Italian filmmaker Luca Guadagnino broke out in 2010 with his aesthetically sumptuous yet narratively thin I Am Love, an arthouse family melodrama that accentuated the art just a bit too much. Regardless, the film was, and remains, a lovely thing to behold, and there's similar vibe coming off the director's long-awaited follow-up, A Bigger Splash, which is based loosely on Jacques Deray's humid Alain Delon thriller, La Piscine, and gets its title from the famous David Hockney pop-art painting. In both cases, the central crux of the work is a violent act that disrupts or outright shatters a place of idyllic beauty, and from the look of the latest trailer for Guadagnino's film, that violent thing will almost certainly be in the personage of Ralph Fiennes.
The new trailer gives a more followable sense of what the plot turns of the film will be, including what seems to be the inciting arrival of Fiennes' unhinged Harry at the home of his old flame, rock star Marianne (Tilda Swinton), and her filmmaker beau (Matthias Schoenaerts). Swinton's character seems to be based partially on Michael Stipe of R.E.M., as the face paint she dons in the brief clip of her stage show would suggest. Add in Fifty Shades of Grey standout Dakota Johnson as Harry's lascivious daughter, who seems to have an incestuous relationship with her father, and things seem perched on total chaos. You can check out the new trailer for A Bigger Splash below:
Here's the official synopsis for A Bigger Splash, which will be released May 13th:
Rock legend Marianne Lane is recuperating on the volcanic island of Pantelleria with her partner Paul when iconoclast record producer and old flame Harry unexpectedly arrives with his daughter Penelope and interrupts their holiday, bringing with him an A-bomb blast of nostalgia from which there can be no rescue.
A BIGGER SPLASH is a sensuous portrait of desire, jealousy and rock and roll, under the Mediterranean sun.
