Frida (2002)

It was a little disappoiting for me to see that it was focused on her relationships more than her art. It was a good film but the title was a little misleading. She is famous for her self-portraits, unusual style, eyebrows and for her hairy body which I didn't see in the film. It should have been 'Frida in Love' or something like that.

It's 1922 Mexico City. Frida Kahlo (Salma Hayek) is a rebellious student who is intrigued with artist Diego Rivera (Alfred Molina). She is severely injured in a trolley accident and left bedridden with lifelong pains. She regains her ability to walk. Diego takes an interest in Frida's work. They get married and begin a passionate complicated relationship. She befriends his jealous ex Lupe Marín. He constantly cheats on her. Their son dies in childbirth. She starts having affairs with both men and women including communist icon Leon Trotsky.I really love the first hour. Her accident, her recovery and their courtship are all very compelling. Then the second half kind of move on and on and on. The problem is that he's such a slut. He never really demonstrates his love for her. I guess there is dependence or codependence. It's not that appealing. He's horrible and it doesn't put her in a great light either. It needs to illuminate her or her art more than what the movie gives.

I'm a "Mexiphile", enamoured of the country, its people, culture, history, and am overwhelmed by both Diego's and Frida's art. Salma's labour of love condensed two supersized lives into two hours which, by sheer necessity, had to paint their entwined lives as metaphorically. We just watched it again for the third time. I like it better every time. Probably a box office failure because it was too gringo for the Mexicans and too Mexican for the gringos, a fine balance which Julie Taymor finessed. I give high marks for the acting, the colours of Mexico, the music by Elliot Goldenthal which also captures the flavours of Mexico. The screen writing is terse, tight, humorous, and human. Learn something about Kahlo, Rivera, the muralist movement, Rivera's osmotic art education in Europe and his panoply of styles before he "rediscovered" Mexico...then watch Frida: a classic work of art.

After being attached to a number of actors, directors, and producers, this long-gestating biography of one of Mexico's most prominent, iconoclastic painters reaches the screen under the guiding hand of producer/star Salma Hayek.Frida is a biographical film which depicts the professional and private life of the surrealist Mexican painter Frida Kahlo. It stars Hayek in her Academy Award nominated portrayal as Kahlo and Alfred Molina as her husband, Diego Rivera.The movie was adapted by Clancy Sigal, Diane Lake, Gregory Nava, Anna Thomas and Edward Norton from the book Frida: A Biography of Frida Kahlo by Hayden Herrera. It was directed by Julie Taymor.Hayek ages some 30 years on screen as she charts Frida Kahlo's life from feisty schoolgirl to Diego Rivera protégée to world-renowned artist in her own right. Frida details Kahlo's affluent upbringing in Mexico City, and her nurturing relationship with her traditional mother and philosophical father. Having already suffered the crippling effects of polio, Kahlo sustains further injuries when a city bus accident nearly ends her life. But in her bed-ridden state, the young artist produces dozens upon dozens of pieces; when she recovers, she presents them to the legendary -- and legendarily temperamental -- Rivera, who takes her under his wing as an artist, a political revolutionary, and, inevitably, a lover. But their relationship is fraught with trouble, as the philandering Rivera traverses the globe painting murals, and Kahlo languishes in obscurity, longing to make her mark on her own.Sporting mustache, Salma Hayek gives a solid performance in the otherwise conventional and mediocre biopic of the noted Spanish artist.Ms. Taymor also gets magnificent performance from Alfred Molina as the oversexed Diego Rivera.The film is passionate, provocative, hilarious, tragic and just dizzyingly beautiful to behold.But nevertheless,the screenplay's flatness ultimately defeats a film that's always a treat to look at.Taymor's only triumph is that her film, despite its distance from us in some ways, is pertinent and enthralling.