Picasso

Pablo Picasso was avant-garde and traditional, a legend whose paintings almost everyone can visualize today. His works and character had an enormous influence on 20th century art. Didier Baussy-Oulianoff's extraordinarily vivid film was made in 1985, the same year that the Picasso Museum in Paris opened. The filmmaker enjoyed unprecedented access to their expansive and unique collection. The film works through the artworks of Picasso in chronological order and discusses the forces that inspired them, whether in the personal life of the artist or in the wider world. In this way the film covers everything from the suicide of Picasso's friend Casagemas in 1901, which began his 'Blue Period', to the Spanish Civil War that inspired his masterpiece, Guernica; 'a settling of all debts'. This rigorously intelligent and highly rewarding film is a fine example of the art documentary genre.