13 MAY 1955, Page 20

PICASSO. (Academy.) THEATRE IN the current Academy programme is Luciano

Emmer's Picasso, a forty-minute study of the artist's work made with intelligence, under- standing and considerable technical resource- ulness. As in Paul Haesert's Visite a Picasso, the scenes of the artist at work particularly fascinate; politely aware of the camera, yet intently self-absorbed, Picasso proves a mag- netically rewarding subject for these silent camera interviews. The penetrating survey of the painter's world is accompanied by a com- mentary whose line—generally hostile to cubism, formalism, etc.—may seem somewhat tendentious. But at least it is a point of view, and as such preferable to the familiar amiable platitudes. This stimulating film is photo- graphed, admirably, in Ferraniacolor.