Swimming Pool

so going in to watching this one all i knew was that it was sexy, mysterious, and somehow affiliated with the french. going out i feel just about the same way, because swimming pool was good--great even--but also a total head scratcher. what did it all mean?

charlotte rampling was great as a tense, wistful, been-there-so-now-what mystery writer who goes to france to use her boss and editor's manse as escape therapy and theoretical inspiration for her next tome. lo and behold his oversexed daughter julie (ludivine sagnier) shows up and throws her way, way, way off course and deep into a world of sex, intrigue and old love. well, sort of. that's kind of hyper-dramatized. actually, julie is sort of troubled, and both women are sort of lost souls longing for some love and affirmation, and their bond is tentative, only because neither rightfully trusts the other. i love their dynamic, and the way that sarah (rampling) gets julie to open up, and vice versa. and i love how sarah invents a story, and how it seems she really stuns her boss with the finish product.

of course, i don't get the ending. julie? julia?

was it all a dream, was it all fiction? i really enjoyed it, regardless.