Lff 2015: A Bigger Splash Gala

Everyone having a Fiennes old time?Inspired by the 1969 French erotic drama La Piscine and titled after the famous David Hockney painting, A Bigger Splash is a film with a great deal bubbling under the surface, and the cast were bubling when it launched at the BFI London Film Festival last night.A second collaboration for Tilda Swinton, here playing Bowie-esque rock star Marianne Lane with herusual aplomb, and Italian filmmaker Luca Guadagnino (I Am Love), A Bigger Splash also boasts a spectacular comic turn from Ralph Fiennes as record producer Harry, who dive-bombs back into Marianne’s life, shattering the sweet silence of her new existence with attractively brooding partner Paul (Matthias Schoenaerts).This film is a study in contrasts; flashbacks to a glittering, degenerate superstar lifestyle jangling between lush, expansive explorations of sleepy Sicilian heat, and Swinton’s expressive, voiceless gestures (Marianne is on vocal rest after throat surgery) an elegant foil to Fiennes’ manic loquacity.