Surviving Picasso is a 1996 American biographical drama film directed by James Ivory and starring Anthony Hopkins as the famous painter Pablo Picasso. It was produced by Ismail Merchant and David L. Wolper. Ruth Prawer Jhabvala's screenplay was loosely based on the 1988 biography Picasso: Creator and Destroyer by Arianna Stassinopoulos Huffington.

Plot

The young artist Françoise Gilot meets Picasso in Le Petit Benoit, a little Left Bank bistro, during Nazi-occupied Paris, where Picasso invites her and her friend to visit him at his home and studio at 7 Rue des Grands-Augustins. After doing so and flirting with Picasso she decides to become a painter against her father's wishes. Françoise is beaten by her father after telling him she wants to be a painter, rather than a lawyer. Picasso encourages her to paint and a love affair develops between them and she eventually moves in with him, even as Picasso is shown as often not caring about other people's feelings, firing his driver after a long period of service, and as a womanizer, saying that he can sleep with whomever he wants. We see other scenes of seduction, quarrels, and selfishness, but Picasso and Françoise have two children and move to the South of France near Cannes, but problems persist. In addition to Françoise, the film depicts several of the women who were important in Picasso's life, such as Olga Khokhlova, Dora Maar, Marie-Thérèse Walter, and Jacqueline Roque. The film ends when Françoise leaves Picasso over his coldness and his growing relationship with Jacqueline Roque, who moves in with Picasso and replaces her.

Cast

Production

The Merchant-Ivory team was not able to obtain the rights to Gilot’s own autobiography, or the permission to show any of Picasso’s artwork. Commissioned fake Picasso paintings were made for the film that was shot in Paris and in the South of France.

Reception

Critical response

Box office

In the United States and Canada, Surviving Picasso grossed $2 million at the box office, against a budget of $16 million.