daughter (Jane Birkin). Instead of maintaining their passion, however, Schneider begins drifting towards her old lover and Delon just looks very bored. Later, Delon begins paying a lot of attention to the 18 year-old--though exactly how deep this relationship goes, you never know. What you do know, though, is that both Delon and Schneider begin to take the other for granted and their relationship suffers badly.While this sounds like there would be a lot of excitement, there isn't--and it's all very strangely muted. Instead of anger, they mostly seemed filled with ennui and self-absorption--making the film very tough to enjoy. Only towards the end are there any--and by then it just seemed too late, as my attention had long since vanished--and it's a shame, as the ending was pretty interesting (at least compared to the rest of the film). Had there been more fireworks along the way and some performances seeming more like normal human reactions, then the film could have been a lot more interesting. Slow and tough to love.

Jacques Deray's psychological drama stops short of being a real thriller by keeping the pace maddeningly slow. Alain Delon and Romy Schneider are well paired as an upper class couple enjoying an idyllic vacation on in the south of France. Their holiday in the sun is interrupted by old friend Maurice Ronet and his young, very odd daughter. Ronet and Delon are old pals and Ronet and Schneider MAY be old lovers...Delon goes slowly mad trying to find out. Complicating things is Jane Birkin as Ronet's bored daughter. What seems like a straightforward triangle blooms into something hellish. LA PISCINE (The Pool) is strikingly photographed, and the principles are all at their peak, however the overall viewing experience is not exactly enjoyable...Deray (a very good director) really mis-steps. The buildup is just too long for the finale to be very satisfying. Still, he gets terrific performances out of the swinging cast and the movie includes one of Michel Legrand's more bearable music scores.

"Sluggish" is the key word here. In the movie's sluggish first hour, director Jacques Deray does little except perfectly capturing the atmosphere of summer heat - the blazing sun, the rippling water of a pool, the sensuousness of the almost-naked bodies....while the characters say things like "I'm going to shave", compete in swimming and go shopping. Because this is also supposed to be a thriller, a murder must eventually come - and it comes after 80 minutes, in an atmospheric and memorable, but also poorly motivated scene. The aftermath of the murder is as sluggish as its preparation. It's really a well-made film, but maybe TOO suggestive - the audience has to fill in too many blanks. Another problem, already pointed out by a previous reviewer, is that Birkin (the young girl that catches Delon's eye) is a lot less attractive than Schneider (the woman he already has by his side) (**1/2)

Maurice Ronet is the usual victim of the perversive Alain Delon. This happened in "A plein Soleil" film (first version of Mr. Ripley) and it happens again in this film. Teenagers like to flirt with different partners, and this is seen in this film, but the fact is that Delon, Ronet and Rommy Schneider are young but not teenagers. A latino macho will never accept the behavior of Rommy Schneider, and will react in the same way as Delon did. Probably the director wanted to mix different feelings to prepare the scene for murdering Ronet once again. Nice to see the beautifulness of Rommy Schneider, all the way wonderful, desirable, simply too sexy. The daughter of Ronet in the film is not so attractive to compete with Schneider, so this was one minus against the director of the film.