The Mystery of Picasso
Just as visual artists understand the relationship between positive and  negative space in their work, France's master filmmaker Henri-Georges Clouzot  (Diabolique) understood--and set about demonstrating viaThe Mystery  of Picasso--the relationship between creation and destruction in the  artistic process. In 1955, Clouzot teamed with his friend Pablo Picasso to  capture as many aspects of the brilliant painter's working methods as possible.  Clouzot innovatively placed the camera in front of Picasso while the latter  worked, thus capturing astonishing reverse images of brush strokes and  "bleeding" inks in volatile motion. The result is that Clouzot's film--the  screen, the frame--become Picasso's canvas, and we find ourselves inside his  prodigious genius as works of beauty spontaneously burst forth and are instantly  crushed beneath the weight of new images, new ideas. A viewer would be forgiven  if, more than once, he felt like screaming at such nonchalant carnage.--Tom  Keogh