Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Truly Dreadful Film

Surprisingly incoherent and boring

Good start, but then it gets ruined

Young and beautiful Delon and Schneider are Marianne and Jean-Paul, a wealthy couple spending a torrid summer in a borrowed villa. They are lovers and cannot keep their hands off each other. The sex card is played from the start as the only motivation of their otherwise vacuous lives. However, apart from the sex, they do not seem to have much to do or say to each other. Their common friend Harry happens to be in the neighborhood and they invite him over, with his pubescent daughter Penelope (played by Birkin, who was well over twenty at the time, but definitely looking younger).The arrival of the second couple adds considerable sexual tension. Harry and Marianne were lovers and Jean-Paul is jealous. Marianne acts ambiguously, flirting with Harry. Jean-Paul toys with Penelope, creating a stifling, sexually-charged atmosphere, in the lazy summer days. For a while nothing much happens, apart from the couples enjoying the pool of the title and inviting friends for a party.However, the tension reaches melting point. Besides having a sadistic streak, Jean-Paul turns out to be a cold-blooded murderer, drowning Harry for reasons difficult to understand. The murder passes off as an accident, but Marianne is suspicious, She finds out the truth and considers leaving Jean-Paul, but the final frame shows them together. We can assume that sexual attraction is stronger than any moral instinct and that they will continue their frolic - at least until the passion lasts.Very voyeuristic movie, with a Schneider at the top of her game, seductive yet fragile and very beautiful. Delon, wooden as usual, still manages decent interpretation. Birkin is terrible, could not act.The 2015 remake "A bigger splash" is vastly inferior, from the choice of cast to the plot development. Swinton is a far cry from luminous Schneider, having only a fraction of her allure. Johnson is as bad as Birkin and less believable as a teenager. Only Fiennes makes a more engaging Harry, fleshing out a part than in this movie is more ambiguous.

Talking to my dad about planning to watch one French film a day over the next few months,I was happily caught by surprise,when he revealed that he had picked one up for me.Recently catching a glimpse of her in the superb Purple Noon,I decided that it was the perfect time to pay Romy Schneider a visit at her villa.The plot:Deciding to go on holiday,lovers Jean-Paul and Marianne choose to spend their time at a villa.Diving into the swimming pool,the couple pass the time by with sun bathing and swimming.Letting each other's guard down,Jean-Paul is taken aback,when Marianne's invites her old lover Harry and his teenage daughter to the villa.Seeing Harry reveal his wooing charms,Jean-Paul begins to think about taking drastic measures in order to save his relationship.View on the film:Backed by a sizzling score from Michel Legrand,co-writer/(along with Jean-Claude Carrière and Alain Page) director Jacques Deray & cinematographer Jean-Jacques Tarbès swagger round the villa like dapper dressed lounge lizards,where every corner of the villa is presented in an immaculate manner,that colour coordinate everything from the clothes to the wall paper. Plunging Jean-Paul and Marianne's relationship under the water,Deray splashes the outdoor of the villa with vibrant yellows which subtly keeps the disintegration crumbling away behind closed doors.Hanging round the pool with everyone,the screenplay by Deray/Page and Carrière gives the domestic Drama a playfully dark comedic chop,lit up by Jean-Paul trying to get a grip on why Harry and his daughter have been invited.Hitting the movie with a dark twist,the writers block the ending from landing at full force,by presenting all 4 characters in a detached manner which stops any menacing atmosphere being fanned across the title.Stepping out of the swimming pool looking ravishingly beautiful, Romy Schneider (who beat first choice Angie Dickinson) gives a very good performance as Marianne,via Schneider delicately crossing a free- spirit nature with a brittleness over the relationship falling from her hands. Joining his real life ex-girlfriend, Alain Delon gives a great performance as Jean-Paul,thanks to Delon injecting Jean-Paul with a heartfelt fragility,as Jean-Paul sees his hopes and loves fall to the bottom of the pool.

This film about surface and inner passion (derangement, fear, etc...obviously symbolized by the pool) is a pleasure, mostly through the performances of Alain Delon and Romy Schneider. Most of the plot lies under the surface and there are many scenes where one must read between the lines to understand where everything will lead to. Okay, the film could have been a bit shorter, but the actors in my opinion really make up for it. We've seen everything now in the movies - but still, the opening sequence is one of the hottest scenes ever filmed. I cannot explain, see it yourself.

A writer and his girlfriend spend their virtually happy holiday in a villa on the French Riviera, but with the arrival of their old friend and his young daughter various psychological games begin.Effective, if derivative psycho-drama of surface calm and overheated passions beneath, with echoes of "Plein Soleil", "Knife in the Water", etc. Good performances and generally skillful handling.