Surviving Picasso

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Surviving Picasso
Surviving Picasso film poster.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by James Ivory
Screenplay by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
Based onPicasso: Creator and Destroyer
by Arianna Stassinopoulos Huffington
Produced by
Starring
Cinematography Tony Pierce-Roberts
Edited byAndrew Marcus
Music by Richard Robbins
Production
companies
Distributed by Warner Bros.
Release date
  • September 20, 1996 (1996-09-20)
Running time
125 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$16 million
Box office$2 million

Surviving Picasso is a 1996 American biographical drama film directed by James Ivory and starring Anthony Hopkins as the famous painter Pablo Picasso. It was produced by Ismail Merchant and David L. Wolper. Ruth Prawer Jhabvala's screenplay was loosely based on the 1988 biography Picasso: Creator and Destroyer by Arianna Stassinopoulos Huffington. It was a box-office bomb, grossing $2 million at the box office against a budget of $16 million.

Contents

Plot

The young Françoise Gilot meets Picasso in Nazi-occupied Paris, where Picasso is complaining that people broke into his house and stole his linen, rather than his paintings. It shows Françoise being beaten by her father after telling him she wants to be a painter, rather than a lawyer. Picasso is shown as often not caring about other people's feelings, firing his driver after a long period of service, and as a womanizer, saying that he can sleep with whomever he wants.

In addition to Françoise, the film depicts several of the women who were important in Picasso's life, such as Olga Khokhlova, Dora Maar, Marie-Thérèse Walter, and Jacqueline Roque.

Cast

Production

The producers were unable to get permission to show the works of Picasso in the film, so the film is more about Picasso's personal life rather than his works. Where it does show paintings, they are not his more famous works. When Picasso is shown painting Guernica , the camera sits high above the painting, with the work only slightly visible.[ citation needed ]

The film was shot in Paris and southern France.

Reception

Critical response

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes , 35% of 20 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 5.1/10. [1] Metacritic , which uses a weighted average , assigned the film a score of 55 out of 100, based on 18 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews. [2]

Box office

In the United States and Canada, Picasso grossed $2 million at the box office, against a budget of $16 million. [3]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pablo Picasso</span> Spanish painter and sculptor (1881–1973)

Pablo Ruiz Picasso was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th century, he is known for co-founding the Cubist movement, the invention of constructed sculpture, the co-invention of collage, and for the wide variety of styles that he helped develop and explore. Among his most famous works are the proto-Cubist Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (1907) and the anti-war painting Guernica (1937), a dramatic portrayal of the bombing of Guernica by German and Italian air forces during the Spanish Civil War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dora Maar</span> French artist and partner of Pablo Picasso (1907–1997)

Henriette Theodora Markovitch, known as Dora Maar, was a French photographer, painter, and poet. A romantic partner of Pablo Picasso, Maar was depicted in a number of Picasso's paintings, including his Portrait of Dora Maar and Dora Maar au Chat.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marie-Thérèse Walter</span> Lover of Pablo Picasso (1909–1977)

Marie-Thérèse Walter was a French model and lover of Pablo Picasso from 1927 to about 1935 and the mother of their daughter Maya Widmaier-Picasso. Their relationship began when she was seventeen years old; he was 45 and married to his first wife, Olga Khokhlova. It ended after Picasso moved on to his next relationship, with artist Dora Maar. Walter is known as Picasso's "golden muse" and inspired numerous artworks and sculptures that he created of her during their relationship.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Françoise Gilot</span> French painter (1921–2023)

Françoise Gaime Gilot was a French painter. Gilot was an accomplished artist, notably in watercolors and ceramics, and a bestselling memoirist of the book Life with Picasso.

<i>Dora Maar au Chat</i> Painting by Pablo Picasso

Dora Maar au Chat is an oil-on-canvas painting by Pablo Picasso. It was painted in 1941 and depicts Dora Maar, the artist's lover, seated on a chair with a small cat perched on her shoulders. The painting is listed as one of the most expensive paintings, after achieving a price of $95 million at Sotheby's on 3 May 2006. It is currently the sixth-highest-selling painting by Picasso.

<i>The Weeping Woman</i> Oil painting by Pablo Picasso

The Weeping Woman is a series of oil on canvas paintings by Pablo Picasso, the last of which was created in late 1937. The paintings depict Dora Maar, Picasso's mistress and muse. The Weeping Woman paintings were produced by Picasso in response to the bombing of Guernica in the Spanish Civil War and are closely associated with the iconography in his painting Guernica. Picasso was intrigued with the subject of the weeping woman, and revisited the theme numerous times that year. The last version, created on 26 October 1937, was the most elaborate of the series, and has been housed in the collection of the Tate Modern in London since 1987. Another Weeping Woman painting created on 18 October 1937 is housed at the National Gallery of Victoria and was involved in a high-profile political art theft.

<i>Woman in Hat and Fur Collar</i> Painting by Pablo Picasso

The Woman in Hat and Fur Collar is a painting by Pablo Picasso executed in 1937 and exhibited at the National Art Museum of Catalonia in Barcelona, Spain.

Minotauromachy is a 19.5 by 27.4” etching and engraving created by Spanish artist Pablo Picasso in Paris in 1935. The etching and resulting prints, literally entitled Minotaur Battle, feature many compositional aspects and themes seen often in Picasso’s art throughout the 1930s. These include the Minotaur, an unconscious or dying female matador on an injured horse, a young girl holding a candle and flowers, a man scaling a ladder, and two women watching with doves from a window. Created during a time of personal turmoil within which Picasso created little artwork, Minotauromachy stands out as a seminal and striking piece with no shortage of artistic interpretations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jacqueline Roque</span> French model

Jacqueline Picasso or Jacqueline Roque was the muse and second wife of Pablo Picasso. Their marriage lasted 12 years until his death, during which time he created over 400 portraits of her, more than any of Picasso's other lovers.

Pierre Le Guennec is a retired French electrician who announced, in 2010, that he was in possession of 271 undocumented, never before seen works by Pablo Picasso that were estimated to be worth at least 60 million euros.

<i>La Lecture</i> 1932 painting by Pablo Picasso

La Lecture is a painting by Spanish artist Pablo Picasso completed in January 1932. The oil painting depicts Picasso's mistress and muse, Marie-Thérèse Walter, asleep with a book upon her lap. The painting led to the breakup of Picasso's marriage to Olga Khokhlova after she saw it at a retrospective exhibition and realised that the facial features were not her own. The painting went to auction in 1989 and in 1996, where it failed to sell. In January 2011, it was announced that La Lecture would be going to auction on 8 February. The painting, which had not been seen in Europe since the exhibition, was then displayed at Sotheby's in Paris.

Picasso: Magic, Sex, & Death (2001) is a three-episode Channel 4 film documentary series on Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) presented by the artist's friend and biographer John Richardson, and directed by Christopher Bruce or British art critic Waldemar Januszczak, who was also the series director. On-screen contributors include Picasso descendants such as Paloma Picasso, Bernard Ruiz-Picasso, Diana Widmaier-Picasso, Maya Picasso, and Claude Picasso; along with authorities such as Mary Ann Caws, Billy Klüver, Gérard Régnier, James Lord, Bernard Minoret, Robert Rosenblum, Linda Gasman, Marilyn McCully, David Gilmore and Gertje Utley; one former mistress ; and one flirtation.

Woman in a Red Armchair is an oil on canvas painting by artist Pablo Picasso. It was painted in 1929 and is housed at the Menil Collection in Houston, Texas. The painting was influenced by Surrealism and may be a portrait of Picasso's first wife, Olga Khokhlova, whom he married in 1918. It was vandalised while on display in 2012, but quickly restored.

<i>Girl before a Mirror</i> 1932 painting by Pablo Picasso

Girl before a Mirror(French: Jeune fille devant un miroir) is an oil on canvas painting by Pablo Picasso, which he created in 1932. The painting is a portrait of Picasso's mistress and muse, Marie-Thérèse Walter, who is depicted standing in front of a mirror looking at her reflection. It is housed in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maya Widmaier-Picasso</span> Daughter of Pablo Picasso and Marie-Thérèse Walter (1935–2022)

María de la Concepción "Maya" Widmaier-Picasso, later known as Maya Ruiz-Picasso, was the eldest daughter of Spanish painter Pablo Picasso and Marie-Thérèse Walter. She devoted part of her life to the study and preservation of the legacy of her father.

<i>Le Repos</i> (Picasso) 1932 painting by Pablo Picasso

Le Repos is an oil-on-canvas painting created by Pablo Picasso in 1932. It depicts a portrait of Marie-Thérèse Walter, the artist's lover and muse, in a sleeping pose. The painting was produced in the midst of their relationship and is a demonstration of Picasso's love for his mistress. Le Repos was one of a series of sleeping portraits of Walter that Picasso created in 1932. On 14 May 2018, the painting achieved a value of $36.9 million when it was sold at Sotheby's auction.

<i>Femme au Chien</i> Painting by Pablo Picasso

Femme au Chien is an oil-on-canvas painting by Pablo Picasso, which he painted in 1962. It is a portrait of Picasso's second wife, Jacqueline Roque, and their dog Kaboul, an Afghan Greyhound. The painting is an illustration of the great affection that Picasso displayed for both of the subjects in the portrait and has elements of the cubist style that he pioneered. It was produced in Picasso's later years when the couple was living at Notre-Dame-de-Vie, near Mougins, France. On 14 May 2019, it was sold at Sotheby's auction for almost $55 million and is now housed in the collection of Wynn Fine Art in Florida.

<i>Femme au béret et à la robe quadrillée (Marie-Thérèse Walter)</i> Painting by Pablo Picasso

Femme au béret et à la robe quadrillée is an oil-on-canvas painting by Pablo Picasso, which he created in 1937. It is a portrait of Marie-Thérèse Walter, Picasso's lover and muse during this period and was created with elements of Cubism. The painting signifies a transition in their relationship by combining Walter's profile with that of Picasso's new lover, the Surrealist photographer Dora Maar, with whom he began a relationship in 1936. This portrait was produced in the same year as Guernica and The Weeping Woman, a significant phase in Picasso's artistic career. On 28 February 2018, it was sold at Sotheby's auction for £49.8 million, making it one of the most expensive paintings ever sold at an auction in Europe.

<i>Girl with a Red Beret and Pompom</i> Painting by Pablo Picasso

Girl with a Red Beret and Pompom is a 1937 painting by Pablo Picasso. It hangs in the main reception area of the private member's club Annabel's in Berkeley Square in London's Mayfair district.

<i>Bust of a Seated Woman (Jacqueline Roque)</i> 1960 oil painting by Pablo Picasso

Bust of a Seated Woman (Jacqueline Roque) is an oil painting by the Spanish artist Pablo Picasso, painted between 2 April and 10 May 1960. It depicts Jacqueline Roque, a woman with whom he had started a relationship in 1954, after his divorce from Françoise Gilot, and who he would marry in 1961. The painting belongs to the Unterlinden Museum in Colmar, Alsace, since 1967, when it was bought by the museum following a successful Picasso exhibition there. Its inventory number is 88.RP.400.

References

  1. "Surviving Picasso". Rotten Tomatoes . Fandango Media . Retrieved 2023-12-17. OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
  2. "Surviving Picasso". Metacritic . Fandom, Inc. Retrieved 2023-12-17.
  3. "Surviving Picasso". Box Office Mojo . IMDb . Retrieved 2023-12-17. OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg