I Am Love, the new film written and directed by Luca Guadagnino, starring Tilda Swinton and featuring a score by John Adams, receives its theatrical release in the UK and Ireland today. The film had its UK premiere at the Glasgow Film Festival and its Irish premiere at the Dublin Film Festival, both in February, and its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival last September. The Irish Times says the film, for all its decadence, "has to be seen to be believed."

Guadagnino's film tells the story of the wealthy Recchi family, whose lives are undergoing sweeping changes. Eduardo Sr., the family patriarch, has decided to name a successor to the reigns of his massive industrial company, surprising everyone by splitting power between his son Tancredi, and grandson Edo. But Edo dreams of opening a restaurant with his friend Antonio, a handsome and talented chef.

At the heart of the family is Tancredi's wife Emma (Swinton), a Russian immigrant who has adopted the culture of Milan. An adoring and attentive mother, her existence is shocked to the core when she falls quickly and deeply in love with Edo's friend and partner Antonio, and embarks on a passionate love affair that will change her family forever.

The film's score features music from a number of works by John Adams: the "Desert Chorus" from the opera The Death of Klinghoffer; Fearful Symmetries; the third movement from Shaker Loops, "Loops and Verses"; Lollapalooza; Part III from Harmonielehre, "Meister Eckhardt and Quackie"; movement one from Century Rolls; and the aria "Some men you cannot satisfy" from Act III of Nixon in China.

The Guardian has created a microsite for the film launch with the trailer, a first look behind the film's story, and the chance to win tickets to the Barbican production of Adams's I Was Looking at the Ceiling and Then I Saw the Sky at the Theatre Royal Stratford East July 10. Visit guardian.co.uk/i-am-love for more information and enter to win.

I Am Love has already screened at several US film festivals, including last year's Sundance and, most recently, at the Film Society of Lincoln Center for the New Directors / New Films series. It opens Stateside in select theaters in New York and Los Angeles in June, followed by a wider release this summer. New York Times critic Stephen Holden cited its "elegant lead performance by Tilda Swinton" and "throbbing musical score by John Adams," calling the film "a cinematic tour de force." Time Out New York gives the film five stars and exhorts: "See it by any means necessary."

For more on the film's forthcoming US release, visit iamlovemovie.com.