Frida

Frida Review

The film gives a colourful rendition of Frida Kalho's life,played engagingly by Salma Hayek who physically resembles her.Diego Rivera("I paint what I see") is superbly played by Alfred Molina.Kalho's paintings now possibly are more famous than Rivera's mural works due to the inseparability of her life and work,her paintings are her biography.Born with the Revolutionary generation,we get the early meeting with Rivera in which she shows her paintings to the great muralist of revolutionary Mexico.Prior to this we get the early trolley crash that debilitates her for life,preventing her having children,and waging a life-long battle against pain,but giving her the time to paint.She specializes in portraits.Her work uses vibrant,beautiful colours.

Rivera,being a philanderer, marries her following 2 divorces,in 1929.Her pain and Diego both contribute causes of emotional trauma as well as being the sources of her art.Both artists shared a similar political viewpoint as communist militants.Kalho says she `suffered 2 grave accidents in my life.One in which a streetcar knocked me down...The other is Diego.'Her father is an Austrian Jew and photographer who wants her to get on and her mother is a traditional,pious, lady from a Spanish-Indian background.The film is shot in the "Blue"House where she was born in Coyoacan, and lived with Diego from 1929-1954.We see the parrots,monkeys,peacocks,dogs roaming the residence.Her love of nature is shown in her work,she suckles on the teat of an nanny with Aztec mask.Her self-portraits are replete with monkeys and parrots.Her mother is Mexico.Diego is her frog prince.

In 1932 Rivera was commissioned to paint a major series of murals for the Detroit Museum, and here Kahlo suffered a miscarriage. While recovering, she painted Miscarriage in Detroit, the first of her truly penetrating self-portraits. The style she evolved was entirely unlike that of her husband, being based on Mexican folk art and in particular on the small votive pictures known as retablos, which the pious dedicated in Mexican churches. Rivera's reaction to his wife's work was, however, both perceptive and generous: "Frida began work on a series of masterpieces which had no precedent in the history of art - paintings which exalted the feminine quality of truth, reality, cruelty and suffering. Never before had a woman put such agonized poetry on canvas as Frida did at this time in Detroit"

Rivera has exhibitions and work in America but the mural he did for Rockefeller in New York was destroyed because he would not remove the head of Lenin.Frida called it `Gringoland'and they are shown working back in Mexico City in the Casa Azul and San Angel studios.Frida is dressed in Tehuana costumes of Indian maidens.They both pursue affairs,he with her sister then with an actress.She with a singer or later after their remarriage with Trotsky(Rush)before he gets assassinated with an ice pick by a Soviet agent.She exhibits in Paris, wanting to be independent of Rivera.Her many operations are hinted at and her deteriorations(her toes then her leg gets amputated),wearing a steel corset.He was protective of his 'chicuita'.

Taymor, the director, creates atmosphere through the playing of Mexican folk songs, the animations of several of her paintings,shooting in the arcades and courtyards of municipal buildings and the ebb and flow of their love.She embodied alegria-lust for life and displayed an extrovert, black humour and sharp wit behind her unibrowed features,concealing her vulnerability and extreme sensitivity.Although a surrealist,her painting is realistic,down to earth,depicting real images in the most literal way.Her art interweaves fact and fantasy, both equally real.Her art is intensely personal, visionary about sensations,statements of mind and feelings of pain.Her only exhibition in Mexico comes before her death, when she is carried into the gallery.Rivera praises work'acid and tender,hard as steel and delicate and fine as a butterfly's wing,loveable as a beautiful smile,and profound and cruel as the bitterness of life'.They both thought each other was the better artist.He made the"Blue"House a museum after her death,dying 3 years later.

Frida Overview

Nominated for six 2002 Academy Awards(R), including Salma Hayek for Best Actress, FRIDA is the triumphant motion picture about an exceptional woman who lived an unforgettable life! A product of humble beginnings, Frida Kahlo (Hayek) earns fame as a talented artist with a unique vision. And from her enduring relationship with her mentor and husband, Diego Rivera (Alfred Molina -- CHOCOLAT), to her scandalous affairs, Frida's uncompromising personality would inspire her greatest creations! Also starring Antonio Banderas (SPY KIDS), Ashley Judd (KISS THE GIRLS), Edward Norton (RED DRAGON), and Geoffrey Rush (QUILLS).

Frida Specifications

Salma Hayek makes up for many bad movies with her fierce performance in this sumptuous film. Hayek plays the Mexican surrealist painter Frida Kahlo, whose tempestuous life with her unfaithful husband, muralist Diego Rivera (Alfred Molina), drives the story of Frida. Maverick director Julie Taymor (Titus, the Broadway stage production of The Lion King) pulls out a wealth of gorgeous visuals to capture everything from the horrific bus accident that damaged Kahlo's spine to her and Rivera's trip to New York City, where Rivera's political leanings ruptured a commission from the Rockefeller family. Though the script spends too much time telling us how great Frida's painting is (rather than trusting in the power of the images themselves), Taymor's dynamic energy and Kahlo's forceful personality give Frida genuine emotional impact. The superb cast includes Roger Rees, Valeria Golino, Ashley Judd, Geoffrey Rush, Antonio Banderas, and Edward Norton. --Bret Fetzer

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