FEEL IT.STREAM
?

James Scott

Directing

Known For

Love's Presentation
6.5

'Love's Presentation' may be a time capsule of a rising art-world star, but it also pokes fun at the perspective of a celebrity profile. In its opening sequence, an antsy-looking Hockney squirms as a narrator reads aloud critic Jasia Reichardt’s introduction to his star persona. Scott’s portrait of Hockney is more expansive, spurning the growing popular image of the artist in favor of following him at work; He’s described the film as a “how-to” documentary. Filmed in April '66 in Hockney’s ground-floor apartment and studio, Hockney himself improvised the narration while watching the film. We watch the artist carve delicate lines into the plates, submerge them in an acid bath outside his window, then wipe his hands on the window curtains... A rare, relaxed close-up on Hockney’s creative process.

Love's Presentation

1968Movie
The Rocking Horse
5.0

A chance love affair between a teddy boy and a painter, set in early 1960's London. This was a student film made with the assistance of a BFI grant and its influences include the British Free Cinema movement, John Cassavetes' Shadows (1959) and, for the love scene, Alain Resnais's Hiroshima Mon Amour (France, 1959). The film's young hero is a cross between James Dean's troubled teenager in Rebel Without a Cause (US, 1955) and Albert Finney's defiant mechanic in Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (d. Karel Reisz, 1960). Initially portrayed as a self-assured, arrogant and immature teenager, his chance meeting with a pretty, sophisticated middle-class artist reveals a more insecure, fragile side. The climactic love-making scene earned Scott the first X certificate given to an amateur filmmaker. This short film is an extra on the BFI Flipside DVD The Pleasure Girls.

The Rocking Horse

1962Movie