The Picasso Summer

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.

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.

Good movie about a San Francisco couple (Albert Finny, Yvette Mimieux) who go to France to find Picasso. Beautiful location shooting and some humorous situations as the stars meet various locals and eccentrics in their search. Simple plot is accompanied by music by Michel Legrand.

On the down side are a long and violent sequence in which Finney seeks out a famous toreador who is friends with Picasso. There are also three long and tedious animation pieces that depict Picasso's art and themes of war, love, and the bullfight. These are done in a pulsating psychedelic style and seem interminable.

On the plus side are Finney and Mimieux. Familiar faces include Graham Stark as the postman, Georgina Cookson as the loud lady at dinner, Jim Connell as the artist at the party, and Peter Madden as the blind artist.

The final scene on the beach was filmed on Catalina Island and tacked on. The film was never released in US theaters but has been shown on television.

This unusual film is the collaboration of several creative forces - a Ray Bradbury story, with animation created by the Hubleys (directed and "conceived" by producer Wes Herschensohn), a spectacular musical score by Michel Legrand, and co-direction by the near-forgotten Serge Bourguignon (of "Sundays & Cybele"). Unfortunately, it doesn't appear as if all of these people were properly introduced to one another. A successful architect (Finney) decides to chuck it all and run off to the south of France to visit his favorite painter, Pablo Picasso. Alas, Pablo isn't welcoming visitors and despite several attempts at stalking him, our architect-hero finally gives up. Albert Finney gives a frenetic performance with Yvette Mimieux never looking more beautiful beside him. Nothing in the film has anything linear about it, which is probably to its advantage. It is part fiction film, part docu-drama, part art documentary (the amimated Picasso paintings are probably the only real excuse for it - and they often come off as over-literal interpretations of his work). Ah, well, there is the lush music and the Vilmos Zsigmond photography and the elusive spirit of Picasso. Worth watching at least once.

I'd rather be in Guernica. Can you imagine how bad Serge Bourguignon's rough cut must have been for Warner Brothers to reject it in favor of this...what? Call it an R rated Rick Steves episode with stupid Picasso animated psychedelia alternating with dopey devices like the ol split screen/jigsaw puzzle as Albert Finney and Yvette Mimieux bike around southern France, swim in the Med and copulate at the Carlton. Kind of a "Two For The Road" for idiots. And good luck getting that syrupy Michel Legrand score out of your head anytime soon. I bailed right around the time Mimieux and Finney temporarily split up and suggest you do the same before that. C minus.