Christopher Nguyen
Art Event Report
A Bigger Splash: Analysis
Professor Laura Marks
A Bigger Splash by Jack Hazan
104 minutes
Feature film
In the film A Bigger Splash by Jack Hazan, the film provides the viewer with a unique sense of confusion and disturbing content. The film’s synopsis is about the real-life painter and artist, David Hockney and the aftermath of his break up with his partner and model Peter Schlesinger. The film also revolves around David Hockney’s daily life, with his personal friends, such as Celia Birtwell and her husband Ossie Clark, Mo McDermott and Henry Geldzahler, and some of his business associates. It’s shot in the style of a “fly on the wall” documentary, with some scenes that were fictional and scripted.
The music aspect of the film is what causes most of the confusion in my personal experience. Throughout the film, the music delivers a haunting and disturbing vibe that most viewers would perceive. The music is usually played in most of the scenes when David Hockney is painting or viewing his artistic works. A good representation of this is example is where David is viewing his gallery of artwork and photographs before leaving to take a shower. The music resembles that of suspense or mystery films from the Giallo genre due to its fast tempo. The opening credits play this, which gives viewers the first impression that this movie will have the elements of suspense or horror. The film gives the viewers the wrong expectations for what will occur in the film and thus leads what made me confused. The images during the credit sequence are also misleading. Throughout the sequence, they display portraits, most likely drawn by David, with the names of the actor coinciding with the portraits and David Hockney’s paintings. In the opening, the painting A Bigger Splash is shown, because that is the film’s title. The first shots focus on the splash on the painting, with the shots zooming in. Since I had no context to what the painting was, this gave me the impression that someone was drowning, given that no one can be seen in the water. The film leads me to the conclusion that the film would have the elements of death and mortality in it. For example, during Mo McDermott’s credits, the images give out a very disturbing appearance. It appears to be a drawing of him passed out or unconscious. He is also nude in the drawing, with his genitals appearing to be very prominent in the drawings. This gave me the impression that Mo McDermott was dead or at the very least passed out from consuming alcohol or drugs, judging from the combination of the horror like music playing during this scene. Another credit shows the names of Betty Freeman and Nick Wilder, with the drawing of two men who are both shirtless. One of them appears to be unconscious as well, which gave me the impression of the person that was also intoxicated or drugged again. The film leads me to believe that there was a theme of addictive alcoholic or drug usage.
In the scene when Celia Birtwell is driving to David’s apartment, the use of the music does not match up to the what occurs during the scene. Again, this use of music causes me to be confused due to the anti-climactic content. The type of music is quite uncomforting, as it is similar to movie sequences that will have a twist in the plot or some kind of material that will shock the viewers. The scene is constructed in that way. The camera positions on Celia’s face for a long period of time while she is driving and intercutting between point of view shots of her driving. Throughout, she looks nervous and uneasy. This gave me the thought that Celia had an instinct that something unfortunate was going to occur. When she looks up at David’s apartment, the shot of David’s window gives the viewer the expectation that the next shot will be in the interior of his apartment. I thought that the next shot would have David in a room with all his paintings destroyed or be found dead, since this film uses scenes that are fictional. Given the film’s context that many of the scenes do not hold back when it comes to showing scenes of graphic nature, such as when the film depicted Peter having graphic sex with an unnamed man that displayed their sex organs or when Peter is seen swimming naked in the pool with several other naked men that again displayed their sex organs, it would not be unlikely that the film would have displayed some graphic content during that scene.
Another scene where this occurs is at the scene when Peter Schlesinger candidly observes through a glass frame of two men dining, also is another great example of how the music is scene is confusing. The music’s slow pace and organ tune portrays the scene as if it’s derived from a horror or slasher movie. The men are unknowingly being observed by Peter, who is wet and naked from swimming and the viewer can clearly see his sex organs. The lighting in this scene was one of the elements that had mislead me into thinking something horrifying will occur. The background lighting is pitch black, where no viewer can see what’s background is. The lighting gave me the impression that something terrifying or grotesque, given that the men are being unknowingly observed and that Peter’s facial expressions mirrors that of a psychopath. The way that the camera positioning was also misleading. The camera focuses on Peter before switching to the one of the men eating. It gives the impression that Peter will commit an action. Given the combination of the camera positioning, lighting and music that most horror movies practice, I would have expected Peter to break through the glass window and begin to kill the men in a grotesque way. Instead, nothing occurs and Peter turns around and goes back to swimming in the pool. This led me to question as to why the director had deliberately set up the scene as if something occurs. The other notation I felt during this scene was disturbed. The scene has Peter, who is naked, staring at two men. The shots during this scene emphasized on Peter, and his genitals in the scene are lightened enough that a viewer would be able to notice them. The film changes to the perspective to both of the men dining. This made me connect with both of the men the camera was focused on, and gave me the sense of disturbance. It was the idea of being oblivious to being viewed by a frontal nude man with an expressionless face.
Other scenes play music that would not be interpreted as creepy or haunting, such as when David is creating his painting Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures), before turning around and begins to destroy another one of his paintings with a knife. The sound in this film is much less frightening compared to the sound in the other scenes that are similar to this one. The music is that of a man singing opera. The music leads to the wrong expectations of what will occur in the scene, as the music resembles that of a triumphant and victorious piece. The music plays this as David is painting, which is not very significant. In that scene, David is adding more color to an already existing part of his painting. The next scene shows David as he is destroying a piece of his artwork. His facial expressions show that he is angry or disgruntled. The shots of David destroying the painting focuses on the canvas and the knife, which I believe symbolizes that the painting had meant something to David. The way this scene is structured shows that this a low point in the film, rather than how the music portrays this scene as.
In the film A Bigger Splash by Jack Hazan, the film leaves the viewer with the sense of feeling disturbed and confused. The movie gives the wrong music to the audience and gives the wrong impression, with the cinematography and music resembling of films that belong in the horror genre. However, the content of the film and the content of the individual scenes do not reflect on how the film is constructed.
