A Bigger Splash (DVD + Blu-ray)

This film made a huge impression on me. Apart from seeing things like Fox and His Friends on German tv this was the first proper gay film I saw in a cinema - I think in that arthouse cinema in Walton Street, Jericho, Oxford. I was already a big fan of David Hockney and love his work . Its a very atmospheric drama documentary about the year David created his iconic painting A Bigger Splash ( on location at Tony Richardsons villa in the South Of France).Its about his circle as well - his muse the delightful Celia Birtwell and her husband the legendary dress designer Ossie Clarke, the gay sculptor Andrew Logan here seen staging his first Alternative Miss World Contest,curator Henry Geldzahler of MOMA New York and all sorts of other fascinating creatures. Its womderful evocation of a group of artists, a time and a place. It's almost so camp its beyond camp.the essential charm and sheer likeability of David Hockney shines through every frame
this is a beatifully edited film with deeply satisfactory music.
I have watched it maybe twenty times and never tire of it. I have heard DH hated this film and I can understand why - it's brutally revealing about a lot of things that were going wrong in his life at the time, the ending of his relationship with his rather vacuous lover Peter, and his business relationship with the art dealer Kasmin.
I admire and love this film

This film meant a good deal to me long before I even saw it. I was too young to get into a cinema to see it when released in the mid 70s, but I read everything about it I could and remember standing agape at a huge poster advertising A Bigger Splash in a London tube station. I loved (and love) Hockney's paintings and the fact there was a mini-scandal over a gay sex scene in the movie, which got it banned in some places only made it more desirable to see it!

Since then I have seen a poor grainy video version of the film, partly cut, and even more heavily cut when it was on Channel 4. Originally an X certificate adults only film, it is now merely a 15! I'm not a film buff but the transfer on this DVD/Blue-ray set seems to be very good indeed, colours conveyed beautifully and how well lit and presented are Hockney's paintings!

This is a fictionalised documentary about the artist and his friends ... in the same way as modern shows like The Only Way is Essex. And what friends they are, the designers Celia Birtwell and her late husband Ossie Clark (murdered in the 90s) feature here, as well as Hockney's former partner, the photographer Peter Schlesinger and other beautiful young men - only identified by their first names. The story told concentrates on Hockney's state of mind after the break up of the relationship, and how this effects his ability to paint. It begins in 1973 and flashes back to 1971, then gradually bringing the story forward. Hockney's dependance on his friends is touching, especially to the intriguing Celia. There is a great deal of full-frontal male nudity in this film, including that of Hockney himself in one shower scene. The gay sex scene is of Peter Schlesinger with an unknown guy, and is certainly longer, grittier and more explicity erotic than anything in Brokeback Mountain! At the time, this shocked cinema goers.

I found the film mesmerising, but it does suffer from some longeurs and the narrative can be vague in places because of the way the director Jack Hazan made the film. Fortunately there are some brilliant extras included in this release, especially the detailed interview with Hazan himself. Recommended.

A Bigger Splash is a study of painters painting paint dry on the canvas as well as in their lives. It is an absorbing entrée into the bizarre world of the swinging '60's London and LA art scene involving Yorkshire painter David Hockney, his ex boyfriend Peter Schlesinger and the arty couple Celia Birtwell and Ossie Clark. The film has the feel of an improvised documentary and in fact the director, Jack Hazan, explains his methods in a fascinating interview which is an extra on the DVD. To many people the languid pace and lives of Hockney and his cronies as they go between LA and London organising their lives and forthcoming exhibitions seems tedious in the extreme and certainly doesn't make the art scene seem particularly glamorous. The scenes in California exude shimmering sun, wealth and space whereas West London is dull, drab, washed-out and down-at-heel. (The film was shot during Ted Heath's 3 day week and power cuts.) There is one sex scene in the film which is rather notorious (I was utterly transfixed when I was lucky enough to see it in the cinema) because it seems forced and gratuitous but this is not to detract from the success of the film as a whole. Yes, it is a boring fim, but still a compulsive watch thanks to the efforts of the director. For me the stars of the show are Patrick Procktor's paintings and the California swimmers. The other artists think that they are also great but probably are not.