Product Details

• Format: Color, HiFi Sound, NTSC
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: View Video
• VHS Release Date: February 6, 1996
• Run Time: 45 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000007QKV
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #184,054 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Cannes Film Festival Official Selection

-Award granted by The Cannes Film Festival

Product Description

A Cannes Film Festival Official Selection

A video anthology that is a stroke of genius. The life and work of Pablo Picasso, the greatest painter of our time, are captured in this incredible film by director Edward Quinn. Taking advantage of having complete access to Picasso during the last 22 years of the artist's life, Quinn filmed him at work in his studio and at home with his family, creating a living scrapbook of the painter's achievements while revealing unknown aspects of Picasso's creativity and personality.

This priceless program contains over 600 of the artist's works -- many never before seen in public. With sequences showing the evolution of works-in-progress, we chronologically follow his artistic evolution, while witnessing episodes in his personal life in parallel.

Part 1: 1881-1937: Picasso's artistic development starting from his Blue and Pink periods through cubism, the Chryteline and Neoclassical periods, culminating in Guernica.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing re-cycling of overused home movie material., May 7, 1999

By 

[e-mail] (Dublin, Ireland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Picasso: The Man and His Work - Part 1 (1881-1937) [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Bold new insights are bad enough - read Norman Mailer! But at least Mailer, like John Berger (The Success and Failure of Picasso), has a point of view. This sad little video reflects that period in the artist's old age, and after his death, when the only available attitude (even among serious critics) was slobbering sycophancy (misspelled I know). Useless for those trying to come to terms with his work, less than useless for anyone who wants to explore his developement, to trace period and styles.

We have odd glimpses of his life in the "midi" and in his various Paris haunts, including the famous Bateu Lavoir, but the latter (indeed all the earlier images) come via slowly-panned still photographs, almost all of them inferior to those in John Richardson's definitive biography (which see).

One thing that film could and should of done, which no emanuensis ever did, or tried: capture the man at work. Such footage is rare, though no doubt it exists. Problems with the estate meant that Anthony Hopkins (Life with Picasso) could not even use reasonable facsimiles of PP's work for his dramatic re-enactment of his turbulent relationship with Francoise Gilot - so no such records, fictional or factual, exist. That is the gap I was hoping the video might fill, and it fails miserably. Any hope that it might compensate with rich insight, or interesting biographical detail, is dashed in the first five minutes: it is clear that this is a tourist's accompaniment to the Picasso career: rushed, rudimentary and finally insulting. Pricey, too.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a comprehensive and fascinating look at the life and art of, July 16, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Picasso: The Man and His Work - Part 1 (1881-1937) [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This Cannes Film Festival selection takes a comprehensive and fascinating look at the life and art of the legendary Pablo Picasso. During the last 22 years of Picasso's life, film maker Edward Quinn had complete access to the artist. Through a combination of exclusive home movies and intimate photos, as well as over 600 of the artist's works (many never seen in public), a living, breathing scrapbook of Picasso is realized. The film follows the parallel development of the artist's life and work, giving insight into his creative processes. Among other highlights are some of the last pictures ever taken of him.