Original subtitles

From day one of filming in that magnificent setting,

with Jacques, Maurice, and Jane,

I could tell it would be

either a smash hit or absolute garbage,

but it felt like a smash. There was just that atmosphere.

LA PISCINE 50 YEARS LATER

Without you, Alain Page---

La piscine wouldn't exist- AUTHOR

That's right, because it began with a novel

that I wrote after a stay in St. Tropez.

I wanted to show a dark side

to that luxurious dream spot.

What brought you and Jacques Deray together?

Claude Vital...

assistant to both Georges Lautner and Jacques Deray,

came to see me one day and said...

"Georges wants to break away from comedies

and tackle something darker."

I suggested they look at my published novels.

"No, we already did."

I said I had a manuscript in my drawer

that I'd given to a publisher, Julliard, but they hadn't picked it up.

"Have Georges read this."

A few weeks later, Deray called me,

so I realized Claude had given it to Jacques

instead of Georges.

I think Jacques and I first met in 1966.

I'd written the novel in 1964...

and given it to Julliard around then.

My usual publisher, Le Fleuve Noir, wasn't interested.

It wasn't enough of a crime thriller,

which was their specialty.

So Jacques read it and said...

"It's exactly what I'm looking for."

So we set off on this adventure...

which took some time to really take shape.

This was the first time you'd met Deray.

How did you two meet?

Very simply. He called me and said...

"I'd like to see you, sir."

We were quite formal. SCREENWRITERIAUTHOR

He invited me to lunch.

He explained the project in very simple terms.

He already had a story,

written by Alain Page...

a novella, if I remember correctly,

laying out all the elements, or at least the central crime.

He gave it to me to read and said quite formally...

"I'd like to do this with you, sir."

Filming took place in 1968, so this was I 967

probably early autumn or so.

I set to work right away,

with him supervising me, of course.

I always tell the following story, not just about La piscine.

Jacques said something very enlightening

for my career as a writer.

He'd just made a film with Michel Audiard,

and he said, "The script was very good.

But with Audiard's dialogue,

the words are the stars, not the actors.

When there's dialogue,

your camera must be on the speaker

or the person listening.

It takes your camera prisoner.

You can't film around the dialogue.

It would be like banishing the star from the screen."

So I said I'd attempt a script with little dialogue.

La piscine has nine pages of dialogue.

He said something during filming

that I've never forgotten, that I even wrote down.

"The less dialogue you write,

the more you force me

to use my imagination as a director."

That was a key phrase for us

throughout the rest of our working relationship.

Guess who it was.

I don't care.

It was a battle with Jacques, but especially the producers,

to get this film made. - Why?

Everyone had their own idea.

Jacques wanted Monica Vitti.

The producers wanted Vitti

or the American actress Angie Dickinson,

a knockout at the time. I'd met her in the U.S.

I said right from the start...

"Use Romy or it won't work."

"What? She's known for Sissi! Impossible!"

I said, "Listen, you can use someone else,

but if you do, count me out."

I finally convinced the producers,

especially Jacques, who was already sort of on my side,

though he really wanted Vitti.

Anyway, they finally hired Romy,

because I finally got so annoyed that I said...

"Use Romy or there's no film."

"Fine. We'll use her."

When the film came out, they forgot all about that.

It was a smash the day it opened.

"She's fantastic!"

They'd all forgotten they didn't want her.

They claimed she'd been their first choice.

Getting Romy cast

was not just one of the greatest successes of my life

but also the real start of her true career as an actress.

- No swimming for you? - No.

- And nothing to drink? - Thanks, but I'm not thirsty.

You live with your mother?

Yes, in Lausanne.

- Are you a student? - Yes.

May I have a cigarette?

You're truly your father's daughter.

Why?

No reason.

How did you meet Jacques Deray?

I think I was having dinner with Serge Gainsbourg

and Pierre Grimblat

in a little second-floor restaurant,

because I remember someone coming up the stairs

to get a look at me, I think.

Because Deray had called Grimblat

to ask him about the young girl

he'd found for the film Slogan with Serge.

And Grimblat had probably said, "Come take a look."

So he did.

I was then asked to go to St. Tropez

so Delon and Romy could meet me.

If they felt I was right, then it was in the bag.

So I went to St. Tropez for the day

so the others could meet me

and decide if I fit their idea

for the young woman.

This film was a lifesaver for me, because Slogan was wrapping up,

and I was preparing to return to England.

I was worried that, with no projects of my own,

I'd just sit at home,

as big a pain in the ass for Serge

as I'd been for John Barry.

So I was packing to leave.

Serge was in tears all night at L'Hötel on the Rue des Beaux Arts,

because I said I was leaving the next day.

This deal to do La piscine absolutely saved me.

It gave me a cast-iron excuse

to stay a few more months to make a film.

After that, I decided to stay with Serge,

and my parents came over.

So La piscine was a very happy time

for family reasons, unrelated to the film.

What I liked most about it - and still do -

is that it's a claustrophobic setting, but outdoors.

A claustrophobic setting without the walls.

They're locked inside---

but not in a physical sense-

Locked inside themselves-

I liked that idea right off.

Plus the idea of just four characters,

and making a film with Jacques,

whose technical skill I greatly admired -

I liked all that.

So I wrote a first draft.

The interactions

couldn't be limited to just one couple, of course.

The fact Ronet and Schneider's characters

had had an affair in the past

needed to be made clear

at some point.

I did that in a style called "indirect dialogue."

And the restaurants in Amsterdam...

the Indonesian restaurants!

Fantastic!

You remember?

That line "You remember?"...

was quoted in film schools

as a prime example of indirect dialogue.

It speaks volumes and provokes an immediate awkwardness,

which likely contributes to what happens later that night.

The father-daughter relationship is a strange one too.

Various things are implied

between Ronet and Birkin-

Yes, Jane Birkin's feelings toward her father,

and especially -

several shots with no dialogue show this -

how she senses that something's going to happen.

Something inside tells her.

She's constantly turning around, watching, looking worried.

Beneath her placid, almost naive expression,

she in fact senses that something's coming.

That's how we imagined it.

Perhaps at the end she even guesses what happened.

When's the wedding? I hope I'll be best man.

What wedding?

You and Marianne.

You know you'll marry her sooner or later.

She's really a housewife at heart. Just right for you.

You marry her.

I gave up on marriage some time ago.

Now I just fawn over my daughter.

But you should marry. It's just your style.

Go to hell.

Grumpy today, aren't we?

I woke up in a foul mood.

Do as I do.

Change your desires, not the world.

It's an unexpected tragedy

between these friends

who, during this apparently peaceful, sunny, happy vacation,

discover that their friendship

has hatred hiding at its core.

And one of them...

fed up with being constantly belittled, kills the other.

He kills him almost without meaning to...

almost without even knowing it.

It's a strange crime.

Something inside Delon

compels him to hold Ronet's head underwater,

even though Ronet has done nothing particularly terrible,

nothing gory,

nothing murderous, nothing dreadful.

That force within that compels him to kill

was what fascinated me.

They decided to simplify things...

for their adaptation.

In my novel...

the two characters, Harry and Jean-Claude...

were 20 years apart in age.

Jean-Claude was handsome, young, and rich.

The other man was a sort of crazy character,

flat-broke, driving beat-up old cars,

but with a charm Jean-Claude would never have.

I liked that contrast: someone who had it all

yet was jealous of someone who had nothing.

In the film it's the opposite.

My "poor" character drives up in a Maserati.

That's a major change-

And Jean-Paul in the film has nothing,

so he has every reason to be jealous.

So I preferred the complexity in my version.

Then there's the ending.

I'm accustomed to writing dark crime thrillers,

so I wanted a dark ending,

with the three remaining characters

trapped together in a sort of hell.

But in the film everyone just leaves,

and the couple's left gazing at the blue of the Mediterranean.

I always say it was a dream cast.

Those two men and two women -

I can't imagine anyone better for the roles.

Romy was a wonder.

She, Maurice Ronet, Alain, and Jane Birkin

were a wonderful cast.

- I have shopping to do. - Want me to come?

Harry, drive me into town?

I'd love a spin in your speedster.

I'll be right back.

You look great for getting to bed so late.

I'll get changed.

What do you remember today about the filming?

A heavy atmosphere.

I knew absolutely nothing...

about Alain Delon or Romy Schneider...

or their love affair...

or the situation that that must have created

for them both.

But there was an atmosphere you could cut with a knife,

charged with sensuality.

And since the whole shoot was mostly just guys,

between Jacques Deray and Delon -

I'm glad Romy was there,

another woman

to take my side now and then.

But it was a very disturbing atmosphere.

Good... but strange.

I was buddies with the crew, so that part was easy.

But the other guys treated me...

like a child.

I think Delon felt...

protective.

He and Deray were always goofing off. It really was a boys' club.

Jacques told me once

that Serge was jealous of Delon

and afraid that Delon would come on to you.

Of course Serge was jealous!

Which I found quite amusing...

because when you're smitten with someone...

and that someone has such a distinctive style and face...

Adonis himself has nothing -

Delon was very handsome.

You couldn't find a better-looking guy.

But my attraction to Serge was -

And we'd only recently fallen head over heels in love,

so our affair was red-hot.

I know Serge was jealous of Alain.

Well, I don't want to make him sound like an idiot.

But he was wary.

That was part of Serge's charm:

not believing in his own charm.

But charm really is the word.

Serge's charm lay in being so funny...

such a comic.

That trumps everything. Guys, take note.

The guy who gets the girl in the end

is the guy who makes her laugh.

Jacques had me sit on his couch, like this one but much larger,

with a pencil in my mouth,

reciting the lines I was to speak in private

to Delon.

It was very humiliating,

and above all very intimidating.

I knew clearly that I didn't speak French well.

It was horrible, but it was for my own good.

I understood that.

But it was like playing in the big leagues

when you don't know all the rules.

Suddenly, last week...

he decided to take me along to Italy.

I didn't ask him to!

But there was no way I could say no.

Simply no way.

He says he got fed up with Marianne...

that he let you have her.

But it's not the bad things I remember most.

I remember the good things, like Romy.

She was always a rock for others. Not so much for herself.

To me, this 20-year-old girl,

she was this seductive woman-

I don't like the word "mature, " but she was a real woman.

There was no one like her, before or after.

She was a real find. She really was La piscine.

I remember Delon making a nasty remark to her,

the sort only an ex-lover could make.

"Stop looking down" or "Your bra is slipping."

Something very intimate and a bit shocking.

But I understood that some whole other thing

was going on that I knew nothing about.

There's that swinging basket chair by the pool.

Romy would put her son, David, in that.

That's right. David.

When we weren't filming,

they'd bring him over, she'd put him in that,

and he'd swing.

No one else ever saw that, of course.

Every time I watch the film and I see that chair...

I always think of David, who died, as you know,

impaled on a spike.

Anyway, I never watch La piscine.

I can't watch it.

Romy, Maurice, Jacques - I just can't.

I skip through the dialogue. I know it by heart.

Then I just turn it off. Seeing the images -

I can't watch it. It hurts too much.

I was too fond of Romy, Jacques, and Maurice.

I'm fond of Jane too, but she's still alive.

But Deray, Romy, and Maurice - it's too much.

I can't watch it.

But audiences love it. That's the main thing.

Come on. I'll show you the house.

How old are you?

Eighteen.

On January 31, 1969...

you attended the premiere at the Cinéma Balzac.

What was your reaction to the adaptation of your work?

What I saw was a great film, of course.

Deray's direction was superb,

the cinematography was stunning,

and it featured a legendary couple.

I'm just sorry...

that they didn't fully exploit

what I'd put into the novel.

But it's a great film.

Just look at its success these past 50 years.

It was unanimous, but everyone forgot what I'd said:

"Use Romy or it won't work."

Did you and Deray ever think

we'd still be talking about this film 50 years later?

First off, we never imagined we'd still be alive

50 years later.

And I'm very sorry Jacques isn't here to enjoy it.

But no, you never think those things.

You secretly hope it, but you'd never dare say it,

flattering yourself that your film will last.

One reason I thought it might last

was that everyone was in bathing suits,

which never go out of fashion.

The fashions aren't dated,

except perhaps the way I'm dressed.

But Romy and her wardrobe don't look dated today.

Neither does Delon.

Neither does Maurice. - Neither do you.

I look very 1960s,

with the miniskirt, the big glasses, the bangs,

and too much makeup.

At least it was summer,

so I couldn't plaster it on, like in other films.

It's funny, because the placid water of La piscine

spans the years and the decades---

and it's still there,

just as threatening and just as compelling,

perhaps compelling precisely because it's threatening.

There's a secret there

that no creator can ever -

Not only can he not say it. He can't know it.

The film is out in the world, people like it,

and it has been extraordinarily successful.

If things happened back then that I perhaps didn't like,

that's all in the past.

It's perhaps the only mainstream film

in which an actor has been discovered.

I wasn't discovered in Slogan,

though that film changed my life.

But it's not often you make a film

that almost everyone in France has seen.

La piscine was a mainstream success...

yet it's as refined as an art house film.

It's great to have done that in one's life.

It's nice.

I thank Jacques Deray for that.

I never thanked him personally.

I wish I had.

It's a classic, a cult film.

It couldn't fail to be.

The public responds to it, screens it,

acclaims it, feels it.

There's just something about it.

The cars and such don't matter. It feels contemporary.

And above all it's due to Romy...

whom everyone rejected and no one wanted.

La piscine will always be there. It's not going anywhere.

Thanks, Jacquot.

He made it. No one else.

No one else.