on. The competition comes to the fore when a local waiter, Franck, is involved. Julie wants him but he appears to prefer the more mature Sarah, having struck up a relationship with her during her frequent lunches at the bistro. An unexpected tragedy occurs after a night of flirting among the three. After swimming together in the pool, Franck refuses to allow Julie to continue performing oral sex on him once Sarah, who watches them from the balcony, throws a rock into the water. Franck tells Julie he is leaving. The next day, Franck is missing. While investigating Franck's disappearance, Sarah is told that Julie's mother died years earlier, though Julie had spoken of her mother as if she were alive. She returns to the villa, where a confused Julie thinks Sarah is her mother and has a breakdown. Julie eventually recovers and confesses that Franck is dead because she repeatedly hit him over the head with a rock as he tried to leave her at the pool. His body is in one of the sheds. When Marcel becomes suspicious of the mound of fresh soil where Sarah and Julie have buried Franck's body, Sarah seduces him to distract him. Julie leaves, thanking Sarah for her help and leaving her the manuscript of an unpublished novel she claims her mother wrote, which she had previously said John made her mother burn. Sarah uses the mother's manuscript in her novel. Sarah returns to England and visits John at his publishing office with her new novel, which she anticipated he would reject, so she had it printed by another publisher. His daughter, Julia, shows up just as Sarah is leaving, but is revealed to be a different person than the girl who came to John's French house. Cast Charlotte Rampling as Sarah Morton Ludivine Sagnier as Julie Charles Dance as John Bosload as Franck Marc Fayolle as Marcel Mireille Mossé as Marcel's daughter Lauren Farrow as Julia Sebastian Harcombe as Terry Long Frances Cuka as Lady on the Underground Michel Fau as The First Man Émilie Gavois-Kahn as Waitress at Cafe Ending interpretations The intentionally ambiguous ending sparked much confusion and controversy. One interpretation is that Sarah was alone at the villa the entire time. This would mean that Julie is a fiction conjured by Sarah for the purpose of her new book – also titled Swimming Pool – which she presents