SWIMMING POOL (2003)

Here is a very clever, very sexy French thriller which playfully confounds expectations and is wonderfully acted and directed.

Swimming Pool has the elegance of a well-written detective novel, complemented by the nuanced acting of a great actress and the talents of a fledgling star of French cinema.

It's a mood piece, a film to confound your senses, and it has a killer ending.

Charlotte Rampling stars as Sarah Morton, a British crime-fiction author who's having a hard time coming up with ideas for the umpteenth sequel for her detective character Inspector Dovell.

So, her publisher and sometime lover John Bosload (Charles Dance) sends her to France to spend some time at his family home.

At first, while Sarah finds the sunny French countryside to her liking, especially compared to dreary, crowded London, she also gets an unexpected visitor- Bosload's nymphette daughter Julie (Ludivine Sagnier).

The two women get on like chalk and cheese . While Sarah seeks peace and quiet, Julie seeks cheap thrills. She brings strange men back to the house almost every night for sex, drugs and dance music, not to mention a midnight dip in the house's large swimming pool.

As Sarah finds Julie's actions both repelling and strangely alluring , she finds that the unwitting inspiration for her latest work comes directly from Julie, her newly fashioned muse.

As I mentioned, this film takes you to such wonderful, unexpected places that it's a joy to watch it unfold.

The creative process of writing is given a sensitive but playful analysis here, as we get into Sarah's head and find all manner of devilish ideals floating around inside.

The film has the feel of a well-polished and sharply written stage play but isn't falsely theatrical in the slightest.

Director and writer Francois Ozon tries to twist the tale one too many times, but it's forgivable, simply because of the way in which the material is handled and how subtly the ending works.

Rampling, is, as always, mysterious, repressed, but at times erotic, troubled and seductive.

Her younger co-star, who could have passed for Rampling in roles which she played 30 years ago, matches her for allure and presence.

At times, the fact that the lead actresses, especially Sagnier, are nude for much of the time leaves Swimming Pool open to accusations of exploitation- often because it's fairly gratuitous.

But it also adds to the atmosphere, reflected in the sunny rays of the French villa and adjacent village.

It has to be seen to be believed-only then will the magic work its power.