Movie nudity is usually an exercise in self-consciousness. Actors so often look awkward and uncomfortable — they cover up in ways people would never do if there weren’t a camera there — or they look unnaturally exuberant.
I had time to think about this while watching the various nude scenes in “A Bigger Splash,” in part because the nakedness is so realistically casual here. Maybe it takes great actors like Tilda Swinton and Ralph Fiennes to convince us that they’re really just lounging around in the buff.
Or maybe the whole thing is just so decadently European, nobody got too excited about the bare necessities.
In any case, “A Bigger Splash” is an arty, enjoyable piece of trash, served up hot and steaming by director Luca Guadagnino. He’s the filmmaker behind “I Am Love,” which caused a stir in arthouses in 2009. That movie was also pretty silly, but some people took it seriously.
The new film is a loose remake of a 1969 film, “La Piscine.” Swinton plays a rock star called Marianne, who has retreated to a lush Italian island with her lover Paul (Matthias Schoenaerts).
She’s had surgery on her vocal cords, so she can’t speak for a month. But who needs talk when you can lounge naked around the pool on an Italian island?
A snake enters this Eden when Marianne’s coked-up ex, Harry (that’s Fiennes) shows up with his daughter (Dakota Johnson, of “Fifty Shades of Grey” notoriety). He wants to get back with Marianne, and doesn’t care who knows it.
By the way, it isn’t enough for Guadagnino to have this be a metaphorical snake. He shows a serpent slithering its way into Marianne’s retreat. Not a subtle filmmaker.
But he is splashy, and the film is lush to look at. The movie is a designer’s dream, and you’ll want to make it your life’s work to find an open-air restaurant perched on an island hillside, where the characters share a memorable dinner.
Swinton is compelling, although robbing her character of her voice (it was the actress’s idea) seems counter-productive. Fiennes is in rare form, but so manic you can’t understand why people allegedly enjoy his company.
Schoenaerts, the Belgian star of “The Danish Girl” and “Far from the Madding Crowd,” is maybe a little too sensible to make his character’s backstory credible. But he and Swinton are a handsome couple.
And that’s what’s important here: how good everything looks. The story is overheated and the characters unlikely, but watch “A Bigger Splash” and your eyes will be filled.
“A Bigger Splash” 2 stars
An overheated look at a singer (Tilda Swinton) and her lover (Matthias Schoenaerts) getting interrupted on an Italian island by the arrival of her ex (Ralph Fiennes) and his daughter (Dakota Johnson). Everything’s overdone, but director Luca Guadagnino (“I Am Love”) makes this arty trash very enjoyable to look at.
Rating: R, for nudity, language, violence
Showing: Guild 45th
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
