Picasso and Braque Go to the Movies (2010)

Critic Reviews

• Wesley Morris, Boston Globe

  The film asserts much (with timelines and datelines and lots of footage) but fails to completely persuade. As a dissertation, it would have a terrible time defending itself.

• Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor

  A marvelous documentary by art gallery legend and sometime filmmaker Arne Glimcher.

• Stephen Holden, New York Times

  Much of the documentary is a jumble of people extemporizing about this and that, but there is no connective overview.

• Kyle Smith, New York Post

  The giveaway comes when one nabob of portraiture -- who is trying to tie Picasso and Braque to an early film about an accordion -- says the influence of the picture was absorbed by the painters "whether or not they saw this film." If you say so.

• Nick Pinkerton, Village Voice

  Picasso and Braque's primary merit is its archive-raiding evocation of the period discussed through vintage nitrate images...

• Christopher Long, Movie Metropolis

  There was once a time when the nascent medium of cinema struggled for legitimacy.

• Gerald Peary, Boston Phoenix

  There's no proof anywhere of this film's key premise -- that cinema was the catalyst for these artists' pre-World War I forays into Cubism.

• Prairie Miller, NewsBlaze

  The subject matter is without a doubt intriguing, but a more poetic and emotionally charged approach to the material at hand, beyond that exquisite silent footage, would have enhanced the presentation.

• Avi Offer, NYC Movie Guru

  An informative, well-edited and engaging documentary that needs a more thorough and provocative conclusion.

• Susan Granger, SSG Syndicate

  An intriguing, captivating glimpse into the creative process.

• Ethan Alter, NYC Film Critic

  One of the strengths of Arne Glimcher's documentary is that it effectively chronicles an era when going to the movies was a novelty.

• Joseph Jon Lanthier, Slant Magazine

  As a rambling rumination on turn-of-the-century aestheticism with brazen flourishes of apophenia, the documentary is strangely effective, but we're left aching for more specific piece-by-piece analysis.

• David Fear, Time Out New York

  It's a 60-minute documentary that feels like days of watching paint dry.

• Armond White, New York Press

  The Picasso-Braque connection shows the unembarrassed impulse to study vision and philosophy through art -- not trite, childish, "Lookit!" exploitation.

Read all 14 critic reviews