A Bigger Splash (1973)

Movie
Original title	A bigger splash
Country of production	United Kingdom
original language	English
Publishing year	1973
length	105 minutes
Age rating	FSK 12
Rod
Director	Jack Hazan
script	Jack Hazan, ; David Mingay
production	Jack Hazan, ; Mike Kaplan
music	Patrick Gowers
camera	Jack Hazan
occupation
	David Hockney : as himself; Peter Schlesinger : as himself; Celia Birtwell : as herself; Henry Geldzahler : as himself; Ossie Clark : as himself; John Kasmin : as himself;

A Bigger Splash is the title of a film by British director Jack Hazan from 1973. In it, the painter David Hockney and his private and artistic environment is portrayed in a semi-documentary manner .

content

The film gives an intimate insight into the world of life and emotions of the artist David Hockney. For this purpose, the director Jack Hazan put documentary recordings together with fictional scenes. The time frame is made up of the years 1970 to 1973, the locations are London , New York and California . In a first scene in 1973, Hockney can be seen in a Geneva hotel room. This is followed by a look back at 1970, when Hockney, his friend Peter Schlesinger and the textile designer Celia Birtwell visit a show by the fashion designer Ossie Clark . In the summer of 1971, Hockney and his friend Peter Schlesinger split up. Hockney suffers greatly from the end of the love relationship. He plans to paint a portrait of Schlesinger by a swimming pool for an exhibition in New York. The creation of this painting with the title Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures) runs like a red thread through the film. Sometimes Hockney is shown working on the painting, sometimes sequences appear that seem like memories of the happy times of the relationship. These include scenes showing naked young men at a swimming pool in California. In other sequences, Schlesinger is shown having sex with another young man. These homoerotic images underline the end of the relationship with Hockney. His state of mind is revealed through a series of conversations with friends. These can be seen in the film not only as a person, but often also as portrayed in Hockney's paintings. For example, Ossie Clark and the gallery owner Henry Geldzahler appear in front of works in which they were portrayed by Hockney. Other well-known Hockney images can also be seen in the film, including the painting A Bigger Splash , from which the film title is borrowed.

criticism

Jack Hazan was a member of David Hockney's circle of friends in the early 1970s. Hazan persuaded Hockney to make this film, who initially assumed it would be a documentary-only film. When Hockney saw the finished film, he was disturbed by the intimacy of the film. To prevent the film - and thus its emotional world - from being released, Hockney offered £ 20,000 if Hazan destroyed the film. Only Hockney's circle of friends convinced him to agree to the film's release.

The film was shown at various festivals where it received positive reviews. For example, the film was shown during the Semaine de la Critique at the Cannes International Film Festival in 1974 . At the Locarno Festival in 1974 the film was awarded the Silver Leopard . The director Martin Scorsese described A Bigger Splash as "one of the finest films I have ever seen about an artist and his work" (meaning: one of the best films I have ever seen, about an artist and his work ).

Web links

Vincent Dowd: How 1970s Hockney film pre-empted reality TV , film review on the online offer of the BBC

Edition Salzgeber press release on the DVD release of the film A Bigger Splash

Individual evidence

^ Quote from Martin Scorsese reproduced in New York Magazine on July 25, 1994

[1] Quote from Martin Scorsese reproduced in New York Magazine on July 25, 1994