Played by the sublimely sexual Ludivine Sagnier, Julie is all that Sarah is not. She's young and beautiful, messy and vivacious. Julie sleeps around, with no moralistic attitude about the acts she performs. Naturally enough, Sarah is at once horrified and inspired by this new guest. Julie is completely comfortable in who she is and makes no attempt to hide her all encompassing desires. Because of this, Sarah soon takes to studying Julie more closely, and it's about this time that things take a slightly more sinister turn. Sarah begins to live vivaciously through Julie, spying on her, watching her and trying to figure out what she's about.

Rampling is great at playing a staunch woman who's more liable to write about dirty things then actually do them. And thanks to Sagnier, Swimming Pool has a deep seeded eroticism that really manages to put the audience on edge. You just know that she is the distillation of the bad girl, the femme fatale, and that this distinction has only one possible result. Femme fatales after all, are called that for a reason. And like all great ones, we really like Julie and her free-wheeling ways, but there's always that nagging feeling that you want to see her punished.