Frida

Frida is a 2002 Academy Award-winning film which depicts the life of the surrealist painter Frida Kahlo and portrays the tortured personal life of this Mexican artist. It stars Salma Hayek as Frida Kahlo and Alfred Molina as Diego Rivera.

The movie was adapted by Clancy Sigal, Diane Lake, Gregory Nava, Anna Thomas and Edward Norton (uncredited) from the book Frida: A Biography of Frida Kahlo by Hayden Herrera. It was directed by Julie Taymor and the original music score was composed by Elliot Goldenthal.

Plot

The traumatic accident Frida had at the age of 18 when a car trolley collided with a bus is depicted in Frida. She is impaled by a metal pole and the injuries sustained plague her for the rest of her life. Her father brings her a canvas upon which to start painting while she is bedridden. Throughout the film a scene starts as a painting, then slowly dissolves into a live-action scene with actors. The relationship between Frida's suffering and her art is explored.

Frida also details the artist's relationship with the muralist Diego Rivera, especially her anger at his infidelity and her continuing love for him despite this. When Diego proposes to Frida she tells him she expects from him loyalty if not fidelity. Diego's appraisal of her painting ability is one of the reasons that she continues to paint.

The two travel to New York City so that Diego may paint the mural Man at the Crossroads at the Rockefeller Center. While in the United States Kahlo suffers a miscarriage and her mother dies in Mexico. Diego refuses to compromise his communist vision of the work to the needs of the capitalist patron, Nelson Rockefeller. As a result the mural is destroyed. The pair return to Mexico, with Rivera the more reluctant of the two.

Frida's sister Cristina moves in with the two at their San Ángel studio home to work as Diego's assistant. Soon after Frida discovers both Cristina and Diego are having sexual trysts. Frida leaves Diego, drinks excessively and sells paintings to sustain herself. Diego and Frida reunite when he asks her to welcome and house Leon Trotsky who has been granted political asylum in Mexico. Frida and Trotsky begin an affair which forces the married Trotsky to leave the safety of her Coyoacan home.

Frida leaves for Paris after Diego realizes she was unfaithful to him with Trotsky. When she returns to Mexico he asks for her divorce and Trotsky is assassinated. Diego is temporarily a suspect and Frida is incarcarated in his place when he is not found. Diego helps get her released.

Frida has her toes removed when they grow gangrene. Diego asks her to remarry him and she agrees. Her health worsens including the amputation of a leg and she ultimately dies after finally having a solo exhibition of her paintings in Mexico.

Allusions

• The passengers on the trolley Frida Kahlo rides and that crashes with a bus are based on subjects in the painter's 1929 portrait, The Bus.
• The Brothers Quay-created stop motion animation sequence depicting the initial stages of Frida's recovery at the hospital after the trolley accident are inspired by Day of the Dead.
• The gown Valeria Golino wears at Frida's 1953 Mexican solo art exhibition is a replica of the dress her character Lupe Marín wore in Diego Rivera's 1938 portrait of her.

Accuracy

• In the film the nude woman Diego Rivera is painting in the mural Creation was in actuality posed for by his wife Lupe Marín and not the unknown auditorium model as depicted. In the film when Marín confronts Diego for his infedilities said model is present.
• As portrayed in the film Diego painted the mural An Abundant Earth after marrying Frida Kahlo. In actuality he completed this while still married to his previous wife, Marín. The nude woman he used as a subject in one of the panels in the mural was Tina Modotti and not an unknown model he has an affair with as also portrayed in the film.
• In the film Frida miscarries in New York City when in reality this took place in Detroit.

Cast

• Salma Hayek - Frida Kahlo
• Alfred Molina - Diego Rivera
• Geoffrey Rush - Leon Trotsky
• Mía Maestro - Cristina Kahlo
• Ashley Judd - Tina Modotti
• Antonio Banderas - David Alfaro Siqueiros
• Edward Norton - Nelson Rockefeller
• Alejandro Usigli - Professor
• Amelia Zapata - Maid
• Diego Luna - Alejandro Gonzalez Arias
• Fermín Martínez - Painter on Bus
• Loló Navarro - Nanny
• Lucia Bravo - Auditorium Model
• Margarita Sanz - Natalia Trotsky
• Patricia Reyes Spíndola - Matilde Kahlo
• Roger Rees - Guillermo Kahlo
• Valeria Golino - Lupe Marín
• Felipe Fulop - Jean van Heijenoort

Also includes performances and appearances by Mexican singer/musician Lila Downs.

Honors

American Film Institute

Movies of the Year 2002, Official Selection

FRIDA is a movie about art that is a work of art in itself. The film's unique visual language takes us into an artist's head and reminds us that art is best enjoyed when it moves, breathes and is painted on a giant canvas, as only the movies can provide.

National Board of Review

Top Ten Films

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