A Bigger Splash

"We're all obscene."

2015 2h 5m EN

😐

6.2

MID

🍅

89%

FRESH

👌

METACRITIC

⭐

6.4

IMDB

★6.2TMDB · 877🍅89%Rotten Tomatoes●74Metacritic★6.4IMDB · 36,377

DramaThrillerRomance

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

An American couple, Paul and Marianne, spend their vacation in Italy and experience trouble when Marianne invites a former lover and his teenage daughter to visit, which leads to jealousy and dangerous sexual scenarios.

“We're all obscene.”

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Cast

Tilda Swinton
Marianne Lane
Matthias Schoenaerts
Paul De Smedt
Ralph Fiennes
Harry Hawkes
Dakota Johnson
Penelope Lanier
Corrado Guzzanti
Maresciallo
Alessandro Ferrara
Carabiniere 1
David Maddalena
Carabiniere 2
Salvatore Gabriele
Mayor

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Luca Guadagnino
Writers: David Kajganich, Alain Page
Languages: English, French, Italian
Countries: France, Italy, United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Released 11 years ago.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

Dialogue crosses 3 languages: English, French, Italian.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

International production across 3 countries: France, Italy, United States of America.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Luca Guadagnino, shot by Yorick Le Saux. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Walter Fasano shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Tilda Swinton and Matthias Schoenaerts and Ralph Fiennes carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "We're all obscene.".

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

WILD

Did you know

IMDB entry: tt2056771 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Luca Guadagnino directs. Yorick Le Saux behind the camera. Walter Fasano cuts. Produced in France, Italy, United States of America. Dialogue in English, French, Italian.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Released 11 years ago.
2Dialogue crosses 3 languages: English, French, Italian.
3International production across 3 countries: France, Italy, United States of America.
4Directed by Luca Guadagnino, shot by Yorick Le Saux. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
5Editor Walter Fasano shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
6Tilda Swinton and Matthias Schoenaerts and Ralph Fiennes carry the top of the cast.
7Marketing tagline: "We're all obscene.".
8IMDB entry: tt2056771 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

The technical file

Cinematography: Yorick Le Saux
Editing: Walter Fasano
Production design: Maria Djurkovic
Costume design: Giulia Piersanti
Makeup / hair: Paola Cristofaroni
VFX supervisor: Luca Saviotti
Sound: Jean-Pierre Laforce
Runtime: 125 min · 2h 5m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Box office: $7,545,758
Original language: EN
Certification (US): R
IMDB: A Bigger Splash (2015)
Rotten Tomatoes: 89% 🍅 Fresh
Metacritic: 74/100
IMDB rating: 6.4/10 · 36,377 votes
MPAA: R

Awards

4 wins & 19 nominations total

Also by

Luca Guadagnino

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Trailers & featurettes

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Community reviews

What people are saying

Reno2016-09-29
★ 4/10
Italian holiday! Musics, dances and the water splash. No offense whoever liked it, but for me it is one of the bad films of the year. It is not a Hollywood, but the cast is and an English language film entirely shot in Italy. The performances were powerful, but the story was weak, maybe the pace to blame. Because it is a two hour long drama about the triangular (maybe quadrangle) romance who are holidaying in Italy. Musical presentation was the highlight and most of the time sets near water like a pool or the sea where water splash happens very often like it was mentioned in the title. Tilda Swinton speaks rarely in it, but her presence was good. Matthias Schoenerts was one of the main cast, but his frequent on and off makes his presence ineffective. And then Dakota Johnson, I don't know why she's in this, but glamouraouly impacted the storytelling. With all this, Ralph Fiennes led the narration alone, with his brilliant act. Like he was never seen before, awesome dedication. I think it should be watched for him, but not enough to praise the overall film. If you are looking for a normal drama, this is not the right one to pick. This is kind of experimental film, but there's nothing more refreshing, most of the contents were boring. There's no story, just a vacation events where one another all the main characters try to impress. So it is definitely not for everyone, but if you like it, that's good for the film and you, Whatever, I won't favour it unless you got nothing else to try. The music was good, the locations were beautiful, but the film soared with its weakness than the good stuffs and that's how it fared. 4/10
CinemaSerf2024-10-21
★ 7/10
Can you imagine being on holiday with your hunky boyfriend only to discover half way through that your slightly dysfunctional ex has arrived with his teenage daughter! Personally, I'd be on the first plane home but rock star "Marianne" (Tilda Swinton) decides to stick it out with her film-making squeeze "Paul" (Matthias Schoenaerts) when "Harry" (Ralph Fiennes) shows up with "Penny" (Dakota Johnson). Initially, the toxicity seems to be under control but quickly we see things spiral into a fairly entertainingly internecine series of scenarios that drown us in a mix of nostalgia, resentment and a fair degree of lust too as the drink starts to flow and the truths start to emerge - be they actually true or not! It's Fiennes who delivers best here, I think, encapsulating the character of the flawed, almost delusional, "Harry" in a fashion that quite successfully gets under your finger nails. Schoenaerts gets naked enough times to justify his inclusion on the eye-candy chart and also provides quite a powerful steam-valve for the young "Penny" who appears to know exactly what she is after here... It's a bit on the long side, and like many of Luca Guadagnino's films does linger a little too much on the admittedly gorgeous Sicilian establishing photography and the pacing can come across as quite lazy at times, but when the poison is flowing effectively through the punchy dialogue, the film allows all four of these rather unlikeable characters to illustrate an holiday from hell that looks set to end in tragedy.