The Picasso Summer

I had the pleasure of working on this film in a small capacity. At the time I worked for the Campbell, Silver, Cosby Corporation (the producer's) as a secretary. The office was in Beverly Hills where I met, writer Ray Bradbury who was a dear person. One day Ray asked me to Xerox copies of the script he had written. As I made the copies I began to read the pages. I saw where there was a singer for one of the scenes. I asked Ray if I could be the singer. Ray told me it was fine with him but I would have to speak with Bruce (Campbell) and Roy Silver. I did speak to Roy and he told me Cass Elliot was doing the music for that scene. I very brazenly said to Roy "If Cass doesn't do it can I? He said yes I could. Long story short --Cass was not able to do it and I did. The part of the movie I am in is a party scene that was filmed at attorney Melvin Belli's home. I am in a gray suede slip dress standing by a piano with a pianist (I don't recall his name) who was such a nice person. I am singing an old madrigal called "Hard by a Fountain." In the background is the San Francisco Bay with a freighter passing in the shot. On the terrace is the rock band Sopwith Camel. The animation in this film is amazing. I haven't seen it in years and would love a copy.

Originally completed in 1969 but not released by Warners Bros. TV division until 1972 and broadcast on CBS late night movie, "The Picasso Summer" demonstrates, in the most negative manner, what happens when a film director and the "groupthink" of the film's producers are in complete disagreement.

Clocking in at a scant 90 minutes, 60 minutes of which are devoted to frequently tedious animation of Picasso's works, Warner Bros. would have been better served by entirely jettisoning the framing story, that of self-absorbed architect (Albert Finney) and his loving, long suffering wife (Yvette Mimieux). The framing story is reminiscent of the excellent 1967 film, "Two for the Road," which also starred Finney, but with Audrey Hepburn playing the long suffering wife. Hepburn and Mimieux project similar spiritual images, but Mimieux has the added bonus of a sexiness, of which Hepburn could only dream. Think of Jennifer Love Hewitt playing Hepburn (which she did, for a TV movie), but with Hepburn's acting abilities. Even so, most of that 30 scant minutes of live action consists of footage either of peripheral characters, "60's style artsy" footage of the Finney and Mimiuex observing Picasso's art, attending a "pop art" party (the film's worst live action sequence) or bicycling through France. Actual dramatic screen time between Finney and Mimieux clocks in at about 10 minutes.

Fortunately, Warner Bros. did not jettison the live action sequences, because of a roughly 8 minute segment involving Mimieux, an elderly painter and his wife. Of the live action, that is one of the few segments which does not appear to be ugly work-print; and the two scenes are so profound, they make including the live action worthwhile.

Given the talent involved, (Oscar-nominated Serge Bourguignon, five-time scar-nominated Albert Finney, two-time Golden Globe-nominated Yvette Mimieux, Hugo Award-winning classic fantasy/science fiction writer Ray Bradbury, three-time Oscar winner Michelle Legrand and Oscar-winner and multi-nominated cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond, the fate of the "The Picasso Summer" seems especially tragic. However, if you do happen to come across "The Picasso Summer" and are not a particularly huge fan of Picasso (which, I am not), copy it and fast forward to the last twenty minutes, as they are worth the watch and are worthy of a "10" rather than the "4" I gave the movie overall.

San Francisco architect George Smith (Albert Finney) is feeling a little dispirited. He wakes up reinvigorated by his collection of Picasso paintings. He suggests to his wife Alice (Yvette Mimieux) that they go to France to find Pablo Picasso and thank him.

I was expecting a basic travelogue and a minor Picasso retrospective. There isn't much of a plot. There is even less plot than I expected. George finally does something interesting in the last third. The bull fight is interesting, but it adds nothing to the narrative. This is really about Picasso's work being translated into adult-themed animated sequences and various visual stylings. This couple needs a guide or George himself could do more exposition about Picasso. The audience probably needs a helping hand. Quite frankly, they are better off doing an animated short about Picasso's art if they're not going to give drama to this movie. In an aside, how much is that Picasso collection if it's real.

There are literally 3 reasons for watching this movie. Yvette Mimieux in a bikini, picasso's art made into cartoons and a bull fight, all can be achieved by watching 10 minutes of it on mute, to block out the grating, redundant score that drones on like a nagging woman during a hangover This whole film is a mess, that plays like a woodstock era porn film, only less entertaining.

I hear all sorts of nonsense about Albert Finney agreeing to do the 1981 movie Looker ( a wonderful movie), yet somehow this monstrosity passes as legitimate cinema? The horrid story line plays like a travel column in readers digest. The split screen jigsaw puzzle, multi-spectrum cinema photography resembles a segment of Rowan and Martin's Laugh Inn, and the two leads seem really quite bored, which is no doubt how any sentient being will feel after slogging through 10 minutes of this mess.

Evidently there where issues with the production of this film, directors fired, producer Bill Cosby demanding his name be removed, Picasso refusing to make an actual appearance and so forth, it certainly shows in the final product. I cannot emphasize enough the agony caused by the elevator music that accosts one throughout, the stale dialogue and idiotic story line. How this got any critical acclaim only shows how utterly, defunct so called professional movie criticism has always been. Simply Awful

Watching Picasso Summmer I think I can now accept that his work was not poking fun at wannabe art critics. For the 'uneducated eye' one has to wonder if what we're seeing...is how the artist is really viewing something; is it really a creative vision or a put on.

I did come away with a glimmer of understanding and motivation to do some research and reading on Picasso after viewing the film. All I knew about him from an art appreciation class in school is that he had a 'Blue period'.

As I said in the summary title, the morphing segments, while cleverly and creatively carried out, were way too many and way too long to sustain at least this casual viewer. The kernel of a good film was there, it just didn't 'pop.