short takes (2)

The Adventures of Picasso is billed as "a thousand loving lies" by director Tange Danielsson. Some of these fibs are as offensive as they are affectionate and will ruin the taste of the film for many viewers. In addition to these bursts of boorishiness, though, the picture contains some of the funniest and most inventive comedy routines in memory, not to mention some of the most outrageous characterizations in movie history. The story is an absudrly fictitious version of Picasso's career, but that's just the starting point for a film that ridicules every available subject from "La Boheme" to Gertrude Stein, in an international language largely comprising nonsense syllables. Too bad its lapses into boisterous vulgarity will limit the audience and appeal of a frequently engaging farce.