A Bigger Splash
(1975/First Run DVD)
Picture: C+
Sound: C+ Extras: C Film: B-
Jack Hazan wanted to make a film about the great painter
and artists David Hockney and Hockney agreed.
What was supposed to be about the painter turns into an abstract film
about the breakup between the artist and Peter Schlesinger, his pretty boy gay
lover in A Bigger Splash. The
1975 film was banned and/or edited in several countries for what turns out to
be simple nudity and a scene of sexual intimacy between Schlesinger and a young
man other than Hockney that is far from graphic.
Hockney was obsessed with what he perceived to be
Schlesinger’s beauty and featured him in work after work in a way that far
surpasses any obsessive tendencies Andy Warhol could have ever been accused of
having over Joe Dallesandro. The film
was supposed to be a booklike documentary, but Hazan decides to edit it more
abstractly in a way suggesting both ironic distance between the men and in a way
that suggests the loneliness of the artist in the way the visuals of his art
are composed. Unfortunately, the film
lands up in an unintended twilight zone between both. Also, a scene with four young nude men swimming
for a while in a beautiful swimming pool similar to those in Hockney’s works
suggests an attempt to offer a gay male version of Mikhail K. Kalatozov’s 1964
Russian/Cuban, Communist/Socialist classic I Am Cuba (whether they had
seen it or not) without any political subtexts, save sexual freedom.
The film has too many scenes that seem staged, so
somewhere during the production, the idea of a purely journalistic documentary
went out the window. The film never
offers why the breakup happened, except that the “sexy” young guy left the
older one behind for more young guys, which is as clichéd as anything. It never asks outside of Hockney’s money
and/or fame why Schlesinger was with Hockney in the first place. Instead, everyone feels like cutout to be fit
into one of Hockney’s works and though that is “artistic” and visually
interesting, it does not tell us enough about what is going on here, so A
Bigger Splash can only show Hockney trapped in his own work. That alone makes it still worth a look.
The letterboxed 1.85 X 1 image was shot on film and the
print here is clean, clear and colorful throughout. Too bad this was not anamorphically enhanced,
because cinematographer-turned-director Hazan has created a good-looking
work. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono is not
bad, especially for its age, pointing to the materials being well kept in both
cases. Extras include stills, text
interview with Hazan, text notes on the film and four trailers for other First
Run titles.
For more on Hockney, try this link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/10046/Before+Stonewall/After+Stonewall+(1
- Nicholas Sheffo
