Surviving Picasso
Theatrical release poster
Directed byJames Ivory
Screenplay byRuth Prawer Jhabvala
Based onPicasso: Creator and Destroyer
by Arianna Stassinopoulos Huffington
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyTony Pierce-Roberts
Edited byAndrew Marcus
Music byRichard Robbins
Production
companies
Distributed byWarner 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.

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.

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]

References

  1. ↑ "Surviving Picasso". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved 2023-12-17.
  2. ↑ "Surviving Picasso". Metacritic. Fandom, Inc. Retrieved 2023-12-17.
  3. ↑ "Surviving Picasso". Box Office Mojo. IMDb. Retrieved 2023-12-17.
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