The Swimmer
The Cut, Halesworth, 7.30, 5 July.
Screenplay by Eleanor Perry
Directed by Frank Perry
Starring Burt Lancaster, Janice Rule, Kim Hunter and Joan Rivers
The 1964 story, the 1968 movie, the 1999 book, the 2023 biography…
Patrick Barkham’s new biography of wild swimmer, environmentalist and author Roger Deakin shares its title with the John Cheever short story and subsequent movie. Roger Deakin was partly inspired by the tale to write his first book, Waterlog – a huge success, and a spur for the wild swimming movement.
This unsettling 1968 film has Burt Lancaster swimming home through his neighbours’ pools in Westport, Connecticut. As he meets people from his past – friends and lovers – the adventure turns dark. A surreal shattering of the American dream, it had a mixed reception in 1968, now it has cult status: five-star ratings from critics. ‘Disturbing, sometimes funny… an open-ended hallucination.’
The screening is a joint presentation with Waveney & Blyth Arts and the Halesworth bookshop. There will be a short introduction and copies of Patrick Barkham’s new biography, The Swimmer: The wild life of Roger Deakin will be on sale