Independent British distributors Park Circus have announced that they will release on Blu-ray Jacques Deray's classic La piscine a.k.a The Swimming Pool, starring Alain Delon, Romy Schneider, Jane Birkin, and Maurice Ronet. Street date is November 28th.
La piscine is set in a magnificent villa near St. Tropez, where its protagonists Jean-Paul (Alain Delon) and Marianne (Romy Schneider) are spending a happy, lazy summer holiday. Their only concern is to gratify their mutual passion - until the day when Marianne invites her former lover Harry (Maurice Ronet) and his beautiful daughter Penelope (Jane Birkin) to spend a few days with them. From the first moment, a certain uneasiness and tension begin to develop between the four. In an apparently calm environment, a crisis eventually develops, in which these four oddly-related, intelligent people with their respective strengths and weaknesses, will be caught in their own game.
Cinematographer Jean-Jacques Tarbès allows the camera to linger on Delon and Schneider, soaking up the Mediterranean sun, whereas three-times Academy Award-winning composer, conductor and pianist Michel Legrand's music illustrates the changing mood in the film. With original scenario written by Jean-Emmanuel Conil and adaptation/dialogue by screenwriter/actor Jean-Claude Carrière and director Jacques Deray, the slow-burning, sensual thriller is ready to be rediscovered this Autumn.
Newly restored by SND Films, La piscine will also be back in cinemas across the UK from 30 September 2011.
Blu-ray.com has already reviewed the French Blu-ray release of La piscine, courtesy of M6 Video, here.