My Thoughts While Watching:
I was struck by the use of vivid colors in telling the story of Frida. I will admit that I did not know anything of Frida until this past March and discovering her through Women In History snippets I worked on. Then I watched several interviews with Salma Hayk regarding her conviction to bringing the artist’s story to the screen. If I did not know Frida, I knew Diego, her husband, even less.
IMDb’s storyline notes: “Frida” chronicles the life Frida Kahlo shared unflinchingly and openly with Diego Rivera, as the young couple took the art world by storm. From her complex and enduring relationship with her mentor and husband to her illicit and controversial affair with Leon Trotsky, to her provocative and romantic entanglements with women, Frida Kahlo lived a bold and uncompromising life as a political, artistic, and sexual revolutionary.
Her artwork is surreal and amazing and full of story and color. She survived polio as well as her back being broken in a horrific bus accident. The amount of pain and suffering this woman went through and it did not even dent her passion for art or, quite frankly, her passion in general. There are gratuitous sex scenes in the movie and Salma surprisingly bares more flesh than I would have imagined. But there is a horrible Harve Weinstein backstory that involved blackmailing her to do the scene or the movie being canned. In the end he told her the movie would flop and yet it went on to be nominated and to win a number of awards. Hayek was nominated for a Best Actress Oscar for her role but lost to Nicole Kidman (The Hours).
I would recommend this movie. However, it is not a family-friendly movie, keep that in mind.
Some Interviews and Extra Video:
IMDB Synopsis: A biography of artist Frida Kahlo, who channeled the pain of a crippling injury and her tempestuous marriage into her work.
Starring:
Lead Actress: Salma Hayek
Lead Actor: Alfred Molina
Supporting Female: Mía Maestro
Supporting Male: Antonio Banderas
Others of note: Edward Norton, Ashley Judd, Didi Conn, Geoffrey Rush
Director: Julie Taymor
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1 Ugh – 2 Meh – 3 I don’t hate it? – 4 That was solid. – 5 Loved It!
Cinematography: 4
Costume Design: 4
Film Editing: 3
Makeup and Hairstyling: 3
Music: 4
Production Design: 3
Sound Editing/Mixing: 3
Writing: 24 out of 35
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Trailer:
Additional Movie Info:
It received a Rotten Tomatoes rating of 75% Fresh. It received a Rotten Tomato audience rating of 85% liking it. Average Rating: 3.7/5 with a number of User Ratings: 53,869.
Movie Reviews:
Specs: Release date: 29 August 2002 (USA) / Runtime: 123 minutes / Budget: $12M
IMDB Trivia:
- In the movie, when Frida Kahlo first meets Diego Rivera as a young girl, she is spying on him flirting with a nude model; Rivera tells the model that he could eat her wrapped in tortilla. This is actually a reference to Rivera’s real-life autobiography where he describes practicing cannibalism on female cadavers in 1904.
- Frida Kahlo’s niece was so impressed with the film that she gave Salma Hayek one of Kahlo’s necklaces.
- Salma Hayek had to sue producer Harvey Weinstein for breach of contract before the filming of the movie as he threatened to replace her with another actress despite the fact that she had brought the project to him with an agreement that she would produce and star in the film.
Thoughts and Ponderances 