A Bigger Splash

Sick sick movie. Open nudity sexuality while also being keen and discerning in
examining the relationships that can exist among broken people. It seems to be a
love quadrangle? Both ralph fiennes and matias try to assert their masculinity in
separate ways. Something I think all men do, find a way to feel that Hollywood era
masculinity, all men want to ooze that james bond sensuality. They want to be
funloving and have cool stories, they want to be intense and mysterious. The fact is
we cant really be all that in one, and thus it becomes tiresome, one note and
ultimately destructive. A bigger splash is ultimately a deconstruction on different
modes of masculinity as well as femininity. You can be the mysterious sensuous
stranger or the wise older woman. Either way, as with the masculinity it leads to
disorder and chaos as it clashes with the other. But for all its hidden decoding a
bigger splash is sumptuous, a delight. Its a film that plays with rhythm and style,
the images, the editing, the cinematography is as free form and fluid as the story
itself. It breathes a sense of alcoholic air into the film, as if the whole thing was
being filmed while slightly inebratied. And the film is better for it! Its not tied down
to standard conventions in any form, the tale taking left turns, to make statemants
one wouldnt think would happen in the beginning of the film. The killing of raplh
fienneds character is a killing of the previous life. Its as much frustration of himself
for sleeping with his daughter (the left ambiguous textually, subtextually, I belive it
to be clear that he did). He doesnt just kill him, he kills everything he stands for. He
eliminates every facet of his past from the recent past to the distant past. This is
the only way that will allow his relationship to move forward with Mariehamm,
something that would otherwise have become stunted had such a shock not
removed the shock of underage infidelity.