Balthus.

• Author: Rothenberg, Robert S.

Home Vision Public Media / 51 minutes / $39.95

Over the years, Home Vision's series of documentaries on the works of famous living artists has brought their masterpieces to the attention of the viewing public, complemented by interviews with collectors, curators, contemporaries, family, and friends. As the series has progressed, the most well-known artists having been covered, less-familiar painters have come to be featured. Now, it is the turn of Count Balthazar Klossowski de Rola, the Polish-Swiss artist who signs his work simply Balthus.

The 90-year-old painter still is active, though, as he declares to the interviewer, he is unhappy with the limitations aging has put on his work. His frequently returned-to themes--brooding landscapes, humanized felines, and ominous knives--are presented throughout the video, interspersed with reminiscences of his relationships with artists Pablo Picasso and Alberto Giacometti and author Rainer Maria Rilke.

What sets Balthus apart from other...