Caruso: A Man & His Music - The Young Caruso

February 20, 2008 | By Doug In picasso |

Caruso: A Man & His Music - The Young Caruso
Customer Review: Valuable mostly as an early Lollobrigida film
This movie is not really much as a biography of Enrico Caruso; viewers looking for a biopic might be better advised to seek out the one with Mario Lanza and Ann Blyth. Its main interest lies in the fact that it’s one of Gina Lollobrigida’s earlier performances; she’s stunning, as always, as the love interest.

Customer Review: Too Sketchy and Unrealistic
A sketchy biography only of this greatest tenor of all times.

It began with the boy singing in the street. He also sang in the church choir too etc. It seems that it was shot somewhere in a small village in Tuscany with some reality.

Only Caruso’s funeral was true. But the DVD comes with quite a bonus of a few of Caruso’s arias. The sound as a whole is not bad at all. But there is not much drama in the movie, and as a whole, it isn’t really a success. If you have one or two of this master’s CD, you might as well avoid it.

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Customer Review: Very one-dimentional indeed
I found this a highly dissapointing film in that it seemes to focus almost entirely on the misogynistic side of Picasso`s personality, and his selfish insensitivity towards others. While these aspects of Picasso no doubt existed, the film fails to portray a rounded depiction of the man or what drove him. This very one-dimentional and oblique angled view is no doubt due to the fact that the film is based on the memoires of his disillusioned wife, and I am reminded of the book written by Deborah Curtis about her husband the singer Ian Curtis, in which she whines on about the domestic reality of their relationship but offers virtually no insight into his art - which was surely the most interesting thing about him. The problem is that the relationships which these women have with their husbands is based on love and its commitments, and has nothing to do with their art or creativity. To make a film about an artist which ignores the inner imagination and creative aspect of that person is pointless and uninteresting. Anthony Hopkins offers a fairly convincing performance, but this just isn`t enough.
Customer Review: Mad about art. Not mad about art. Either way you’ll love it!
Fascinating! The art, the place, the era, the people, the originality - i loved it all! Perfect whether or not you like Picasso’s work, his life and affairs are nothing short of intriguing. This film is definitely the most influential that I have ever seen. What can I say? Pretty damn good!
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A Life of Picasso: The Prodigy, 1881-1906 (Borzoi Books) As he magnificently combines meticulous scholarship with irresistible narrative appeal, Richardson draws on his close friendship with Picasso, his own diaries, the collaboration of Picasso’s widow Jacqueline, and unprecedented access to Picasso’s studio and papers to arrive at a profound understanding of the artist and his work. 800 photos.
Customer Review: A life of Picasso vol 1
Great work, done by a real scholar, beautifully written, as fascinating as a novel. Keeps away from myths and tales, impressively documented, meticulously illustrated (too bad it is not in color).
Customer Review: John Richardson’s Magisterial Biography of Painter-Genius Picasso begins in Malaga in 1881
Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) was born to a mediocre painter and his good wife Maria on October 25, 1881. His family was poor but well connected. One uncle was a priest; another a prominent medical doctor. Picasso’s father was easygoing eking out a living as an art teacher. When Pablo was a boy the family moved to Barcelona where his father taught in an art school. His mother was beloved of Pablo who had her tenacity of character and eager desire to learn. His younger sister Conchita died in childhood and he was close to his remaining sister throughout their long lives.
Pablo loved to paint from birth! He did not like formal schooling. He did attend the art school in Madrid but grew bored and left. As a teen he was wild and enjoyed chasing girls and hanging around with his bohemian chums. In these early years Pablo developed his routine throughout life: hard work, lots of sex (often in brothels!and smoking. Picasso drank very little and never had an alcohol problem.
As a young man he made three trips to Paris finally staying for good in the City of Lights on his fourth trip. He became friendly with several artists and writers most notablly the poet Apollinaire. His first true love was Olive Ferdinand a fetching Parisian who was also a minor painter.
Picasso had countless mistresses.
During these early years he went through his “Blue Period” in which he portrayed tragic and erotic figures in gloomy and sad modes. He later entered the “Rose Period” of colorful harlequins, clowns and street folks. He also enjoyed sculpture. His work began to sell.
Instrumental in his success were the dealers he relied upon to majrket his avant garde art. Among the influential people who bought his paintings were the American expatriots Leo and Gertrude Stein. Picasso was popular with Russian buyers. He preferred private sales rather than exhibiting his art alongside other salon artists. It was during these years he produced such masterpieces as “La Vie” “Old Man with a Guitar” and several works portraying androgynous bathers. As the book ends he is on the verge of moving into cubism along with fellow painter Braque.
Richardson does a good job of keeping his text balanced between sapient art assessments and Picasso’s personal life. The crammed text is filled with such characters as the Steins, Matisse and the fetching Olive
Ferdinand. We see how Picasso was influenced by such masters from the past as: Ingres, Cezanne, Velasquez and El Greco. Richardson is insistent that we see Picasso as a Spanish artist heavily influenced by his Andalusian roots and the luminaries of Spanish art.
The book is well illustrated with hundreds of black and white photos of Picasso’s works and snapshots taken of Picasso and friends. Richardson knew Picasso in his old age and is a brilliant critic of his work.
What kind of man was Picasso? He once told an interviewer “Truth is false!” In other words he was a paradox. He could be kind or cruel. He could abuse lovers forcing them into unnatural sex acts or he could be a gentle lover. He loved and hated Spain. He was apolitical at this early juncture of his career. Picasso hated pretense and liked common people.
He is complex and unique in art history as a protean master of many different types of art. This is the best biography ever written of Picasso and is the first of the four volumes to be published on a 2oth century art icon. Essential.