James Agee's quote about a certain form of "thriller" that is constructed to "put its audience into a trance for two hours" is clearly applicable to LA PISCINE, which does a good job of demarcating the true "zero degree" of post-modern sexuality, torpor-filled affluence, and the sweet cynical science of celluloid manipulation that is apparently still alive and well (?) at Film Forum this summer, to Bruce Goldstein's exuberant delight (after all, he's got a mortgage to pay--and even if I'm not enamored with the model that he and Rialto Pictures have employed to aid and abet the distortion of French film history, I don't want them to go out of business...the devil you know--if you know what I mean!)...
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/21/style/la-piscine-film-forum.html