Picassos äventyr

Hasse Alfredsson's and Tage Danielsson's films has always had a special place in my heart, and in particular "The Adventures of Picasso". The film is about Picasso's life and art, told through a distorted mirror.

For those not familiar with Hasse & Tage's style, it might seem to be a somewhat shallow and burlesque film, but it is more than a ordinary comedy. It also shows the trouble of becoming the victim of your own public image, and how the creativity and the personal life may suffer from it. In many ways it is a film in the same spirit as Charlie Chaplin's "The Dictator", slapstick mixed with reflection.

Pablo Picasso once said that "We all know that art is not the truth, art is a lie that makes us realize the truth" and I think that "The Adventures of Picasso" encompass this in a very nice way!

One of the funniest films ever. I've seen this few times and I'm always laughing my *ss off... Especially as a Finn I love the scene where Picasso goes to meet Sirkka at her parents and knocks the door. Lasse Poysti (a famous Finnish(!) actor) as Sirkka's father yells "Makkara!", which isn't actually Finnish for 'Come in!' but 'Sausage!' Everyone who loves strange and absurd humor will love this movie!

I also picked up this film on VHS at an independent video store, and I was very taken with it. First, the film is a masterpiece of physical acting. Even thought they were speaking a number of different European languages, without subtitles, I had no problem understanding what was going on. It also makes wonderful use of surrealist imagery. I don't know a lot about Picasso, but I imagine someone who did would find this a fresh and entertaining take on the life of the man. Like a piece of Picasso's art, this movie is beyond language, I was left feeling like I knew how the man thought. If you enjoy physical comedy, this may be the most highbrow movie of that kind you'll ever see.

This comedy is one of the funniest I ever seen. If you know the story of Picasso you will laugh at every new scene. It's a nice way of presenting a big artist and make people learn more about him. The actors are very good and some of them are among the top swedish actors.

This movie contains so many weird and funny things that I think you could watch it 100 times and still discover new things in every scene! Every little detail is just so perfect and thought through. Things that you discover first after a while, i.e. that Picassos father is saying halvliter ("half liter") instead of "Heil Hitler". All the acting throughout the movie is spectacular. It has to be since all of the language in the movie (except for the narrator) is just rubbish really. Everything they "say" is enforced by acting and it's impressing how one can understand an entire movie without any real language. This is simply a thoughtful, beautiful, weird, spectacular, funny, great, epic movie. Watch it!