MovieChat Forums > A Bigger Splash (2016) Discussion > Questions (spoilers)

Questions (spoilers)

posted 8 years ago by Interstellar98
6 replies | jump to latest

I liked the film a lot.

Even though a few things seemed uneven or improbable, I really enjoyed the characters, the acting, the imagery, the wardrobe, and the island as a character in itself. Sometimes I felt like I was watching a film from another era.

A few questions have lingered with me:

1. Paul and Penelope's behaviour at the last dinner was obvious enough that Harry could sense they had potentially gotten together. And Penelope practically admitted it. Did Marianne know too?

2. When Harry briefly was with Marianne, wasn't that non consensual? Did she not feel victimized? Did she tell Paul about it and that's why he confronted Harry, or was Paul just up and brooding and feeling guilty about Penelope when Harry got back?

3. Penelope said to Harry she had gotten what she had wanted, that it was everything she had hoped for, and would remember it always. Was she referring to sex, perhaps specfically with Paul, or even possibly losing her virginity, as a pre meditated agenda? She tends to speak in loaded meanings, e.g. 'We dived and dived and dived.'

4. It was Paul who placed the album in the pool, right?

5. Did the Italian officer really just drop the charges/investigation simply for autographs? Or had he bought into the suggestion that it could have been a migrant?

6. In the final expressions and reactions of Paul and Marianne in the car, it seems like she has a sudden realization and is about to say something. What could it be?

You can't be more horrific than life itself. - Francis Bacon

[–] chasm301 8 years ago

4. I think Penelope placed the record in the pool. There is a close up of the record and then a cut to Paul's face and he looks surprised. He gazes to the left and then it cuts to Penelope in the distance staring at everything. The record in the pool makes it potentially look like a suicide.

[–] Interstellar98 8 years ago

That would explain why Paul is asking Penelope in the police station if she had been awake in the night.

You can't be more horrific than life itself. - Francis Bacon

[–] filmfancy 7 years ago

I think Penelope placed the record in the pool.

I think you're right. I first assumed it was Paul, but it makes more sense if it was Penelope because of that scene in the police station with Paul asking if she had been up all night. He wanted to know if she had witnessed Paul and Harry fighting. This could be why he breaks down crying near the end, not because he feels guilty but because he's worried about what Penelope saw.

And all the pieces matter (The Wire)

[–] scovazze 8 years ago

5. The dumb cop is really hard to stomach. The guy is actually a comedy genius in Italy (you'd never have said, huh?) and I have no idea why he liked to play a bumbling idiot with the fakest South Italian accent ever. You didn't get his motives, neither did the Italian audience. Perhaps he really was just a super fan, perhaps he thought that arresting a global rockstar was too much trouble and way beyond his duties, perhaps he just didn't care about the lives of rich holidaymakers because the island has a bad problem with illegal migrants (his tone when he hinted at that was really despondent and unpleasant). We will just never know.

6. She's probably going to say "You killed him, did you".

[–] Interstellar98 8 years ago

Yeah, and she looks like she's about to speak in her normal voice, too!

You can't be more horrific than life itself. - Francis Bacon

[–] Mixalidis 7 years ago

Yeah, I think #3 is interesting. Does it imply that Harry took her with him to seduce Paul? Did she perhaps lose her virginity? Because I don't believe Harry actually ever slept with her.