"Art is a lie that makes us realise truth"
The Adventures of Picasso
A thousand loving lies told by Hans Alfredson & Tage Danielsson
Picasso paintings recreated by Per Åhlin
Made in "AB svenska ords ateljéer" in Hollywood close to Tomelilla [Sweden]
All similarities between this film and reality are entirely coincidental.
Hello, My name is Elsa Beskow and I'm going...
to tell you about one of my colleges in the art world...
Nobody know the exact hour of his birth...
It was either at 5 PM
"ala cinco de la tarde"
or during the midnight hour, which he himself claimed...
He, one of the strangest men of our time...
He, a decendent of the 16th century knight...
" Juan de Leon"
Who was killed in the war between Loja and Granada
He, Pablo Picasso...
whom was born in Málaga almost a century ago
Pablo was brought up in the poor area of Málaga
His mother - Doña Maria - was...
Happy
Tender
Independent
Sensitive
Warm blooded
Proud
and affectionate
But his father - Don José - was very sloppy in his work
The young Pablo Picasso soon proved to be quite artistic.
The proud father decided to introduce him to the art-academy in Madrid
"The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain"
There was a genie in the bottle
a magical force that would make his art come to live
The education at the academy was academic
Neither of his parents could ever come to grips with...
Don José's near death experience.
The tension at home grew odious for the young artist...
and he decided to leave.
It was the new years eve of 1899
The Parisians outside celebrated with Champagne...
dancing in the streets and fire-works.
Paris 1910
Pablo Picasso was still poor and hungry
He paints and paints and paints
But selling and selling and selling he is NOT
That was the birth of Cubism
Picasso returned to the vagabonds in the circus world...
These warm hearted artistic souls...
whom - free of charge - gave there pathetic faces...
to the artist
The American author Gertrude Stein's salon...
was the centre of the French artworld...
and her constant companion...
her chaperon
Alice B. Toklas
Now Picasso was at the centre of the Parisian art world...
with people such as [Georges] Braque...
[Henri] Matisse...
Fernand Lege...
Pompidou...
entrecôte...
Carl Larsson...
Popeye [Karl-Alfred]...
Jenny Nyström...
an omelette...
and Rembrandt
And there is Hemmingway sitting with his knitting
There was also a Erik Satie the often misunderstood composer
Guillaume Apollinaire, the absurdist poet...
Henri Rousseau, the painting customs officer
Vincent van Gogh, the guy with the ear
And not less than two Toulouse-Lautrec
And the famous Mimi...
the woman that inspired Puccini to write "your hands are so cold"
What is a man, or even an artist other than a small flake...
in the vast and silent universe?
Well then!
Let's stop for a minute to examine the regular life...
of a lonely artist in the 1910's
Is there anything lonelier then a genius?
Th... that is relatively lonelier than a genius?
He rose early in the morning, put on his clothes...
humming of a cheerful morning-song...
and then he went outside...
to prepared himself for an intensive workday...
with a long brisk walk in "Bois de Boulogne"
LONG
BRISK!
He stopped every now and then...
to "skissa" [skissa similar to kissa=urinate]
. [skissa similar to kissa=urinate]
Skissa=To sketch
Here the master is painting a pair of eyeglasses
A... a bicycle...
Eh... an elk
A painting!
Pablo Picasso continued wrestling with his art
The Swedish-American multi-millionaire...
Ingrid Svensson-Guggenheim loved art...
and artists
Ingrid Svensson-Guggenheim...
was one of the many people that didn't understand Picasso's work...
but she knew it was expensive, hence immortal.
Ingrid Svensson-Guggenheim became a persistent pester for Picasso
She strived to be part of his life and work, at any price
He fled to the tranquillity of nature
It's not easy being famous.
To make his friend happy...
the kind-hearted Rousseau invited Pablo...
and Apollinaire to his secret forest...
where no human-being had set foot except Rousseau himself.
Guillaume Apollinaire read one of his deeply philosophical poems...
about the human essence,
This was to be the onset to the memorable masquerade ball...
which Picasso held in his salon, in honour of his friend Rousseau.
What a fabulous crowd!
There was Jean Cocteau...
Enrico Caruso
Braque and Matisse was seen off the shelf
Marie and Pierre Curie
[Alexander] Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone-kiosk
Emperor Wilhem II was dancing with his elegant wife
Lenin
And the young Winston Churchill
Even the French president was there, dressed as a balloon
It was an unforgettable farewell party for Rousseau...
the little customs officer, the king of imagination!
The year was 1914
The future had never looked so bright...
workers and artists joined together...
people would never stand against each other...
faith in the international solidarity was equally strong as...
the faith in the blessing of the industrial era.
The optimistic view of development in the future was stronger than ever...
The machines were supposed to save the world!
Freedom [Liberté]
Equality [Égalité]
Fraternity [Fraternité]
Would at long last come true
In short...
it was the time of a new dawn.
There would never be another war...
a new generation of artists came to Paris to build a better world.
And that's why Picasso made decorations and costumes...
for the famous Russian ballet
Djagilev's production, Erik Satie's music and...
Picasso's décor would dumbfound the world.
The world première was in London.
It was three hours before the première...
the tension was high.
Picasso had had enough with the foul stench of high society
He fled from Djagilev and Olga
He hid in a little obscure cabaret in Monparnas, Paris
Picasso was spellbound by Sirkka's singing...
and it would lead him to his destiny
She wasn't home.
That was the birth of "Monster-ism"
Picasso and his father fled to New York
New York, the big apple
There was a prohibition on alcohol during the 1930's...
after the ban on alcohol there was a ban on art...
artists went underground...
Picasso created the forbidden poison with a pencil stoke.
During the great art prohibition in America...
the federal police defused this menace...
the police imposed constant raids...
a remarkable job is done thanks to "art-dogs"...
Here's Jackie, specialising in maritime motifs.
There's a golden era for the smuggling business.
Isn't it Mr. Guggenheim...
Ingrid Svensson- Guggenheim's husband
There is a steady flow of art in all shapes and sizes...
from the Canadian border.
"Beauty is the opium for the people"...
Franklin D. Roosevelt proclaims...
and receives support from his completely legal wife.
Don José had established himself as "The French Connection"...
between the American crime syndicates and the French artist.
One day Picasso himself had to deliver paintings to a "Mrs. X".
Ingrid Svensson-Guggenheim didn't give up that easily.
Ingrid Svensson-Guggenheim introduced Picasso to different...
camouflaged underground galleries, where rivalling...
gangsters operated their "big business".
[Translating to Swedish]
[Norwegian accent]
It was the late 1930's...
Picasso returned to a Europe where savages rose yet again.
The Germans marched in to Paris the spring of 1940.
Quite surprisingly, Picasso collaborated with the Germans...
by designing their camoufaged uniforms.
They soon started to suspect that Picasso wasn't really on their side.
But Picasso - unlike some of his friends - stayed in Europe.
One day, while sitting in his cold studio...
eating a cake that he got from...
the black market in exchange for a "petit genre" [painting]...
portraying "The rape of the Sabine women"...
Don José had risen to the rank of "Hauptbahnhof" in SS...
he was in charge of "operation ostrich"...
which was supposed to track down members of the opposition.
He had told his son not to get involved in any "risky business".
Peace finally arrived
Pablo was tired of the-old-era, settled down in the Riviera.
You little man...
you've already decided between capitalism and socialism...
well, well, well, but you live like a capitalist at any rate...
you don't exactly hang out with proletarians...
well, well, well, you believe in equality...
However, do you really think people have as much as you?
There is a difference...
between what those fishermen over there earn...
and what you get paid.
It's not your fault that the prices on your paintings are high...
and it's not your fault that fish is so cheap either...
and you can't refuse to take the money since...
the art dealer would just use it to buy another Cadillac.
You're just too good.
But what are you doing to change the world?
Well, you make pictures.
Everybody needs art and beauty.
Those fishermen also need art and beauty.
No, don't look around!
Be happy, otherwise you can't work.
Skål, my friend!
And so Picasso met the love of his youth
the mysterious Dolores...
who lived in exile with the fishermen in the Riviera...
and her granddaughter had a strange influence on him.
Picasso's doves flew over the world...
in the cold winds of the cold war.
Ingrid Svensson-Guggenheim didn't give up that easily...
It was the great "Picasso crash"...
which created panic at the stock-exchange...
when the signatures suddenly disappeared...
his painting was put on sale at the art auctions...
100 Picasso's for one Donald Duck...
His paintings was hurled away to the scrapheap.
Art became "soft currency".
People started buying collectable dinner plates...
and pendants with the king and queen on them.
It echoed in the bank vaults from the falling art collectors.
In short, chaos.
How the hell should I know?
Subtitles by carlbanan