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Surviving Picasso
Overview
Director James Ivory brings the life of an extraordinary artist to the screen in SURVIVING PICASSO. During the German occupation of Paris in 1943, legendary painter Pablo Picasso (Anthony Hopkins) launches a tumultuous 10-year affair with Françoise Gilot (Natasha McElhone in her first film role), an aspiring artist four decades his junior. Drawn by her beauty and vitality, the mercurial master nonetheless cannot resist the impulse to break her will with continued dalliances with other women and remorseless bullying. Julianne Moore is the painter's former lover, Dora Maar, and Diane Venora plays Jacqueline, the woman who would take Françoise's place with Picasso, in this fascinating portrait of the intense, larger-than-life character.
Awards:
Main Cast & Crew:
James Ivory - Director
Anthony Hopkins
Thomas Fisher
Andreas Wisniewski
Julianne Moore
Natascha McElhone
Allegra Dicapegna
Nigel Whitmey
Peter Eyre
Leon Lissek
Hamish McColl
Details
- Format: DVD (Manufactured on Demand, Widescreen)
- Run Time: 125
- Color Format: Color
- UPC: 883316237342
- Genre: DRAMA
- Rating: R (MPAA)
- Release Date: March 2010
Movie Reviews
Synopsis:
SURVIVING PICASSO offers a unique interpretation of the life and psyche of the artist through the eyes of Françoise, one of Picasso's many mistresses, who survived a 10-year relationship with the legendary painter. Director James Ivory directs
Anthony Hopkins in this period drama about the iconic figure's turbulent love life.
Notes:
Theatrical release: September 20, 1996.
SURVIVING PICASSO was screened at the Boston Film Festival on September 4, 1996.
Merchant Ivory Productions faced strong objections from Françoise 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.
Except for Gilot, many of Picasso's wives and former lovers depicted in the film met with ill fortune: his first wife, Olga, went mad; his mistress, Marie-Therese, hung herself; his lover, Dora Maar, became temporarily insane, and his final lover and wife, Jacqueline, shot herself.
Reproductions of Picasso's art work were not allowed to be used in the film; however, the estates of Henri Matisse and Georges Braque allowed their work to be represented.
Reviews:
"...It's fascinating to see the lurid egomaniacal drama of Picasso's private life..." -- Rating: B - 10/04/1996 Entertainment Weekly, p.45
"...A stunning debut by Natascha McElhone....Hopkins is a full-blooded Picasso..." - 09/09/1996 Variety
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