Film Details

Pablo Picasso paints on “transparent” canvases (so we, positioned behind the works, can watch them take shape, almost like animation) in this unique art film that amply demonstrates the great artist’s fluid technique and fertile imagination. (He also talks about his work.) The 15 pictures Picasso creates during this movie were destroyed after the filming, so they now exist only in this documentary. Though a departure for director Clouzot, The Mystery of Picasso remains “one of the most joyful of all records of an artist at work,” according to critic Pauline Kael. Color cinematography by Claude Renoir, Pierre Auguste’s grandson. Subtitles. 75 min.