Lessons from the cinema: Swimming Pool

An occasional series in which we attempt to extract helpful hints from films old and new.

Swimming Pool, directed by Francois Ozon, 2003

1. English ladies who write mystery novels are repressed and dress prudishly, if expensively.
2. On occasion, however, they may play the femme fatale and disaster will ensue.
3. All writers are nosy to the exclusion of their personal safety.
4. The closets in which English publishers keep their skeletons are located in the south of France.
5. French blonde daughters are slutty and sophisticated; their English counterparts are awkward and innocent.
6. It can take all night to dig and fill a grave.