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Surviving Picasso (1996)
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Overview
User Rating:
Director:
Writers (WGA):
Release Date:
20 September 1996 (USA)
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Tagline:
Only his passion for women could rival his passion for painting.
Plot:
The passionate Merchant-Ivory drama tells the story of Francoise Gilot, the only lover of Pablo Picasso who was strong enough to withstand his ferocious cruelty and move on with her life. full summary | add synopsis
NewsDesk:
User Comments:
Portrait of the Artist as a Monster
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Cast
(Cast overview, first billed only) | Anthony Hopkins | ... | Pablo Picasso |
 | Natascha McElhone | ... | Françoise Gilot |
 | Julianne Moore | ... | Dora Maar |
 | Joss Ackland | ... | Henri Matisse |
 | Dennis Boutsikaris | ... | Kootz |
 | Peter Eyre | ... | Sabartes |
| Peter Gerety | ... | Marcel |
| Susannah Harker | ... | Marie-Thérèse |
| Jane Lapotaire | ... | Olga Picasso |
| Joseph Maher | ... | Kahnweiler |
| Bob Peck | ... | Françoise's Father |
 | Diane Venora | ... | Jacqueline |
 | Dominic West | ... | Paulo Picasso |
| Joan Plowright | ... | Françoise's Grandmother |
 | Laura Aikman | ... | Maya |
Additional Details
MPAA:
Rated R for a scene of nudity and brief sex-related language.
Parents Guide:
Runtime:
125 min
Country:
Language:
Color:
Color (Technicolor)
Aspect Ratio:
1.85 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
Certification:
Australia:M (TV rating) |
Canada:PG (Ontario) |
Iceland:L |
South Korea:15 |
Argentina:16 |
Australia:MA |
France:U |
Germany:12 (w) |
Portugal:M/12 |
Singapore:R(A) |
Spain:13 |
UK:15 |
USA:R
Company:
Fun Stuff
Trivia:
Merchant Ivory Productions faced strong objections from Francoise Gilot and her son, Claude, when making this film. Claude Picasso met once with the Merchant-Ivory team but then strongly objected to the making of the film, petitioning the studio to stop production. Gilot had written her story in the book "Life with Picasso" in 1964, which Picasso had tried to stop from being published; the filmmakers were unable to acquire the rights. Instead they used Arianna Huffington's "Picasso: Creator and Destroyer" as the basis for Ruth Prawer Jhabvala's script.
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Quotes:
Pablo Picasso:
I really like intelligent women. Sometimes, of course, I like stupid ones too.
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FAQ
Why it called Surviving Picasso?more
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It's a pity that many of the user comments on this movie are simply a vehicle for people's dislike of Picasso, and that they treat the film as though it were a documentary. Picasso may have been as sex-mad, egocentric, paranoid and capricious as any Hollywood star (think Chaplin); but first and foremost he was a prodigious artist, who transformed our view of visual art, and dealt with some of the great themes of western culture. And presumably it was those latter qualities which drew women to him, in the same way that women have been drawn to successful, powerful men of dubious character since the dawn of time.
The movie and Hopkins' performance are certainly successful in displaying Picasso's human weaknesses; but there is a failure to adequately convey Picasso's enormous creative power, a weakness compounded by the fact that the makers were not allowed to use much of his work in the film. I see the film as a well made, excellently acted, but partial (in both senses of the word) portrait of the artist. Its real focus is the women in his life, especially Francoise Gilot, and on the two-way exploitative nature of the relationship between a man of this kind and his mistresses/wives.