Kingston Arts Pages: Movie Review

Surviving Picasso is an intimate exploration of family relationships and character as revealed through the real life ten year relationship of a young woman with a famous artist three times her age. A review by Bob MacKenzie.

As an independent journalist, Bob MacKenzie writes articles for a number of print and internet publications. The local and national scope of his articles for the Kingston Net Times, the Kingston Business Journal, and other publications make them of interest to readers not just in Kingston but across North America. This article is reprinted here for your information. All material included in this page is copyright © Bob MacKenzie, 1996. No reproduction for any reason is allowed without prior permission in writing from the author.

The article below was published on the internet in the Kingston Net Times.

Surviving Picasso

directed by James Ivory

123 minutes

With a script by Booker Prize winning novelist Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, Ismael Merchant and David L. Wolper as producers, James Ivory as director, and Anthony Hopkins (The Silence of the Lambs, Shadowlands) playing the title role, it would appear that the 1996 movie, Surviving Picasso, should qualify as a sure fire success. Yet, the fact is that reviews have been mixed, either panning almost every facet of the film or giving it cautious praise at best.

While the team of Merchant and Ivory have garnered dozens of awards internationally for their films (including Howard's End, Mr. and Mrs. Bridge, Slaves of New York) as has David L. Wolper during his 45 years as a producer for his television programs (including The Thorn Birds, Roots, and North and South), their collaboration here has failed to spark the popular imagination.

The film's title may have much to do with its lack of critical success. The critics and the public too will naturally approach this as being a movie about Pablo Picasso, admirably played by Anthony Hopkins. It is not. This is the story of Francoise (Natascha McElhone), one of a long line of Picasso's mistresses, who met him in 1943 during the German occupation of Paris, when she was 23 and he was 64 years old and lived with him for ten years, bearing him two children in the process.

Told from the point-of-view of Francoise, the story necessarily presents Picasso as somewhat of a caricature. This Picasso is the archetype of the great artist, charismatic and self-centred, believing everyone in the world -- and especially his current mistress -- exists only to worship him and to serve his needs. Here is the male chauvinist drawn large. Yet, in this story based on Arianna Stassinopoulos Huffington's book, Picasso: Creator and Destroyer, Pablo Picasso is presented in a mostly sympathetic light.

Simply put, if Surviving Picasso is viewed as a story about Picasso then its title character must be seen as a sort of cardboard cutout, but if it is viewed as a woman's story then he may be seen as a catalyst to Francoise' personal growth. Viewed in this second way, Surviving Picasso is a delicately portrayed study of individual character and family relationships.

During her tenure with Picasso, Francoise crosses paths with his ex-mistresses Dora Maar (Julianne Moore) and Marie Therese Walter (Susannah Harker) and ex-wife Olga Picasso (Jane LaPotaire). Through them and other characters, much of his history and character is exposed, suggesting explanations for the nature of his relationship with Francoise.

Joan Plowright is delightful in her almost cameo but pivotal role as Francoise' grandmother. As Picasso, Anthony Hopkins does not just play the role but becomes his character so believably the viewer forgets it is only an actor on screen.

As a study of the human condition, Surviving Picasso is an interesting, touching, and sometimes delightful movie well worth seeing.