La piscine
UW Cinematheque 821 University Ave., UW Vilas Hall, Room 4070, Madison, Wisconsin
press release: France/Italy | 1969 | DCP | 124 min. | French with English subtitles
Director: Jacques Deray; Cast: Alain Delon, Romy Schneider, Jane Birkin
Jean-Paul (Delon) and Marianne (Schneider) indulge in their passion for each other while borrowing a friend's luxurious villa in the south of France. When the friend (Maurice Ronet) and his daughter (Birkin) arrive unexpectedly, rivalries and insecurities surface and events take a sinister turn. In this tightly constructed and gripping thriller from the director of Symphony for a Massacre, “Seething passion and emotional chaos lie beneath the symbolically placid surface of the villa’s swimming pool, which becomes the site for both seduction and violent revenge” (Dave Kehr, The New York Times).
All summer screenings take place at 4070 Vilas Hall, 821 University Avenue. Admission free for all screenings, seating limited. No admission 15 minutes after scheduled start times. Please visit our website for a complete listing of programs and descriptions.
One of the most handsome and coolest of 1960s/'70s European leading men, Alain Delon is the subject of a three-film summer series of thrillers in which he stars. First up is Jacques Deray’s erotic and suspenseful La piscine, which became a repertory theater hit sensation when it was re-released in the summer of 2021. A real discovery, Georges Lautner’s Les seins de glace features Delon in a character role, a secondary lead to the lovers played by Claude Brasseur and Mireille Darc. Rounding out the selections will be a rare 35mm screening of Jean-Pierre Melville’s ultra-stylish, ultra-cool hitman saga, Le samouraï.