The Mystery of Picasso by Henri-Georges Clouzot, a French filmmaker, is a documentary focusing on the process and act of Pablo Picasso’s painting rather than a film which creates a dramatized depiction of the artist and their life of creating art by using dramatized effects and falsified interpretations. The whole film focuses on making Picasso’s process of
creating art the framework of the entire movie. For some, the decision of following Picasso through his process may seem tedious and drawn out, but in the same light, it is a safe route to follow by giving a real-life insight on the life of Picasso and his works.
The movie does create some confusing messages throughout its “follow along” story though. For example, in the movie we are shown many pieces of Picasso’s artworks being created and displayed on the screen with minimal effort and in almost no time there are multiple pieces of his works that are being shown to us. The filmmaker goes on to say that viewers will think he created a composition in a matter of minutes, even though they’ve been filming for hours. The techniques that Clouzot uses make it seem as if Picasso is creating his works effortlessly in a matter of minutes, which in a sense would possibly seem realistic to the viewers due to the fact that there are some people who may not realize the time and effort which artist put into each and every piece they create. The way in which Picasso uses abstract ideals in his paintings could lead us to believe that maybe there is minimal effort involved in his artwork, but the reality of it is that Picasso’s works include a lot of attention to create pieces specific to his technique.
Once the movie continues, we are able to then realize that maybe his process is not as instantaneous as we might think. We watch as Picasso is creating his pieces, slowly the paintings start to take shape and it is clear how often Picasso revises his work, which diminishes the idea for the audience that the painting is created effortlessly. The first piece that we see being created is a man that is painting a portrait of a nude woman, which Picasso commonly does. As we know, the film makes it look as if Picasso is quickly able to make these paintings, so in the movie it looks as if he is able to compose the man and woman in the painting quite quickly, but by now we know this is just the sped up technique that Clouzot uses in the film. We soon are able to see some other details as they begin to appear and bring the painting to life. We are able to see step by step as each detail is added and then soon the composition appears nearly a finished product. The viewers are able to see Picasso start to make some elements less intense with certain details, isolate some of the structures of the painting by using black ink, and finally he intensifies the work altogether by bringing new details such as more shapes and formations into the work. The sketch begins to take shape and soon we are able to see the final image.
Other paintings in the movie follow pretty much the same process as the first one we are shown. There are times in the movie when Clouzot’s tactics to keep the movie interesting feel forced in order to intensify the film. In turn, this feels a bit cinematic rather than realistic even with Clouzot’s tricks throughout the movie which includes time-lapse through particular points and taking out some of the detail and precision that goes into the art. The high point of the film, when Picasso is in a race against time to finish a painting, really dramatizes the trial and error artists go through with their creations, in an expectancy of perfection of art without putting attention into their works. Clouzot somehow is able to in some ways de-sentimentalize the process of art-making for Picasso.
Clouzot is able to keep the film interesting. For the most part, the film was a true depiction of Picasso’s process of making art and provides insight into what steps the artist goes through to make his works his. There were some aspects that left the film feeling cinematic, such as the sped-up parts of the film and making it a race against time, but overall the film depicts a thorough visual experience of the art made by Picasso.
