There's something that made this film really come together well in the beginning. Director Luca Guadagnino set the majority of the action on the volcanic island of Pantelleria, situated between Sicily and Tunisia. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a rating of 89%, based on 184 reviews. In Luca Guadagninos simmering drama, two ex-lovers are disastrously reunited at a Mediterranean villa where the pool is a temple of bared flesh and sex perfumes the air. Murder in the Mediterranean. Sign in to rate and Watchlist for personalized recommendations. They are surprised by the arrival of their annoying faded music-producer friend Harry Hawkes (Ralph Fiennes) and his recently discovered daughter Penelope Lannier (Dakota Johnson). This is the second Luca Guadagnino film I've watched, the first being Call Me By Your Name. Subscribe to Deadline Breaking News Alerts and keep your inbox happy. And if you want to know what song they are singing, its Miss Manhattan by Metropole. Their holiday is hijacked by Marianne's eccentric former flame Harry (Ralph Fiennes) and his long-lost daughter Penelope (Dakota Johnson). ', 'A Bigger Splash' was released on 12 February 2016, Pantelleria, a far-flung Italian island between Sicily and North Africa, is known as the Black Pearl of the Mediterranean, and takes a starring role in new oddball psychodrama 'A Bigger Splash', a sun-baked tale of love and lust, The best family holidays in Europe to take in 2023, The 26 best Greek islands to visit in 2023. I have always adored Italy and have only been the once. Things get increasingly intense and sexual as the film goes along. I love this film and the locations so muchthat visiting is high on my bucket list. Her record producer, mutual friend of both and former flame of Marianne, Harry (Ralph Fiennes), brings his estranged daughter, Penelope (Dakota Johnson), to spend time with the couple and, mostly, interrupt the vacation. A Bigger Splash . $7,545,758. I thought this film was annoying, at best. The sultry Pen then makes a play for the unhappy Paul; it is not shown, but implied, that Paul succumbs to Pen's overtures. Passion on Pantelleria. Out on DVD/ Blu-ray 27 June and on digital download 20 June. La leggenda del rock Marianne Lane in vacanza sull'isola vulcanica di Pantelleria con il compagno Paul quando arriva inaspettatamente a interrompere la loro vacanza Harry, produttore discografico iconoclasta nonch suo ex, insieme alla figlia Penelope, provocando un'esplosione di nostalgia delirante dalla quale sar impossibile mettersi al riparo. Set on an Italian island slithering with snakes and beautiful people, the movie is something of a reluctant thriller about a rock star, her current lover, her former lover and a pretty young thing. There is still a spark between Marianne and Harry; no less of one between Paul and Penelope. Caught in the middle is Swinton, who was electrifying in Guadagninos I Am Love. At one point in "A Bigger Splash," there is an exchange of dialogue that goes as follows: --"We're all obscene." A Bigger Splash is a sensuous delight of a film, but it has a darker heart that brands itself in the viewers mind. Is A Bigger Splash streaming? Daddy and daughter in A Bigger Splash. (Shaw Organisation). He is surely coming to rival Paolo Sorrentino as an Italian auteur on the world stage. But oh no, not right now. don't ever invite your ex to spend a holiday with you, it has proved to be lethally dangerous. I kept thinking it would get better the longer I stayed, but it didn't. Moving into the villa, Harry starts inviting friends around as if it were his home and taking everybody out to various sights and festivities. Even rockstars have to eat. So, Cineteatro San Gaetanostands in for the bar which is calledCircolo San Gaetano. 2023 READERS CHOICE AWARDS SURVEY IS LIVE. Ralph Fiennes as Harry in A Bigger Splash with Dakota Johnson as his daughter, Penelope. The swimming pool is a secular temple of near-nakedness, and sex perfumes everything like the tang of chlorine. Penelope also is a nifty little seductress who uses her best Lolita-like wiles to attract Paul, while Harry brushes back rumors he is sleeping with his daughter by showing the true intentions for his visit: trying to rekindle his romance with Marianne. Marianne and Pauls private bliss-out is disrupted by the unexpected arrival of an old friend, a music producer, Harry (a sensational Ralph Fiennes), a motormouth who roars in with his daughter, Penelope (Dakota Johnson). Though A Bigger Splash slides into more nakedly political territory in its final 30 minutes, the shift doesnt feel jarring, but necessarya chilling reminder of the heavy investment viewers have in the splashy lives of the rich, and our disinterest in the opposite. With her preternatural stillness and sculptured hauteur, Ms. Swinton has always looked ready for her close-up with D. W. Griffith; few contemporary movie actresses can hold you with their gaze as effortlessly as she does. A Bigger Splash seems to announce its intentions from minute one, cutting from the rockstar Marianne Lane (Tilda Swinton) electrifying a stadium of thousands to a shot of her sunbathing nude by a pool in an Italian villa. There are some great direct sightlines into camera and point-of-view shifts. Greetings again from the darkness. I live for visiting filming locations, attending top film festivals and binge-watching travel inspiring films. Ilike that!, Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning, uca Guadagnino assembles a very intimidating quartet for this chamber piece of sexual tension. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. "[33] On Metacritic the film has a score of 74 out of 100, based on 36 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". 8/10. Watch A Guide to the Films of Luca Guadagnino, Watch A Bigger Splash: Poolside Seduction. A Bigger Splash seems to announce its intentions from minute one, cutting from the rockstar Marianne Lane (Tilda Swinton) electrifying a stadium of thousands to a shot of her sunbathing nude by. Basically every single protagonist in this film is extremely annoying but by far the worst is Ralph Fiennes as Harry Hawkes. It is rated M-18. Review: A Bigger Splash, With a Speechless Tilda Swinton, Is Ready for Its Close-Up, https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/04/movies/a-bigger-splash-review-tilda-swinton.html, Ralph Fiennes and Tilda Swinton in A Bigger Splash., The Times critic Manohla Dargis reviews A Bigger Splash., Jack English/Fox Searchlight , via Associated Press. (2016) Audience Score. Giving the setting of the movie that would seem obvious. The only redeemable thing about this movie was the lovely Tilda Swinton, and her beautiful wardrobe. We see it and we love each other anyway. Her ex-boyfriend and his current girlfriend join them, and things get strange as emotions are stirred. At the time, the supermarket was called Vecchione Supermercati(as you can see in the film when they leave) but it isnt anymore. Penelope's Poolside Seduction | A Bigger Splash (2015), Starring Dakota Johnson and Ralph Fiennes - YouTube 0:00 / 1:01 Penelope's Poolside Seduction | A Bigger Splash (2015), Starring. He knows Marianne is on voice rest. [27] Originally scheduled to open in the United States on 13 May 2016, it was brought forward to 4 May. Schoenaerts is movie-star handsome and completely believable as the object of the lilting Johnsons attraction. There were two reasons for me to stay to the end in this movie. Do you plan to seeA Bigger Splash? But discord lurks on the edges of the film from the beginning, as Guadagnino and the writer David Kajganich hint at the influx of refugees to the island (and Italy at large), and the problems fermenting around this idyllic slice of life. 30/07/2015 Venice 2015 - Selection. Form battles content to an eerily pleasurable draw in "A Bigger Splash," a stylish four-hander set among the rich and the hip. So, as you must gather, I had a great time and I'll wait for the next Guadagnino with childish anticipation. The Graham Norton Show: Ralph Fiennes/Tracey Ullman/James Nesbitt/James Bay. While they are out mingling with the crowds at a local festival, Harry toe-curlingly insists on taking Marianne to a bar with a karaoke machine, dangerously forcing her to be on display, like a drug-dealer getting a former customer to tumble back off the wagon, exploiting her celebrity and feeding off it. Here, it appears, is a movie about the glamorous life of a celebrity, and the consequences therein. Every fetishized element the glorious house, the tiled pool, Mariannes Dior outfits and the scrubbiest of vistas looks ravishing, ready for a close-up, too. Hes also a Transformers enthusiast and avid pop culture scholar. The peace and tranquility of a rock star recovering from throat surgery and her documentarian boyfriend is shattered by a visit from the musician's former lover and his estranged adult daughter in this unusual film. By weaving the realities of the Mediterranean island's refugee crisis into the updated plot, there's topical seriousness too. And now to the negative. A Bigger Splash A convalescing rockstar and her boyfriend vacationing on the Mediterranean island of Pantelleria see their private holiday disrupted when they receive an unexpected visit. From early on in the film, all I could think about was visiting the locations. Paul is both quieter and hunkier, played by the French up-and-comer Schoenaerts, a champion brooder who excelled at the task in last years Far From the Madding Crowd. 120 min. Adults behaving like adults, only naughtier and far nastier. But it is Fiennes, loosening up like never before, who steals the show with a lively turn as a frenetic but successful music producer who doesnt want to let anyone forget he was a creative force on the Rolling Stones album Voodoo Lounge. The firstA Bigger Splashfilming location is not on the main location of Pantelleria, its inMilan. The screenplay of the . I'm here to inspire you to do the same! A few years ago, the luxury-goods company Christian Dior recycled images of that films heartthrob attraction, Alain Delon, in an ad campaign for its cologne Eau Sauvage that used the Rolling Stones Sympathy for the Devil. The playlist for A Bigger Splash includes a couple of Stones songs as well, notably Emotional Rescue, which is in rotation with Harry Nilsson, Giuseppe Verdi, 1970s Brazilian classics and Hollywoods eternal bad boy Robert Mitchum murdering the calypso ditty Beauty Is Only Skin Deep.. Marianne Lane's concert scene was filmed in Milan, at the San Siro Stadium, which is like the Madison Square Garden of Milan. A Bigger Splash. The body in the swimming pool perhaps connotes the terrible guilt and shame with which gilded youth and gilded middle age pay for their pleasures. If the picture gains the traction it deserves among adult audiences,I would not be surprised to see Fiennes pop up on early lists of Supporting Actor contenders next Oscar season. Good! Four characters, only one of whom is remotely sane, three of whom are both uninteresting and unpleasant. John Powers calls the film, which stars Tilda Swinton and Ralph Fiennes, a "gripping slow-burn." Anyone can read what you share. 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