David Hockney : Pleasures of the Eye

David Hockney's ideas come from many different sources but his vibrant and comfortably relaxed house in the Hollywood hills, where much of the film was made, is a constant source of inspiration, as is his beach house in Malibu.

In this book, Hockney talks about his philosophy, his life and his work, acting as a guide to the large narrative painting "A visit with Christopher and Don", "Santa Monica Canyon 1984", to one of his 1980s photocollages and to an exhibition of his stage designs for Eric Satie's "Parade" in Munich.

The cameras also capture him organizing a rehang of his paintings at a show in Rotterdam and speaking at the opening of his major drawings exhibitions at the Royal Academy, London, in 1995.

Seen in his element driving his red sports car through the Santa Monica mountains to the strains of Wagner and enthusiastically participating in a race of his beloved dachshunds, Hockney comes over as a good-humoured figure, who has a melancholy side, a gentle artist whose greatest pleasure lies in visual beauty.