For the first great exhibition devoted to Picasso in Italy in 1953, Emmer was commissioned to make a documentary on the painter from Malaga. He set just one condition: to allow him to film Picasso working at his Vallauris studio. The film would become one of the great milestones in the relationship between Picasso and the film industry, four years after the Visite à Picasso (Visit to Picasso) (1950) by Paul Haesaerts and two years before Le mystère Picasso (The Mystery of Picasso) (1956) by Clouzot.