A Bigger Splash

Three years in the making and 10 years in the releasing, A BIGGER SPLASH was first shown at the New York Film Festival in 1974 but waited on the shelf until 1984 for release in a minor art house. Essentially a fiction film in which all the characters play themselves, the picture has painter Hockney left by his male lover (Schlesinger). Hockney mopes around unable to finish a painting, much to the consternation of his friends. Occasionally interesting as a time capsule of the early 1970s art scene, the film is too serious in its treatment. It is as though if none of its characters ever laughs. Hazan and Mingay later brought their semidocumentary technique to RUDE BO...