Swimming Pretty

I missed the first few seconds of Swimming Pretty, but felt it deserved some attention and wanted to write a few lines anyway. Even better, I managed to find it a second time and enjoyed it even more.

I’m a great fan of those old Busby Berkeley movies where beautiful women are choreographed into kaleidoscopic patterns – a sort of group expression of femininity, if you will. Some feminists excoriate them today of course, taking issue with his use of the female body in this way. But it was not an issue in his day. His movies were popular – probably uplifting – at the time of the great depression as well as for soldiers returning from the war.

Wendy Erickson has done an update that is both witty and, at just over a minute long, certainly doesn’t outstay its welcome. The film shows synchronised swimmers in colourful costumes, joining up in the water to make a Berkeley-esque pattern, accentuated by an overhead view. The rather heart-warming touch at the beginning and the end is that Dorothy, the star of the piece, is quite advanced in years. Certainly not the age of a young pin-up woman. The smile on her face is heart-melting.

Watching it a second time, I realise that although she joins the other swimmers, they make a circle around her. She doesn’t actually do any technical stuff. But I think Esther Wiliams would be feel honoured. Swimming Pretty – as well as looking very pretty – has just legitimised an era of gazing at bathing beauties. See it if you get the chance.

And all power to your elbow, Dorothy!