Classy arthouse film is a cut above

A BIGGER Splash is the sort of movie that underlines the chasm between Hollywood and European cinema - with a narrative style, arthouse sensibility and unpredictable-ness that sets it well apart from blockbuster territory. Italian director Luca Guadagnino (I am Love, 2009) is not the sort of filmmaker to play it safe, and his latest offering is no typical three-act drama.

Instead, Guadagnino (who wrote the screenplay with David Kajganich) plonked cast and crew on a remote volcanic Italian island between Sicily and Tunisia for two months, then rolled the creative dice (and cameras) in search of movie kismet. The result - a slow-burning, overtly erotic psychological drama - is about as far removed from the Hollywood playbook as can be imagined.

The film's title was purloined from a 1967 painting by David Hockney while the story itself is loosely based on La Piscine (The Swimming Pool), a 1969 Jacques Deray movie starring Alain Delon and Romy Schneider. A pool features prominently in Guadagnino's version, but the ripples are caused by the players themselves.

Chief among them is Ralph Fiennes, reaffirming his reputation as an actor's actor whose commitment to his craft knows no bounds, whether it's a starring role such as the concierge in The Grand Budapest Hotel or the petit bonbon of a role he played in Hail, Caesar! In A Bigger Splash, Fiennes is pitch perfect as Harry Hawkes, a rock music producer with an abrasive personality to match - he's simply the loudest and most irritating person in any room.

Harry has descended unexpectedly on the island of Pantelleria and interrupted the idyllic summer sojourn of his rock-star ex - Marianne Lane (Tilda Swinton, sheathed in Christian Dior and looking every inch a star) and her photographer lover Paul (Matthias Schoenaerts). His arrival at their hillside love nest - together with Penelope (Dakota Johnson), his newly discovered daughter from a previous dalliance - upsets the existing dynamic and risks causing a setback to Marianne's recovery from a throat operation.

She is unable to speak beyond a whisper while Harry - strutting his stuff and simulating an Energizer Bunny on Speed - is a force of nature who treats every conversation as a contest he needs to win. Paul, a recovering alcoholic, is understandably unamused at this turn of events - even though a flashback reveals that it was Harry who introduced Marianne to him several years ago.

Sun, sea and vast quantities of sexual tension ensue. Emotions threaten to erupt at any time. While Harry revels in stories of his past exploits, swivelling his hips poolside and lip-synching to The Rolling Stones, Penelope pouts provocatively and demonstrates the kind of divisive behaviour that casts doubts on the exact nature of her relationship with her dad.

Marianne simply goes with the flow while Paul simmers and seethes, barely tolerating his rival's presence. Harry, brash and impulsive, takes pleasure in getting under Paul's skin. "Honesty is the greatest fidelity," he declares. "The world is not ready for your honesty," replies Paul with a grimace.

Events take place against a backdrop of an impending windstorm and the film also includes a scene or two involving the migrant situation that is currently engulfing this part of the world. The main concern for A Bigger Splash though, is the evocative and vaguely unsettling study of four people who occupy a very different world.

Rating: B