Page 73 - Studio International - March April 1975

my attention when I went to an
exhibition at the Hayward
Gallery - all the American '60's
painters, and there was one
painting by Hockney of Henry
Geldzahler on a couch and it
stuck out as the most fascinating
one there. We use it in the film.
KG-Y That explains how a film
came to be made about David
Hockney but how did you settle
on the plot and its development?
JH It's a rather difficult question
to answer. We always wanted to
make a long film and originally I
tried to get the BBC interested in a
film on David Hockney and tried
to get the Arts Council interested,
Shun-ichi Shima but for their own reasons, I was
42x 120 mm
rejected by both. Meanwhile, I
was carrying on with the film on Meanwhile inside the house you
Hockney, not filming very much see Celia with Peter, the ex boy . JH Oh that's because we made it
look like a feature film, where you
in the first year, but going around friend of David. They both look take one shot and then overlap
to see him and I noticed that he beside themselves with guilt, for with another shot so that you get
became very comfortable in my they know they couldn't let him a definite continuity and people
company. After a year of this, we in. Like many of the things in the begin to believe in it.
more or less knew what we
film it could have happened or
wanted to do and we knew the DM On the other hand, the
relationships involved. We then may even have actually occurred. dialogue scenes, you will have
It had a basis in fact. That's why it noticed, were usually not in close
involved these relationships in a
fictional plot which obviously had is exasperating to some people. It up and not written but
Hideki Kimura could all have happened. improvised. They were
42x 120 mm a strong basis in reality. Scenes
were faked up or fabricated by us KG-Y The dialogue in the car unrepeatable for the camera and
but the overall factual situation between David Hockney and must, to that extent, mitigate your
and feeling was meant to be very Mo McDermott is invented by feelings of unease.
real. you is it ? KG-Y Can I ask you how you
KG-Y Yes, but how did the JH Totally: and the scene near maintained first, the plot, and,
reconstructions within the plot the end of the film with David secondly, the visually consistent
come to take the form they did ? Hockney and the girl on the bed in style?
They were presumably only New York is also a good example. JH The plot was flexible and
partial reconstructions - like that What we generally did - and did arbitrary. I'd go out and shoot
of the creation of the painting. there - was to inform one person and come back and cut it, looking
DM I always remember that we of the two, in this case the girl, of at it on a movieola [an editing
thought all the time that feature what we wanted. If everyone was machine] and see if it was
films were not real at all and that feeling in a good mood, we were effective. It was a fantastic boon
documentaries were real in some able to get a definite response, to be able to write it as we went
Alberr Shomaly senses but unsatisfactory. I'm without them being self- along.
42x 120 mm sure you understand what we consciously filmed. One person DM We didn't build it up with a
mean by that. The idea was would provoke the response from view to any re-shooting. Every
therefore if you take a real person the other. time Jack had an idea or shot a
with real paintings, you already KG-Y So that explains scene, it was a solid activity. It
have a situation of super-realism the kind of mishearings and wasn't disregarded or altered. It
A but on the other hand if it isn't misunderstandings that Hockney was merely assembled and it was
perfectly filmed, if it doesn't have has in that scene. a stepping-stone.
Bigger the pictorial quality of a feature JH Yes, that is genuine. He was a JH It is, as you obviously see,
film - that is, if it isn't shot in bit pissed at the time, I remember, difficult to maintain consistency
Splash 35mm with controlled camera and and couldn't hear. of style at the beginning. But when
figure movement and if the sound it became rhythmic, shooting once
isn't good, then you fail. And KG-Y The film, as a whole, or twice a week, it then became
indeed, if the story is as inclusive doesn't look anything like an
Kevin Gough-Yates talks to the extemporized documentary does obvious what the style was going
and unpointed as real life....
makers of 'A Bigger Splash', it? I'm thinking of the linking to be. It was plain sailing from
Jack Hazan and David Mingay. JH Like most documentaries in sequences where you might have then on. It is very nerve-racking
Although the film-title derives from fact! three or four camera set-ups: filming even once or twice a week
the Hockney painting of 1967, the DM That's right. But neither did someone gets out of the car, the because every time you go out it is
film pivots on the painting of Peter we want a film that was camera location changes, and then like starting a new movie.
Schlesinger by a pool, 'Portrait opportunistic like many changes again. KG-Y What about working with
of an Artist'. Hockney acts the documentaries - simply using the
central figure. The film was made best bits of film that the film-
between 1970 and 1974. makers happen to hit when the
KG-Y I admired your treatment cameras are running and put
of the subject in A Bigger Splash. together after the event. Our idea
Could you outline for me where was to produce a more controlled
the idea came from in the first film which would be a feature film.
place. We made an allowance for using
real people and for the acting out
JH It wasn't really my idea to do a
hIm on David Hockney - in fact, 1 of fantasies or hypotheses about
resisted it because I had already the characters which were thought
done two films on artists. So I up by the director.
didn't really want to make any JH Of course, many of the
more films on painters or painting, situations in the film were not
but David Mingay, who is my reconstructed at all. They were
partner and who collaborated inventions by us. Only a few,
with me on earlier projects, however, were thought up on the
suggested that I should continue spur of the moment. Let me give
with another film on an artist and you an example: when David
that artist should be David drives up to Celia's house and
Hockney. rings the bell, she doesn't answer
DM David Hockney first came to and he drives off distraught.
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