The 1969 drama film The Picasso Summer was supposed to be based on the 1957 Ray Bradbury short story “In a Season of Calm Weather,” but a lot happened along the way. The drama of making the film is a story in itself which I won’t go into here but is much more interesting than the film.

The character names and certain other elements were retained from the short story but a lot was added and changed. Ray Bradbury was so upset at the almost total abandonment of his script that he had his name substituted with that of Douglas Spaulding, a pen name for when he didn’t want to use his own.

George Smith, played by Albert Finney, is a San Francisco architect who is bored and discouraged because after designing an entire city his firm only let him design one box of a warehouse. His wife Alice, played by Yvette Mimieux, persuades him to attend a party which turns out to be a pretentious display of 1960s weirdness. George then turns to his love of the art of Pablo Picasso and convinces Alice to go to France to experience Picasso’s art and determine to meet him.

George and Alice, on a mission to see Picasso or bust, then bike all over the area in search of Picasso’s villa. The bicycle trek as well as most of the movie is set to the endless strains of an instrumental of the song “Summer Me, Winter Me,” music written by Michel Legrand. It is actually a beautiful tune but is so grossly overused that irritation gives way to nausea. George has no luck stalking Picasso’s residence, and learns from a drunken Frenchman that Picasso has a friend in Spain. He determines to go meet said friend to obtain an introduction. Alice declines to accompany him.

This is all intercut with extremely long, wildly trippy animations of Picasso’s work. Many are set to a pulsing strobe effect which will guarantee anyone who is photosensitive a devastating reaction. Objectionable content besides stalking and some of the art subjects is a bar scene with smoking and drinking and a drunk scene. There is also the worst animal cruelty I believe I’ve ever seen in any movie.

The first director, Serge Bourguignon, pretty much threw out Bradbury’s script and had the actors ad-lib most of the movie, and it sounds like it. Bradbury was reportedly so furious on viewing this cut that he shouted, “You’re fired!” and a brief fistfight broke out. A second director, Robert Sallin, filmed new material, but must not have revived Bradbury’s script. The only part that sounds at all like Ray Bradbury’s writing is a speech by a Spanish bullfighter, played by Luis Miguel Dominguín as himself.

The monologue spoken by Dominguín speaks of bullfighting as a metaphor for confronting mortality. This is very unfortunately followed by an actual bull fight which is just as drawn out as the animated sequences and sadly all too real. One bull is killed on camera. Later George is shown standing over the body of another bull he has supposedly killed because Dominguín told him he needed to do so. No matter how beautiful the monologue, it is a pathetic and lame excuse for such blatant animal cruelty so ultimately fails.

The ending is similar to that of the original story, particularly the final images, but even that is changed from what actually takes place in the story.

I don’t feel this was much of an excuse for a movie. If a person is a red hot Picasso fan, his art is lavishly displayed in the form of paintings, sculpture, and ceramics as well as the wild animations. This must have cost a lot to make due to securing all the rights. Fans will either love or hate the animations and maybe some of each. For anyone not interested in Picasso and not a Ray Bradbury completist or a major fan of one of the stars, I would venture to say it’s not worth watching but it’s probably not the worst movie ever made either.