Swimming Pool, written and directed by Francois Ozon - 9 out of 10

 

Swimming Pool, written and directed by Francois Ozon

9 out of 10

 

 

Why do you have an entry for this motion picture on goodreads and yet none for Triangle of Sadness http://realini.blogspot.com/2023/01/rutan-by-ruben-ostlund-director-and.html winner of The Palme D’or last year, in 2022, and nominated for Best Motion Picture at the upcoming Oscars, where it has a slim chance to beat Everything, Everywhere All At Once, which looks like the supreme favorite for this and other trophies

 

Everything, Everywhere All At Once looks like it is set to get other Oscars, albeit in my book, it is not really one of the significant films of 2022, I would rather have The Banshees of Inisherin sweep all the categories http://realini.blogspot.com/2023/01/the-banshees-of-inisherin.html - that is the motion picture I see as the best for last year, and one of the most exhilarating, and depressing at the same time, I have seen in a long time

There is also All Quiet on the Western Front http://realini.blogspot.com/2023/02/all-quiet-on-western-front-by-erich.html which has won the BAFTA for Best Motion Picture of 2022, and many other awards, for indeed, it is more than compelling, impressive and invites audiences to reflect on War, the one in Ukraine, started and continued by the Monster in the Kremlin and massacres in general

 

The Quiet Girl http://realini.blogspot.com/2023/02/the-quiet-girl-based-on-foster-by.html is a, well, quieter film, but powerful and compelling nonetheless, the story of a girl that has to go to foster parents, only to find there the love and affection that is missing in her own, dysfunctional family is heart breaking

Just as sad is EO https://notesaboutfilms.blogspot.com/2023/03/one-of-best-film-of-2022-oscar.html where for the most part, we are again emotionally distressed, this time on account of a…Donkey, named EO, I have realized after seeing the movie that the name must have been connected to the excruciating sound that the animal was making, as it is separated from his friend, early on, as they dismantle a circus…

 

Then the ordeal continues, for the poor beast lands in various unfortunate circumstances, including in one where savage humans kill animals, foxes and other, for their fur, and in this instance, we also have a very sad portion of humor, for EO manages to kick one of those fellow humans and the fellow is flat on the ground.

As a consequence however, the donkey is sent with other creatures on a lorry, to be turned into salami…the public has to think of the torture we inflict on poor beasts, many billions are killed each year, and furthermore, they are made to live through hell, in order to end up on our plates and be eaten…

 

Yuval Harari http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/homo-deus-brief-history-of-tomorrow-by.html in his magnificent Homo Deus, A Brief History of Tomorrow and in hi other works writes about this issue, and it is one of the calamities that plague our ‘civilization’, this barbarity, atrocity, which besides, helps to destroy the planet, for a large part of the land mass is dedicated to the food for cattle and other creatures, that contribute in huge amounts to the Climate Change Effect, the destruction of Earth, possibly

Coming back for a little bit to Swimming Pool, the main character is Sarah Morton, played with panache, finesse, noblesse by Charlotte Rampling – one of the best actors in the world, she has filmed in this realm An Unforgettable Summer http://realini.blogspot.com/2021/06/78-out-of-100-for-unforgettable-summer.html - we have a writer of policiers, detective novels that comes for holiday in France.

 

Her publisher has a splendid villa with a Swimming Pool, and Sarah Morton is looking forward to finding inspiration and relation in this astonishing corner of the world: what beauty, peace and serenity we think we might, nay, must accept, seeing the garden, flowers, and all the surroundings that look like heaven.

That notwithstanding, we have an arrival that will change the course of events – Julie, portrayed with immense talent by Ludivine Sagnier, is supposed to be the daughter of the publisher, only she might not be, spoiler alert, I am not sure how much of the story ‘happened’ and what is imagined by the author…

 

It could well be that I did not pay enough attention (which I did not, as it happens these days, with the phone at hand, I was also looking at the same time at articles in Variety, who is likely to win the Oscars, and some interesting revelation yesterday…Julia Roberts was supposed to be the star of Shakespeare in Love, indeed, the studio (Warner maybe) had in fact spent some five million, on the assumption that she will be taking the leading role…they went to London, where she was sure Daniel Day Lewis will be her partner, because he is so handsome, amusing, and she sent him a dozen roses saying ‘Be My Romeo’…

Alas, the Magister Ludi could not do it, for he had been engaged fro In The Name of The Father (like all his movies, a tremendous achievement) and thus Julia Roberts neglected Fiennes and the other actors that have been invited to participate for the casting, among them Hugh Grant, Colin Firth and others, not famous at the time, but some of the biggest names in the industry, one winner of the Oscar…

 

Julia Roberts was not prepared at the casting, she had not worked on the accent, and then rejected the potential partners and eventually, when they look for her one day, she had departed…as for the Swimming Pool, one murder is committed, or maybe it is just imagined, I am not sure http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/unique-in-world.html?q=unique+in+the+world