Frida

Starring: Salma Hayek, Alfred Molina

Release: 2002

Frida (2002) follows the life and work of Frida Kahlo (played here by Salma Hayek) from her youth through her death. The film represents the Mexican surrealist and self portrait painter as influenced primarily by two things: the bus accident that nearly killed her as a teenager and her two turbulent marriages to muralist Diego Rivera (played by Alfred Molina). As it focuses on such a broad expanse of experience, the film proves to embody both the very worst aspects of so-called “biopics” and the very best.

When it comes down to it, a number of the films on this list (particularly Basquiat, Pollock, and Lust for Life) all suffer from the same problem that Frida does: they try to address an entire life in the length of a few short hours, which is nearly impossible. The result is that the life is boiled down to a few events, with pictures of paintings interspersed. This can, unfortunately, give a film a bit of a hollow feel, which does happen sometimes in Frida.

Her relationship with Rivera is portrayed in anentirely biased manner, as his extramarital affairs are presented as cold and cruel, while hers (with the likes of Josephine Baker and Leon Trotsky) are merelysad retaliations against her husband’s. Similarly, while I understand that Kahlo is the focus of the film, Rivera’s complex historical art (this example here includes a representation of Kahlo as a socialist revolutionary) is given a fairly simplistic treatment. His infamous corporate art work, the mural Man at the Crossroads, which was quickly destroyed by Norman Rockefeller for its overtly communist images, is only very cursorily addressed (for a more substantial treatment, check out 1999’s Cradle Will Rock).

But Frida also succeeds where few movies are able to - when making an artist biopic, many filmmakers will try to mimic the painter’s techniques in the filmmaking itself. Most filmmakers fail miserably at this, but Frida excels. The world embodied in the film is Kahlo paintings and portraits brought to life. Kahlo’s art is highly personal and often features self portrait oil paintings like the one seen here, so this treatment works perfectly. Some scenes, like the representation of the bus accident and shots of Khalo painting a portrait of her sister, feature Kahlo’s surrealist imagery and colors as parts of her everyday life. Even more compellingly, parts of the story – most noticeably Kahlo’s hospital stay following the bus accident – are actually told through animation, featuring puppets and the animation of some of Kahlo’s painted pictures. The personal nature of Kahlo’s work means that it is also a key part of the film’s storytelling technique, and many of her self portrait oil paintings are featured in the film. In the end, the experience of watching the film is remarkably like the experience of studying a Kahlo oil portrait – and that’s a remarkable feat.

Don't miss the other blog posts in my series on movies about artists!

10 Movies You Should See About Artists:

• #10 - Andrei Rublev
• #9 - Lust for Life
• #8 - Goya's Ghosts
• #7 - Pollock
• #6 - Basquiat
• #5 - Girl with a Pearl Earring
• #4 - The Agony and the Ecstasy