The Mystery of Picasso
{{Infobox film
| name = The Mystery of Picasso
| image = MysterePicasso.jpg
| alt =
| caption =
| native_name =
| director = Henri-Georges Clouzot
| producer = Henri-Georges Clouzot
| writer =
| screenplay = Henri-Georges Clouzot
| story =
| based_on =
| starring = Pablo Picasso
Henri-Georges Clouzot
| narrator =
| music = Georges Auric
| cinematography = Claude Renoir
| editing = {{plainlist|*Henri Colpi
- Henri-Georges Clouzot{{cite web|url=http://cinema.encyclopedie.films.bifi.fr/index.php?pk=47758&_ga=2.54191979.2129002668.1537296289-2130238164.1534788872|website=Bifi.fr|title=Le Mystère Picasso|language=fr}}}}
| distributor =
| released = {{Film date|df=yes|1956|5|18|France}}
| runtime = 75 min
| language = French
| budget =
| gross =
}}
The Mystery of Picasso ({{langx|fr|Le mystère Picasso}}) is a 1956 French documentary film directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot. In it, the painter Pablo Picasso produces 20 drawings and paintings, at first using inks that bleed through the paper on which he is drawing, with the act of creation filmed in real-time from the backside of the easel, and later using oil paints, with Clouzot employing a stop-motion-like effect to depict the development and modification of the works. The film begins with Picasso creating simple marker drawings in black and white, and he gradually progresses to full-scale collages and oil paintings.
The pieces created before the camera were supposedly subsequently destroyed so they would only exist on film, but there are reports that some survived.{{cite journal|last=Klady|first=Leonard|title=Return of the Centaur|journal=Film Comment|date=March 1986|volume=22|issue=2|pages=20–22}}
Release
The Mystery of Picasso was released in France on 18 May 1956. It won the Special Jury Prize at the 1956 Cannes Film Festival{{cite web |url=http://www.festival-cannes.com/en/archives/ficheFilm/id/3647/year/1956.html |title=Festival de Cannes: The Mystery of Picasso (In Competition) |access-date=2009-02-05|work=festival-cannes.com}} and was shown out of competition at the 1982 Festival.{{cite web |url=http://www.festival-cannes.com/en/archives/ficheFilm/id/1569/year/1982.html |title=Festival de Cannes: The Mystery of Picasso (Out of Competition) |access-date=2009-06-13|work=festival-cannes.com}}
See also
- Visit to Picasso – A short Belgian documentary from 1949 that employed a similar method to film Picasso at work. In both films, the artist was filmed from the backside of his work surface, but, in the earlier film, he painted on glass.
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- {{IMDb title|id=0049531|title=The Mystery of Picasso}}
{{Henri-Georges Clouzot}}
{{Pablo Picasso}}
{{Cannes Film Festival Jury Prize}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mystery Of Picasso}}
Category:French black-and-white films
Category:French documentary films
Category:Films directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot
Category:Documentary films about painters
Category:1956 documentary films
Category:1950s French-language films
Category:Films with screenplays by Henri-Georges Clouzot
Category:Biographical films about painters
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