Frida

Frida Kahlo was a Mexican artist who was known for her surreal and even creatively grotesque paintings which held strong autobiographical elements along with a mixture of fantastical realism and straightforward realism. She created art that was not only popular for her time in the 1930s for its exploration and usage of the Mexican culture, but also years later for showcasing elements of identity, post-colonialism, gender, class, and various other components that made her well known in and out of Mexico. A person so odd but perplexing definitely had a life worth exploring, and many people in 2002 got the chance to see it through the biopic film starring Salma Hayek, which had various turmoils to get through in order to get it released to the big screen. Set in 1925 Mexico, a young Frida Kahlo (played by Salma Hayek) is involved in a traumatic bus accident that leaves her bed-ridden and plagued with crippling pains and walking problems for the rest of her life. To provide her with something to do during her healing phase, her parents (played by Patricia Reyes Spíndola and Roger Rees) gift her a canvas and inspire her to paint, resulting in Frida letting out her emotions and thoughts in a vibrant and greatly bizarre manner. Wanting to receive a proper critique from muralist Diego Rivera (played by Alfred Molina), the two eventually find they have a lot in common and eventually end up getting married, which proves to be more trouble than expected once Frida finds out from past lover of Diego, Lupe (played by Valeria Golino) that he will never be faithful and is always scrounging for other women to bed with. Throughout the years, Frida bounces between romantic flings (both male and female) whilst her marriage deteriorates and continues to evolve her craft through every horrible experience she faces, which eventually gets the attention of others and leads to her becoming a successful artist in her own right. But with mental and physical turmoils slowly eating away at her to the point that it returns her to a bed-ridden state, how will this artist paint her last stroke? A film that did well critically and commercially but was shut out of most of the award space due to conflicts with Harvey Weinstein, Frida is a visually and emotionally engaging film that dazzles its audiences with punchy direction, vibrant and memorable visuals and production, and very solid acting (mainly from Hayek as the lead).

The movie was based on the 1983 book, Frida: A Biography of Frida Kahlo, written by Hayden Herrera and was championed originally by former book editor and Hollywood-based literary agent, Nancy Hardin, who saw the appealing and contemporary qualities of Frida’s story and tried to pitch it as a film akin to other epic love stories in the fashion of something like Out of Africa, but no one was interested due to having no knowledge of Frida. This changed in 1990 when her art resurfaced and suddenly there were several projects being suggested and put into production, but none were able to stick around due to various reasons until Salma Hayek (who was still a relative newcomer at the time) got her own project secured under Miramax and the rest was history. As a biopic, you get a sense early on that the presentation, atmosphere and overall vibe for this film is a little more wild and off-kilter than a more traditional biopic would be presented, with most of this undoubtedly coming from the director for the film, Julie Taymor, who was most well known for her incredible work in theatre (being the creator of the immensely popular Tony-Award winning production of The Lion King) and the bizarre and surreal aspects that she adopts in her work on stage and on film. While the movie was generally enjoyed by critics at the time, a common critique brought up was how many felt that the film breezed past crucial moments too quickly. While that is a valid point to bring up as there are moments where the film does almost fast-track through sections of her life, the key element this film provides that makes it not only works despite that element, but also work much greater than some other biopics, is how much this film runs on emotions. While the facts might not be exactly laid out, the emotions felt by every single character is always front and centre, and it results in a gripping narrative. Even though the screenplay by Clancy Sigal, Diane Lake, Gregory Nava, Anna Thomas, and even an uncredited Edward Norton may not be the most thought-out or incredibly wordy, it gets the job across, cuts out what isn’t needed and displays what is, and makes you care all the way through its two-hour length without getting bored. The notes might be a little watered down, but the overall beats are obvious and displayed in an active, lively, and very passionate manner through the dialogue, the acting, and the directing by Taymor, who brings her own eccentricities to the table. It seems like a perfect match to have a surreal artist like Taymor direct a film about a surreal artist like Kahlo, and her wild style of directing and unique cut-aways mixed with Frida’s hauntingly beautiful and hypnotically strange artwork brings an outlandish and unusual style to the picture, but not too the point that its distracting or without purpose, it always keeps itself grounded to the real person and her turmoils and it just sucks you in further. It literally sucks you into the mindset of its lead, lets you feel and understand her pain and by extension get more insight into her work, it uses the art form to express without needing to speak and blends the lines between reality and fiction to create something bold and artistic, but still grounded and raw (much like the paintings from the titular artist).

This is as much a story of overcoming turmoil for Frida Kahlo as it was for Salma Hayek, as the troubles that she had to deal with behind the cameras as both the lead actress and a producer for this film was simply disgusting, all coming back to the notoriously scumming Harvey Weinstein. Several reports claimed that Weinstein was determined to destroy the project through any means necessary due to Hayek denying him sexual favors, which resulted in him trying to sue Hayek for ownership rights, forced her to include a full-frontal sex scene between her and another woman in the film, and almost attacked Julie Taymor at a press screening when he was furious with the movie’s positive reception. All this and more sounded absolutely horrendous (as well as not surprising), and it’s tragic and awful that she had to endure all of that horrific torture in order to bring a film that was clearly so personal to her to the big screen. It’s very satisfying to see that not only was she rewarded with a Best Actress nomination for her work in this film, but that she is also one of the best things in this film period. She really comes to life as Frida Kahlo, capturing the look almost to a tea and conveying the good-hearted but still sparky nature of this woman who went through several terrible situations, yet never let them stop her from continuing with her passions. The various element of her home life like her affiliations with communism and her bisexuality are fascinating components, the way the film portrays what her mental state was like during the time she painted some of her most famous work provides a unique form of insight and new perspective to an already great piece of art, and the movie does a good job balancing her personal and professional life in a way that provides knowledge of both without over-stuffing each side. The rest of the acting is really solid to, with everybody bringing that same sense of energized personality that allows for even the smallest roles to come across as memorable (Antonio Banderas, Diego Luna and Edward Norton are in very small scenes, yet they still leave an impression). Whilst it is strange that people like Alfred Molina, Ashley Judd and Valeria Molino are featured in this film despite not being of Mexican descent (which can be felt through their pretty poor accents), they are still acted well and get across their characters pretty cleanly, especially Molina who does a really good job at making at person who in all honesty seems pretty scummy and awful, at least watchable

The production value for this film is another quality that instantly helps it stand out from amongst the crowd not only for its appealing visuals from both a creative and a realistic stance, but also just for how overtly Mexican the film is. From the overall appeal, the warm lighting, the rustic building layout, even to the manner in which the people speak and interact, it feels very culturally appropriate and the overall production design by Felipe Fernández del Paso is very impressive and showcases the authentic feeling of rural Mexico (helped out by seemingly real locations from the country) as well as the magnetic appeal of Kahlo’s work from the vibrant color palette and the odd design details, which also comes through in the costume design by Julie Weiss. The cinematography by Rodrigo Pietro does a great job at portraying these locations in a clean and cinematic manner, while still being positioned and even framed in a manner that adds to the strange reality like with the usage of wide-angle lens or a specifically chosen angle, it’s very well done and (much like Kahlo’s work) can make even something brutal and grim look beautiful. This can also be said for the musical score by Elliot Goldenthal which is honestly an animal all in itself. The score for this film is expertly handled and almost feels like its own character and personality for how it ties into the emotions of the characters, the chaotic nature of the situations at hand, and the appeal and atmosphere of each environment they are in, it’s a highlight for the film for sure (which makes sense as it won an Oscar).

This movie does what any good biopic should do; make you want to know more about the person who they are talking about, and Frida does a fantastic job at making you care and become interested in the artist. While it may not be the most complexly structured from a filming standpoint as it does go for more of a ‘’passion over information’’ kind of appeal, you are going to feel those emotions and get every single one of them through the straightforward but effective screenplay, the stable yet still appropriately odd direction, the authentic and flavorful aesthetics, and the passionate performances (especially from the lead). It’s a film that you heavily respect, not just for who its talking about and how Frida herself had to struggle through a lot of badness in her life in order to make it to the stardom that she eventually got, but also for Salma Hayek who had to deal with her own looming shadow that caused a lot of problems for this film, and with how well it turned out, it’s safe to say she won out in the end.