Susan Granger’s review of “Picasso and Braque Go to the Movies” (Arthouse Films)
Specifically aimed at studious art historians and classic film fans, Arne Glimcher’s documentary, narrated by Martin Scorsese, delves into the artistic connection between cubism, the birth of aviation and the earliest movies at the beginning of the 20th century.
After viewing the earliest ‘novelty’ films by the Lumiere brothers in Paris, Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque became enthusiastic cinephiles. These two innovative French painters met in 1907, when they had independently arrived at the same place in their work. Forging a fast friendship, they formed a communal film club that included movie-mad Apollinaire, Max Jacob and Andre Salmon.
The Belle Epoch relationship between Picasso and Braque, along with its references to the birth of the fluid language of cinema, are explored and interpreted by scholars and artists like Chuck Close, Julian Schnabel, Bernice Rose, Tom Gunning, Adam Gopnick, Natasha Staller, Eric Fischl and John Richardson, among others. Certainly special effects ‘inventor’ Georges Melies’ fragmented, two-reel, trick-photography depictions of the human figure are echoed in cubism’s most famous anatomical deconstructions and the swirling fabrics in Loie Fuller’s famed Serpentine Dance are reflected in Picasso’s “Demoiselles d’Avignon.”
While the narrative meanders, Arne Glimcher’s archival montages gloriously depict the obsession with frenetic motion – planes, trains, and a moving sidewalk – at the Paris Exposition of 1900. That particular passion would both inspire and impact the way we observe other kinds of visual art and, even more profoundly, how particular artists chose to express their imagination in some of their masterworks. As Martin Scorsese puts it: “Cinema is a machine that creates something ephemeral. You’re (watching) a dream.”
On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Picasso and Braque Go to the Movies” is an intriguing 7, a captivating glimpse into the creative process.
