The Cinema of the Swimming Pool

Why has the swimming pool fascinated filmmakers? This collection investigates the appearance of the swimming pool in film not merely as a setting but as a dynamic site where social, political, cultural and aesthetic forces converge. Studied films include classics such as The Philadelphia Story (1940) and recent films like Water Lilies (2007).

The swimming pool frequently appears in film not merely as a setting but as a dynamic site where social, political, cultural and aesthetic forces converge. What is it about this space that has so fascinated filmmakers and what kinds of cinematic investigations does it encourage? This collection features essays by an eclectic, international range of film researchers. Amongst the works analysed are classics such as The Cameraman (1928), The Philadelphia Story (1940) and La Piscine (1969); cult hits such as The Swimmer (1968) and Deep End (1970); and more recent representations of the pool in Water Lilies (2007), Sea Point Days (2009) and Ausente (2011). The pool is considered as a realm where artifice meets nature, where public meets private, where sexualities morph and blend; and as a space that reconfigures the relationship between architecture and narrative, in which themes of pollution, spectacle and reflexivity find unique expression. Approaching the swimming pool from a wide range of methodological perspectives, the essays in this collection stake a claim for the enduring significance of this exciting cinematic space.

Autorentext

Christopher Brown is Lecturer in Filmmaking at the University of Greenwich, where he teaches film and screenwriting. His articles have appeared in publications including Film Criticism and the Quarterly Review of Film & Video, and he has won several awards as a screenwriter. Pam Hirsch is Lecturer in English Literature and Film History and Theory at the University of Cambridge. She is the convenor of the undergraduate course Film, Culture and Identity and teaches on the MPhil in Screen Media and Cultures. Her most recent articles have appeared in publications including Feminist Media Studies and the Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television.

Inhalt

Contents: Christopher Brown/Pam Hirsch: Introduction: The Cinema of the Swimming Pool - Chris O'Rourke: The Municipal Plunge: Silent Cinema and the Social Life of Swimming Pools - Sheri Chinen Biesen: Cinematic Comedy and the Swimming Pool: Gender, Class, Coming of Age and Sexual Identity from The Philadelphia Story (1940) to Legally Blonde (2001) - Alex Naylor: 'The Anatomy of Atavism': American Urban Modernity, Gothic Trauma and Haunted Spaces in Cat People (1942) - Edward Saunders: From Stadium to Street: Generations and Gentrification in Berlin Pool Scenes - Axel Andersson: The Artifice of Modernity: Alienation by the Pool Side in the Cinema of Michelangelo Antonioni - Christopher Brown: The Pools of The Swimmer (1968): Exurbia, Topography, Decay - François Penz: Atmosphère d'Eau Sauvage: Reflections on La Piscine (1969) - Pam Hirsch: A Dangerous Age: Deep End (1970) - Rose Hepworth: Staging Embarrassment in The Last Picture Show (1971) and Morvern Callar (2002) - Monika Keska: Filming the Splash: David Hockney's Swimming Pools on Film - Clara Garavelli: The Swimming Pool as a Site of Subversion during the Spanish Transition: The Case of Pepito piscina (1978) - Matilda Mroz: The Aesthetics of Overflow: Andrei Tarkovsky's Nostalghia (1983) in Duration - Micah Trippe: Urban Guerilla Playfare, or Skating through Empty Cinematic Pools in Dogtown and Z Boys (2001) - Sophie Mayer: Gutta cavat lapidem: The Sonorous Politics of Lucrecia Martel's Swimming Pools - Emma Wilson: 'The sea nymphs tested this miracle': Water Lilies (2007) and the Origin of Coral - Piotr Cieplak: Swimming in Post-apartheid Cape Town: Sea Point Days (2009) - Fernando Gabriel Pagnoni Berns: Cartographies of Desire: Swimming Pools and the Queer Gaze.