While this episode begins to catalogue the long list of women in Picasso's life, the true subject matter is the creative process and the inspiration of Picasso's art that comes directly from the intense and stormy relationships in his personal life.
The program opens in Fontenay-Sous-Bois in the year 1902. A brutal rape is depicted of a young woman named Fernande Olivier. Eventually, Fernande will become one of the most prolific of Picasso's models. Their tempestuous love relationship will be translated in the febrile images of his paintings. In this episode, we meet the young Fernande who has received a shiner from her abusive boyfriend, then is rescued by a sculptor, who hires her as a model. Then comes the accidental meeting of Picasso with the charismatic young woman.
There are constant flashback sequences as the program shifts between the years of World War II in German-occupied Paris and the first decade of the twentieth century when Picasso was struggling to find a rhythm for his art. He takes it upon himself to visit a prison where he paints a woman and child. The woman wears a bonnet, signifying that she has syphilis. She is transmogrified in the painting as a saint wearing a veil. Picasso is roundly criticized by his agent for descending into the gutter for his paintings. Picasso's stinging reply: "I can only paint what I feel."
A fateful encounter with the poet Max Jacob turns into a lifelong bond of two brilliant artists. Jacob is the tormented homosexual, identifying himself as "poet, critic, and fortune teller." Living with the mystical Jacob has a deep impact on Picasso. There is a terrific scene where Jacob and Picasso are shedding crocodile tears during a Puccini opera. When Jacob describes the ecstasy of ether, he observes a feeling of "dreaming while you are awake." But for Picasso, that is the exact feeling he derives from painting. A fascinating scene in the future is depicted after Jacob has converted to Christianity and is visited at the Saint-Benoît-sur-Loire monastery by Picasso, fearing that Jacob may be sent to the concentration camp by the Nazis.
But it is in the relationship of Picasso with the young painter Françoise Gilot that the primary conversation occurs about the creative process of the artist. To Françoise, Picasso asserts that as an artist, you must "lose yourself in it completely" and "without great solitude, no serious work is possible." After her tyrannical father cuffs her around and disowns her, Françoise begins to work in a stable, prior to visiting Picasso and beginning their love affair. She takes the initiative and thereby becomes another one his muses.
Another heart-wrenching relationship developed in the episode is Picasso's connection to Germaine Gargallo Florentin Pichot (1880-1948). The couple consummate their relationship over the shared grief of the death of Picasso's best friend Carles Casagemas, who, out of unrequited love for Germaine, pulled out a revolver, fired at Germaine grazing her temple, then blew his own brains out. The cathartic experience finally comes to the guilt-ridden Picasso, not from his coupling with Germaine, but from returning to Barcelona and painting an idealized portrait of Carles and Germaine, who are united in art in his personal wish-fulfillment experience. This was another great work from Picasso's blue period, and it reflects his yearning for the way things might have been, as he rips the personal experience out of his soul.
The program opens in Fontenay-Sous-Bois in the year 1902. A brutal rape is depicted of a young woman named Fernande Olivier. Eventually, Fernande will become one of the most prolific of Picasso's models. Their tempestuous love relationship will be translated in the febrile images of his paintings. In this episode, we meet the young Fernande who has received a shiner from her abusive boyfriend, then is rescued by a sculptor, who hires her as a model. Then comes the accidental meeting of Picasso with the charismatic young woman.
There are constant flashback sequences as the program shifts between the years of World War II in German-occupied Paris and the first decade of the twentieth century when Picasso was struggling to find a rhythm for his art. He takes it upon himself to visit a prison where he paints a woman and child. The woman wears a bonnet, signifying that she has syphilis. She is transmogrified in the painting as a saint wearing a veil. Picasso is roundly criticized by his agent for descending into the gutter for his paintings. Picasso's stinging reply: "I can only paint what I feel."
A fateful encounter with the poet Max Jacob turns into a lifelong bond of two brilliant artists. Jacob is the tormented homosexual, identifying himself as "poet, critic, and fortune teller." Living with the mystical Jacob has a deep impact on Picasso. There is a terrific scene where Jacob and Picasso are shedding crocodile tears during a Puccini opera. When Jacob describes the ecstasy of ether, he observes a feeling of "dreaming while you are awake." But for Picasso, that is the exact feeling he derives from painting. A fascinating scene in the future is depicted after Jacob has converted to Christianity and is visited at the Saint-Benoît-sur-Loire monastery by Picasso, fearing that Jacob may be sent to the concentration camp by the Nazis.
But it is in the relationship of Picasso with the young painter Françoise Gilot that the primary conversation occurs about the creative process of the artist. To Françoise, Picasso asserts that as an artist, you must "lose yourself in it completely" and "without great solitude, no serious work is possible." After her tyrannical father cuffs her around and disowns her, Françoise begins to work in a stable, prior to visiting Picasso and beginning their love affair. She takes the initiative and thereby becomes another one his muses.
Another heart-wrenching relationship developed in the episode is Picasso's connection to Germaine Gargallo Florentin Pichot (1880-1948). The couple consummate their relationship over the shared grief of the death of Picasso's best friend Carles Casagemas, who, out of unrequited love for Germaine, pulled out a revolver, fired at Germaine grazing her temple, then blew his own brains out. The cathartic experience finally comes to the guilt-ridden Picasso, not from his coupling with Germaine, but from returning to Barcelona and painting an idealized portrait of Carles and Germaine, who are united in art in his personal wish-fulfillment experience. This was another great work from Picasso's blue period, and it reflects his yearning for the way things might have been, as he rips the personal experience out of his soul.
