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• July 8, 2008
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Summer of Seduction: Jane Birkin's Poolside Temptation

By Sarah Maher

Jacques Deray's 1969 melodrama La Piscine (The Swimming Pool) stars a bikini-clad Jane Birkin as Penelope, a gangly, nubile teen kitten lounging about in the perfect poolside attire for a South of France menage à quatre. Bourgeois lovers in a villa near Saint-Tropez languidly while their time with small talk, tanning, cards and cocktails in the blazing summer heat. But jealous sexual rivalry lurks just beneath the rippling surface of the swimming pool.

An unsettling mix of lisping innocence and pensive sexiness, Penelope sports large round blue tinted sunglasses, a crisp white shirt, straw-bucket bag and straight, sun-kissed bangs that barely conceal her boredom and guilelessness. She pouts in a revealing crochet bikini cover-up, entices in a gingham pleated micro mini-dress, and is seduced by a soulless alcoholic (played by handsome Alain Delon) in a white-ring top bikini and delicate gold chain.



Even though she's the unwitting conductor of temptation, deranged male jealousies, and infidelity, don't feel too badly for poor Pen. Not only does she get to make out with Delon, but dressed in a simple white T-shirt, silver belt, high-waisted jeans, she escapes the middle-aged wash-outs and her own masochism with dewy, unblemished skin and the perfect tan.



Connect with your inner summer-kitten with a button-up halter bra bikini from Lover, a Folly Romper by Samantha Pleet, along with the Sweet Nothings Pendant Necklace from In God We Trust NY. Now grab The Journal Magazine# 22 and head for the swimming pool.