https://youtu.be/HnKQpmfdZhQ An entertainingly dated trailer with an oh-so-BBC-British voiceover!
This was an absolutely fascinating film, as much for the style as for the subject matter. It had significant elements of many different genres, which might be thought to make it a muddle but in fact, not so. There were fly-on-the-wall sequences where, unusually these days, one did not have the sense of things being said and actions undertaken solely for the benefit of the camera. It was also not afraid of silence; there were many shots, particularly of Hockney in his studio, where nothing, apparently happened. These scenes were very peaceful and a refreshing contrast to the more active and dynamic ones. Dialogue between characters in both these sort of scenes had a truly authentic ring and not the feel of badly acted, falsely created situations done for the benefit of the camera, which characterizes the ‘reality’ shows of today. I also got a distinct ‘Nou8velle Vague’ vibe in a number of scenes such as these, particularly when they were made up of very static close-up shots of the characters. This strange and unique mix on paper, should not have worked, but, somehow, it did. There was also an amazing amount of casual, fully frontal male nudity and a remarkably graphic sex scene, elements I suspect would not be the case if a similar sort of film was going to be made today.
But the characters were invariably front and centre. Hockney was the ostensible focus but the world of his people – fellow artists, gallery owners, lovers – were at least as interesting. Hockney, in fact, gave off an air of detachment throughout which was intriguing. For me this matched/was often dramatically appropriate for, the style of his work that we saw with its vivid colours yet also a certain ‘flatness’ certainly of figures where a sense of three-dimension al solidity was lacking – and this is emphatically NOT an adverse criticism of him or his work.
I was also fascinated by the social mix and charactergistics revealed. Very many of the people in this world were emphatically yet casually upper-middle class. This was clearly revealed in a casual comment by the elegant Celia Birtwell who laughingly remarked about how ‘very middle-class’ the décor of a ‘friends’ home was. Interestingly, Hockney’s Yorkshire accent was barely there; today it is much more pronounced. I wonder to what extent, conscious or otherwise, he was doing this to ‘fit in’.
The other element, and this is something I have noticed in other documentary programmes with fly-on-the-wall footage such as a recent one seen about Warhol, is a strong desire to know exactly who all the people are in crowd or party scenes. There was one marvelous sequence, at the Alternative Miss World competition where I could have done with name label/s to tell me who the people were. The competition, incidentally, incidentally, just referred to as Miss World not Alternative Miss World. But to everyone there I suppose it was the real thing.
An absolutely fascinating film and well worth seign while it is still on Netflix. Wish they had more interesting stuff like this!