Well a few weeks ago, we had the chane to watch this film within the university. I’ve heard about it plenty of times before, but i’d never really taken an interest in her work so i thought, there wouldnt really be much point if i wasnt interested. But it was amazing! It didnt just focus aound her art, which i didt want to hapen, but around her life and the wonderful thing that had happened to he as well as the bad.
“Frida” is a film that was released in 2002. It’s basically a film feauturing the life of Frida. Starring Salma Hayek as the lead charcater, and Alffred Molina as her husband ‘Diego Rivera’. Both took a huge role in the film, even in real life. Hayek was passionate about Frida’s work, and molina put a huge amount of weight on for the movie. I’m personally pleased that Hayek played the role, because i think she potrayed Frdia so well and gave a great performance. I read an article online that Hayek even did some of the paintings within the movie, I think thats great, ahuge deal went in to her making this movie as real as it possibly coul be. Salama Hayek said this about Frida’s art work;
“I found it ugly and grotesque. But something intrigued me, and the more I learned, the more I started to appreciate her work. There was a lot of passion and depth. Some people see only pain, but I also see irony and humor. I think what draws me to her is what Diego saw in her. She was a fighter. Many things could have diminished her spirit, like the accident or Diego’s infidelities. But she wasn’t crushed by anything.”
I knew nothing of Frida before i started researching her and her workon the internet. I was pretty amazed by how accurate the film got to her actual life! It shows her life’s up and downs and its shows the horrible accident of how the bus she was on crashed and how it gave her a great torement her entire life. It gives an insight to her rollorcoaster of her relationship with her lover/best friend/fellow artist/husband Diego! A real view into their affairs, reconciliations, and (more) affairs (one with her sister). It tells of her painful miscarriage resulting from the accident, where a handrail pierced her uterus, its a beautiul story to watch.
Here are a few images of Frida and Diego together. From these pictures you can clearly tell how much in love they were together. In my opinian i did think it done a lovely job of showing their relationship. It showed Frida’s insecurities, flaws, her complexity. But it still made her a sympethetic and genuine woman. I loved her the whole time.
In my own persoal opinian i think that the film used surrealism tendancies. The scenes within her hospitalization after her miscarriage, they were very unreal in a way? It was a great link to her surrealist tendancies wihin her paintings. People have argued whether she should be placed within the surrealist category, as she was mexican, and people more or less categorized surrealism as a english ‘thing’.I love how the on-screen Frida looked just like her self-portraits, unibrow and all, yet it was not a caricature but felt like a real, living person.
Frida Kahlo. The Two Fridas. 1939.
Frida Kahlo. Self-Portrait with Cropped Hair. 1940.
This painting was done after Kahlo’s divorce from Diego Rivera. She cropped her hair short and wore a man’s suit, in stark contrast to her usual traditional Mexican clothing. I found this cene very emotional to watch, it’s like she was try to change her self completly after her split from Diego, very heartbreaking.
I definetly would recommend this film to anyone. Im buying it for my sister for Christmas actually! Its an amazing story about a fascinating woman. There was a lot of nudity though, but there usually is in any art film I usually see.
Cerys xo
seamsandstitches 