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It’s French! It’s hot! Jacques Deray’s most unusual film is an intimate, minimalist murder story that digs deep into the affairs of four very superficial people. Among the wealthy set are four pleasure seekers with a laissez faire take on relationships, that think they’re above basic drives — jealousy, possessiveness, resentment. The movie also makes book on the fame & notoriety of the off-on show biz couple Romy Schneider and Alain Delon — the film’s opening seems to celebrate their bigger-than-life glamour and beauty. A notable extra is a 2019 documentary with Delon and his co-star Jane Birkin, plus the film’s famous writers.

La piscine

Blu-ray

The Criterion Collection 1088

1969 / Color / 1:66 widescreen / 122 min. / Available at The Criterion Collection / Street Date July 20, 2021 / 39.95

Starring: Alain Delon, Romy Schneider, Maurice Ronet, Jane Birkin, Paul Crauchet, Suzie Jaspard.

Cinematography: Jean-Jacques Tarbès

Production Designer: Paul Laffargue

Film Editor: Paul Cayatte

Original Music: Michel Legrand

Written by Jean-Claude Carriìre,...

Director Jose Giovanni was best known as a screenwriter for a number of important French auteurs throughout the 1960’s, having written items like Jacques Becker’s Le Trou (1960), Claude Sautet’s Classe Tous Risques (1960) and the novel upon which Melville’s Le Deuxieme Souffle (1966) was based. Many of his own directorial efforts have faded into obscurity, but his 1973 title Two Men in Town, a political drama documenting the social ills associated with the death penalty, has recently received resurrected interest thanks to Rachid Bouchareb’s 2014 remake, retooled for the American Southwest and predicated on issues of immigration. Starring Alain Delon and Jean Gabin in their last of three on-screen collaborations, it’s an interesting item, though Giovani’s overly protracted first half doesn’t sit well with the finale’s obvious sermonizing.

Social worker Germain Cazeneuve (Gabin) tirelessly works as a bridge between prisoners and authorities, doing the best he...