Occasional Evenings: The Swimmer — a Screening and Discussion

On a tranquil summer morning in Connecticut, an advertising executive named Ned Merrill, wearing only his swimming trunks, emerges from the woodland and onto the property of his wealthy neighbors. There, he announces a bizarre plan to “swim home” via a string of private pools that “form a river” across their wealthy suburban county. Based on a short story by John Cheever, Frank Perry’s The Swimmer (1968) is a surreal, sun-drenched, and increasingly unsettling meditation on the precarity of the American dream. As he moves from pool to pool, Merrill (Burt Lancaster) is met with increasing hostility by old neighbors, friends, and lovers, who gesture at crises—of middle age, masculinity, familial breakdown, and class anxiety—that belie his chummy and idealistic self-importance.

Join us Tuesday, June 30th, at BISR Central for a screening of The Swimmer, followed by a discussion with BISR’s Isi Litke, Jude Webre, and Rebecca Ariel Porte. Together, the three will explore the film’s troubled production history, its social and historical context, its literary allusions, its striking Marvin Hamlisch score, its use of color, and its treatment of the male body on film. What formal devices, they will ask, lend the film its dream-like quality and allow it to succeed as an account of self-deception and psychological fracture? What is the visual language of the American suburb?

The event is free with a suggested $10 donation. As always, beer, wine, seltzer, and snacks will be served. Seating is limited and will be provided on a first-come, first-served basis. Please RSVP below. A copy of John Cheever’s The Swimmer (1964) will be emailed to registered attendees before the screening.

Event Schedule

Tuesday, 7:00pm ET
June 30, 2026

$0.00

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