hockney, weekend and a party worth remembering

November 1, 2026

David Hockney: a splash without a swimmer

Start with David Hockney’s A Bigger Splash. His foundation’s 1967 chronology places the painting alongside his continuing experiments with water, light and reflection. The absent swimmer is a useful prompt: desire can be suggested by a trace rather than a body placed in the middle of the frame. A pool, a disturbance, somebody just out of sight. Not every invitation needs to introduce itself.

David Hockney’s A Bigger Splash: a white splash breaks a blue swimming pool beside a diving board and a modern house.

Explore Hockney’s 1967 work.

Weekend

A one-night stand is often an ending, a joke or a complication. Andrew Haigh’s Weekend uses it as the beginning of a conversation.

The 2011 film follows Russell and Glen, played by Tom Cullen and Chris New, through a brief encounter that extends across a weekend. Its scale is small enough to make the question of what comes next feel very large.

That is the reason to put it on an after-dark list. Not because a hookup needs romance to become respectable, but because physical intimacy and emotional disclosure do not necessarily arrive in the same order. A stranger can know one part of you before he knows anything else.

The useful thing to notice is what the premise refuses to rush past: the time after attraction has done its opening work. What can two people ask each other? Which version of themselves do they offer? How much can be said before the available time runs out?

Criterion’s edition includes a conversation with Haigh specifically about the sex scenes, giving the curious viewer somewhere to take that discussion beyond the film. No grand claim about the definitive gay experience is necessary. Two men and a short stretch of time are plenty.

Criterion’s Weekend cover shows two men resting together in bed beneath the film’s title.

Explore Weekend at Criterion. Adult themes; this is an evergreen film pick, not a claim of free streaming access.

From my media collectionWeekend (2011)Director: Andrew Haigh • Genre: Drama, Romance • Year: 2011Andrew Haigh’s film on Trove.View on Trove

Pet Shop Boys: Being Boring

Finish with Being Boring. The band’s own site points to the corrected HD version of its official video, replacing an American edit that had been uploaded by mistake. That is a good reason to follow the artist’s link rather than whichever reupload turns up first. Pair it with Weekend as an invitation to think about time spent with other people, not a demand to produce a life lesson before the music ends.

Watch through the official Pet Shop Boys page.

From my media collectionPet Shop Boys — Behaviour (1990)Artist: Pet Shop Boys • Year: 1990The original album featuring Being Boring.View on Trove

Image credits: David Hockney, A Bigger Splash, 1967, Tate, via The David Hockney Foundation; © David Hockney. Weekend still and edition cover by Jason Hardy via The Criterion Collection. Limited contextual images of the works discussed; no endorsement implied.