In the poster for "The Swimming Pool," a new film by the French director François Ozon, Ludivine Sagnier lies soporifically on a granite patio in a chevron-patterned bikini whose construction clearly did not tax the world's fabric supply. To an American eye, the image seems almost anachronistic for the very reason that Ms. Sagnier isn't spear-fishing in her bare bikini, wrestling felons or competing in an Australian surfing competition.

Elsewhere in popular culture — or the American sector of it at least — the bikini has undergone a transition from a symbol of languorous sexuality, as embodied by Ms. Sagnier, to a symbol of tough, bloodletting, physical showmanship.

In movies like "Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle," and television series like "Boarding House: North Shore" on WB and "Surf Girls" on MTV, the tiny, triangle-topped bikini is the millennial equivalent of the power suit — the costume for women who ride 20-foot waves or smash the foreheads of evildoers, thus proving they are just as combative as men.

NYT: More Itsy-Bitsy Teeny-Weeny Than Ever. By GINIA BELLAFANTE.