Much like the film Loving Vincent, which was talked abut in an earlier blog post, Frida deals with the professional and private life of a renowned artist, surrealist Mexican painter Frida Kahlo. Although the film was not created with animation and real canvas paintings as was Loving Vincent, Frida dives deep into how the artist got started, her most famous works, and even incorporates some inspirations from her work into the film.
Frida was released in 2002 as an American biographical drama film directed by Julie Taymor. It stars Salma Hayek in her Academy Award-nominated portrayal of Frida Kahlo, going on to win two Academy Awards among six nominations.
The movie begins just before the traumatic accident Kahlo suffered at the age of 18 when a bus she was riding in collided with a streetcar. She was impaled by a metal pole and the injuries she suffered plagued her for the rest of her life. To help Kahlo through recovery, her father bought her a canvas upon which to start painting. Throughout the entirety of the film, a scene begins as a painting, then slowly dissolves into a live action scene with the actors. Much of the film deals with Kahlo’s beginnings as an artist and how she found her way to what were her most important and recognized works.
Also throughout the movie, the long and complicated account of Kahlo’s marriage is detailed, showing the dysfunction on both ends with the constant infidelities, and even portraying Kahlo’s journey of bisexuality through the years. Although the marriage had its issues, Kahlos’s husband, Diego Rivera, was one of the driving forces for her paintings. His appraisal of her painting ability is one of the reasons she continued to paint.
The chaotic nature and energy of Kahlo’s life does well as a dramatic film. However, the most eye-catching aspect of the film was not her many affairs, not her slow and painful death after getting a leg amputated due to gangrene, but it was the intricate artwork and her and her husband’s artistic processes shown that made the film somewhat of a masterpiece.
It is rare for female artists to get the proper recognition they deserve, especially one being a woman of color and bisexual. However, Frida does well in portraying more of a diverse artist, who just so happens to be one of the most world-renowned female artists of her generation and heritage.