A Bigger Splash

Name: A Bigger Splash
Genre: Biography, Drama, Documentary
Released: October 5, 1974
Duration: 106 min
Cast: Celia Birtwell, David Hockney, Henry Geldzahler, Kasmin, Mike Sida

1974

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A Bigger Splash

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Movie Details & Credits

First Run Features | Release Date: October 5, 1974 | Not Rated

Starring: Celia Birtwell, David Hockney, Henry Geldzahler, Kasmin, Mike Sida, Mo McDermott, Ossie Clark, Patrick Procktor, Peter Schlesinger, Susan Brustman

Summary: 1971: the artist David Hockney is well on his way to art world super-stardom. Filmmaker Jack Hazan, camera rolling, follows Hockney from London to New York to Los Angeles - capturing the artist as he struggles to create what would prove to be some of his most enduring works: those featuring Hockney's model and lover, Peter Schlesinger.1971: the artist David Hockney is well on his way to art world super-stardom. Filmmaker Jack Hazan, camera rolling, follows Hockney from London to New York to Los Angeles - capturing the artist as he struggles to create what would prove to be some of his most enduring works: those featuring Hockney's model and lover, Peter Schlesinger. Straddling the boundary between documentary and fiction, A Bigger Splash tells the story of Hockney's breakup with Schlesinger and its effect on Hockney, his work, and his close circle of friends.… Expand

Director: Jack Hazan

Genre(s): Biography, Drama, Documentary

Rating: Not Rated

Runtime: 106 min

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Critic Reviews

Anthony Lane

By means of suggestive editing, plus a potent score by Patrick Gowers, Hazan makes us feel that we are watching a mystery. Naturally, no solution is provided. Read full review

Robert Abele

Private and odd, archly dreamy and intimate, A Bigger Splash remains one of the more uniquely hypnotic movies about the connection between presented life and pulsating art. Read full review

Wes Greene

Jack Hazan’s portrait of David Hockney stands between documentary and fictional film, reality and fantasy. Read full review

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majrouge

Aug 2, 2020

A Bigger Splash takes its name from a famous painting by David Hockney to which this film is attached. Halfway between documentary and fiction, we witness moments in the artist's life, at the heart of his intimacy and his studio.

The way A Bigger Splash unfolds his story is disconcerting toA Bigger Splash takes its name from a famous painting by David Hockney to which this film is attached. Halfway between documentary and fiction, we witness moments in the artist's life, at the heart of his intimacy and his studio.

The way A Bigger Splash unfolds his story is disconcerting to say the least. Despite the presence of dialogue scenes, most of the narration is suggestive and passes through the image, which is quite audacious and at the same time confusing since one can find oneself during a good part of the film not understanding what is happening on the screen, between banal conversations, characters contemplating their portrait in painting, Hockney working in his studio, men bathing naked in a swimming pool, an evening in a disco, I could go on and on. There's obviously a common thread that tries as best as possible to hold together all this mess, the romance between Hockney and his lover and the relationship between life and artistic creation, but it's all the more difficult to conceive of the interest of the whole since the hybrid nature of the film means that in the end we don't know what to think about it.

A Bigger Splash offers us some rather photographic shots and interesting forays into the creative process. As for the choice of music, it's again quite curious, I'm thinking in particular of a piece of disturbing mood, which appears several times and whose relevance is not always very clear.

This film is particularly hard to notice. Well, it's always a bit like that, but it's even more so here. As an indication, I would put a 5, because I can't say it's bad, any more than I can say it's good. In the end, I came out of it without really knowing what I had just watched, what was the intention and finally what was the point. A Bigger Splash might appeal to David Hockney fans, but it's certainly not a film for everyone.… Expand

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