La piscine

La piscine

Directed by Jacques Deray • 1969 • France
Starring Alain Delon, Romy Schneider, Maurice Ronet

The bright sun of the French Riviera is deceptive in this alluring work of slow-burn suspense from thriller specialist Jacques Deray and legendary screenwriter Jean-Claude Carrière. Formerly one of European cinema’s most iconic real-life couples, Alain Delon and Romy Schneider reunited for this film, bringing a palpable erotic chemistry to their performances as the bronzed and beautiful vacationers whose summer holiday on the Côte d’Azur is interrupted by the arrival of an old acquaintance (Maurice Ronet) and his eighteen-year-old daughter (Jane Birkin)—unleashing a gathering wave of sexual tension, jealousy, and sudden violence. A paragon of 1960s modernist cool thanks to effortlessly chic clothes and a loungy Michel Legrand score, LA PISCINE dives deep to reveal sinister undercurrents roiling beneath its seductive surfaces.

La piscine
  • La piscine

    Directed by Jacques Deray • 1969 • France
    Starring Alain Delon, Romy Schneider, Maurice Ronet

    The bright sun of the French Riviera is deceptive in this alluring work of slow-burn suspense from thriller specialist Jacques Deray and legendary screenwriter Jean-Claude Carrière. Formerly one of Euro...

Extras

  • The Swimming Pool: “First Love Never Dies”

    Taking advantage of its four lead actors’ multilingual abilities, LA PISCINE was shot simultaneously in French and English near Saint-Tropez, France, from August to October 1968. Presented here is the slightly shorter English-language version of the film, THE SWIMMING POOL: “FIRST LOVE NEVER DIES...

  • LA PISCINE Fifty Years Later

    Agnès Vincent-Deray, the widow of director Jacques Deray, made this short documentary on the production of LA PISCINE in 2019, on the occasion of that film’s fiftieth anniversary. It features interviews with actors Alain Delon and Jane Birkin as well as screenwriter Jean-Claude Carrière and Jean-...

  • LA PISCINE Spanish Ending

    Director Jacques Deray and his producers added the brief final shot presented here to LA PISCINE upon its release in Spain in 1969, to appease Franco-era censors upset by its morally ambiguous original ending. The same shot also concludes the English-language version of the film.

  • Undressing a Legacy

    In this interview, conducted in spring 2021, scholar Nick Rees-Roberts traces the influence of LA PISCINE on the worlds of film and fashion in the half century since its release.

  • Jane Birkin, Alain Delon, Romy Schneider, and co. on LA PISCINE

    LA PISCINE was one of the biggest art-house and commercial successes of 1969, due in part to the on-screen reunion of the former lovers Alain Delon and Romy Schneider. This selection of archival production and promotional footage features Delon, Schneider, actors Jane Birkin and Maurice Ronet, an...

  • LA PISCINE English Trailer