Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		2.5
Audio		5.0
Extras		3.5
Overall		2.5

La Piscine Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov July 1, 2021

Jacques Deray's "La piscine" a.k.a. "The Swimming Pool" (1969) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion. The supplemental features on the disc include vintage trailers for the film; new video interview with scholar Nick Rees-Roberts; English-language version of the film; and more. In French, with optional English subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".

Jean-Paul (Alain Delon, L' Eclisse, Un Flic) and Marianne (Romy Schneider, L' important c'est d'aimer, Le trio infernal) are on vacation in beautiful St. Tropez. They are residing in a luxurious villa with a large private pool perched on a hill overlooking the ocean. Jean-Paul loves the area. He hopes that one day he and Marianne can afford to have a similar place which they can call home.

Marianne’s ex-lover, Harry (Maurice Ronet, Elevator to the Gallows, The Bitch Wants Blood), who is in the area, phones and asks if he could stop by and see her. He is also an old friend of Jean-Paul, who has not seen him in years. Marianne immediately invites Harry and tells Jean-Paul that they are expecting a very special guest.

A few hours later, Harry arrives in the villa with his daughter Penelope (Jane Birkin, Je Taime Moi Non Plus, Slogan), a beautiful eighteen-year-old girl, who immediately catches Jean-Paul’s interest. After a few drinks, Marianne asks Harry if he would be interested in staying for a couple of days before he heads back to Milan. At first, Harry is unsure, but Marianne insists and he agrees.

Jean-Paul begins to flirt with Penelope. At first, she is unsure how to react, but then her curiosity leads her straight into Jean-Paul’s hands. Marianne begins suspecting that there might be something going on between the two. Meanwhile, Harry and Jean-Paul get drunk and fight. Shortly after, a dead body is discovered in the large private pool.

Delon and Schneider reunited on the set of La piscine in 1969, after their highly publicized breakup in 1964. Jacques Deray and Jean-Claude Carrière’s adaptation of Jean-Emmanuel Conil’s screenplay seemed like the perfect opportunity for the former lovers to appear once again in front of the camera. They did, and the press loved it.

La piscine is about a classic foursome affair with all sorts of predictable twists that should not surprise those of you familiar with the films of French director Claude Chabrol. Temptation, jealousy and murder are the three key themes in it, and they are blended into what could best be described as crime melodrama.

The first half of La piscine is the better one. It is deliciously elegant -- with some truly beautiful panoramic vistas from St. Tropez -- and fresh. The subversive elements from the second half of the film are nowhere to be found and, for the most part, the dialog is convincing. Delon’s flirtations with the young Birkin in particular are very entertaining.

The second half has a darker, more intense tone. Director Deray focuses on the main protagonists’ inability to control their emotions and consequently the murder case, which changes the entire complexion of the narrative. The dialog, especially on the English version of La piscine, is also notably rougher.

I cannot imagine too many people enjoying this film without being at least partially fascinated with Delon and Schneider. There is a very subtle sense of nostalgia the film evokes that brings back memories of a time when movie stars were truly beautiful and elegant. Naturally, the story is practically unimportant because the film simply celebrates an era and two iconic European actors who were an inseparable part of it.

La Piscine Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.66:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, La Piscine arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion.

The following text appears inside the leaflet that is provided with this Blu-ray release:

"This new 4K restoration was undertaken by the Societe Nouvelle de Cinematographie with the support of the CNC at Laboratoire Daems in Paris and Hiventy in Joinville-le-Pont, France, from the 35mm original camera negative and 35mm magnetic tracks.

Restoration supervision: FILMO Patrimony Department."

We have reviewed two other releases of La Piscine that were produced a decade ago. The first was from French label M6, while the second was produced by British label Park Circus. At the moment, I have only the second release in my library. This upcoming release is sourced from a recent 4K restoration that was finalized in France via Hiventy. I am not at all impressed with the makeover, but there are different reasons for my disappointment.

First, the good news. The entire film looks very healthy. Also, it is immediately obvious that now the visuals have a degree of freshness that ought to be very attractive. (It is not, and I will explain why below). The density levels are strong, but I think that the previous presentation is very nice as well. Plenty of primary colors look vibrant, as they should. Contrast is proper as well.

Now, the bad news. This is yet another French restoration project with pretty wild 'new' color values that create all sorts of different problems. One of them is the suppression of blues/blue nuances in favor of green(ish)/yellow(ish) values that make large portions of the film look seriously artificial. Another is the destabilization of the native dynamic range of the visuals, which is a very common anomaly on these types of 'restorations'. For example, in many darker areas nuances are either flattened or crushed, which is why depth can be very unconvincing. On top of this, virtually all of the nighttime footage breaks down because of massive macroblocking, which makes the awkward dynamic range of the visuals even more problematic. (You can see examples in screencaptures #17, 18, 20, 21, 23). On my system, the effect was so bad that I could not minimize it even after I tweaked various settings. Why is this happening? Judging by the way the grain moves around while it should be extremely tight and even, I think that part of the problem was introduced by the encoder. However, the awful blocks of gray that emerge and make the visuals appear digitized are definitely on the new master. In other words, the problematic color-grading creates new problems and exacerbates existing ones. (You can easily recognize the effect even in close-ups, because instead of plenty of healthy nuances and finer details there are flat blacks and grays. See screencaptures #15 and 23). All in all, I think that the restoration and its technical presentation are seriously underwhelming. (Note: This is a Region-A "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-A or Region-Free player in order to access its content).

La Piscine Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: French LPCM 1.0. Optional English subtitles are provided for the main feature.

The lossless track is excellent. I did some comparisons with the lossless track from the Park Circus release and thought that clarity and roundness were clearly a tad better. Dynamic intensity is good as well, though I don't think that there is a significant upgrade. There are no audio dropouts, pops, or other similar anomalies to report.

La Piscine Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailers - two vintage trailers.
  
  1. French trailer
  2. English trailer

• Fifty Years Later - this recent documentary takes a closer look at the production history of La Piscine. It features interviews with Alain Delon, Jane Birkin, screenwriter Jean-Claude Carrierre, and novelist Jean-Emmanuel Conil, amongst others. The documentary was produced by Agnes Vincent-Deray, widow of director Jacques Deray in 2019. In French, with optional English subtitles. (28 min).

• The Swimming Pool: "First Love Never Dies" - presented here is the slightly shorter English-language version of the film, which was released internationally in 1969. In English, not subtitled. (119 min, English Dolby Digital 1.0/1080p).

• Undressing a Legacy - in this new video interview, scholar Nick Rees-Roberts discusses La Piscine and its influence on fashion. The interview was conduced in 2021. (20 min, 1080p).

• '68-'69: Delon, Schneider & Co. - a collection of archival production and promotional footage with Alain Delon, Romy Schneider, Jane Birkin, Maurice Ronet, and Jacques Deray. With optional English subtitles, where necessary. (16 min, 1080p).
  
  1. At the Airport
  2. On Set
  3. Maurice Ronet and Jacques Deray
  4. Romy Schneider

• Leaflet - featuring an essay by film critic Jessica Kiang as well as technical credits.

La Piscine Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

All the evidence you would need to conclude that Alain Delon and Romy Schneider were a magnificent couple is in this lovely little film directed by Jacques Deray. It was a predictably huge hit in Europe and actually turned out to be quite influential. (For what it's worth, I much prefer the other very fashionable but more decadent film that Radley Metzger directed at the same time, Camille 2000, with Nino Castelnuovo and Danièle Gaubert). This upcoming release of La Piscine is sourced from a recent 4K restoration that was completed in France. I think that the restoration and its technical presentation are quite unconvincing. If you absolutely have to have the release in your collection, consider picking it up only when it goes on sale.