Review 1

Frida (2002)

Frida is a 2002 Miramax/Ventanarosa biographical film which depicts the professional and private life of the surrealist Mexican painter - Frida Khalo. This filw was adapted by Clancy Sigal, Diane Lake, Gregory Nava and Anna Thomas from the book Frida: A Biography of Frida Khalo written by Hayden Herrera. The movie was directed by Julie Taymor and stared Salma Hayek as Frida Khalo, Alfred Molina as Diego Rivera, Geoffrey Rush as Leo Trotsky, Mia Maestro as Cristina Khalo. Frida made its world premiere on August 29, 2002, opening the Venice International Film Festival. 

 

The film begins with Frida's youth when she went to a college. Once her friend and she got into trouble - a trolley bus collided with a bus they were riding. The young woman was impaled by a metal pole and the injuries she sustained plague her for the rest of her life. She stayed at the bed and did't stand up for a long time after the accident. To help her to spend time, her father brought her a canvas and the character started painting. Frida also detailed artist's relationship with the muralist Diego River, she had met at the college. When Rivera proposed to the young woman, she told him she didn't expect from him loyality. Diego's appraisal of her painting ability was one of the reasons she continued to paint. Frida and Diego spent a lot of time together, and once the young painter told she would never sleep with him, but soon they got married. Throughout the marriage, River cheated on her with a wide array of women, while Frida was afraid she hadn't her own children. Then the couple went to New Yourk City as Diego could paint the mural Man at the Crossroads at the Rockfeller Center. While the wife and the husband were in the Unitid States, Khalo suffered a miscarriage, and her mother died in Mexico. Rivera refused to compromise his communist vision of the work to the needs of the patron, Nelson Rockfeller. As a result, the mural was destroyed, and the couple returned to Mexico. Khalo's sister, Kristina, got divorced with her husband and she moved at the studio of two painters to work as Rivera's assistant. Soon Frida discovered that Diego was having an affair with Kristina. Frida left him and subsequently sinked into alcoholism. The couple reunited when he asked her to welcome Leo Trotsky and his wife who had been granted a political asylum in Mexico. Later Khalo and Trosky began a love affair, which forced the married Trotsky to leave artists. Frida went to Paris after Diego realized she was unfaithful. When she returned, he asked her to divorce. Soon Trotsky was murdered in Mexico City. Rivera was temporarily a suspect, and Kahlo was incarcerated in his place when he wasn't found. Rivera helped get her released and then asked her to remarry him, and she agreed. Her health became worse, her leg was amputated. But before the death she had an exhibition in her own contry. The doctors said her not to leave the house, but she couldn't miss such event, and she was brought there on her bed. 

This is a fabulous film about a bright woman, about the revolutionary nature, the indefatigable desire, the energy. Frida Khalo was suffering a lot, but there was nothing that could break her vital energy. After the bus accident Frida Khalo spent a year bedridden, soon she began to capture self-portraits. She drew a foot, because it was the only one part of her body she could see in such position. And then began to draw her suffering. Another side of her life, full of the suffering as well was connected with the relations with Diego Rivera. They had similiar interests -  views on life, politics, history. They loved each other. They were both artists - she was a talent, and he was her critic. But their love, their family, it seemed to broke into pieces, like the terrible bus accident. Frida and suffering was the whole inseparable thing. Maybe just the suffering formed her as a person and artist. And illness forced her always to fight. 

Salma Hayek put a part of her soul in the role of the great painter - Frida Kahlo. To show the way of life of the legendary women from the girl to adult was a difficult task. The other actors also played very well, and we cannot say that someone of them looked just like a shadow in the background of Hayek. 

I think the film is beautiful, emotional and reliable. There is a beauty, pain, betrayal, jealousy and unique talent, towering over all life's turns. Here we can see real Frida Khalo - passionate, pure, bright embodied in the frail body of a small vulnerable woman.