Liquid Paradise

Liquid Paradise

***1/2

Reviewed by: Angus Wolfe Murray

Warrender Baths in Stockbridge, Edinburgh, is something out of Nanny McPhee, so wonderfully old-fashioned you expect the bathers to be wearing Edwardian swimsuits. Its architecture is as elegant as it is symmetrical and although it is difficult to judge size - smaller than you imagine - the order and cleanliness seems alien to this chaotic century.

Karen Chambers and Sitar Rose's 20-minute documentary is both nostalgic and affectionate. Voices recall earlier times "when my mother brought me here to learn to swim and she would sit at the side knitting." You watch pensioners (male), standing waist deep in water talking animatedly, as if they were at the club, while pensioners (female) bravely breast stroke their lengths.

There are children, too, and tiny things with rubber rings, little feet kicking underwater, little faces smiling. It is a happy place.

Warrender Baths used to be a precious secret for those who knew. Now, because Liquid Paradise is so inviting, people will come from other cities, other lands. Emma Thompson might come.

Reviewed on: 04 Mar 2006
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Documentary about a very special swimming pool in Edinburgh.

Director: Karen Chambers, Sitar Rose

Writer: Karen Chambers, Sitar Rose

Year: 2005

Runtime: 20 minutes

Country: UK

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