Frida Kahlo?

Question

I have just read her biography and a book of her art..then saw the film "Frida" starring Salma Hayek and Alfred Mollina..What did you all think of it?

Answer 1

Julie Taymor did a beautiful job of representing Frida's life on screen, and Salma Hayek was a terrific Frida. I was a little troubled by the script, however, as it seemed to suggest both the artist and her husband, Diego Rivera, were egoistical and self-absorbed: that artists, because of the elite nature of their profession, have the freedom and the right to do whatever they want to do.

That twists the purpose of her self-portraits: they weren't exercises in egotism, but in self-affirmation. Frida Kahlo went through hell on earth, first by having her body literally shattered in a streetcar accident, then by spending most of her life wracked in pain and being put through these medical procedures that look barbaric by today's standards. (The movie downplays her disabilities, as if reluctant to look at them.) Her husband repeatedly cheated on her and at one point divorced her for another woman. She wanted desperately to have children, but her broken pelvis wouldn't allow her to carry a pregnancy to term. She needed to assert her will to live, even though the events of her own life seemed to negate it.

She was courageous beyond belief, something the movie does convey well. She was, as Carlos Fuentes wrote of her, an "Aztec goddess."

Answer 2

I had been aware of her before seeing the movie, but not very much. Her talent was impressive, her art expressive. The film was brilliant, particularly the way it took a few of her paintings and morphed them into live scenes.

Answer 3

She showed Power Pasion and love in all she produced! a very visual artist strong willed and stubborn... she had real psion of life and was a part not just lookin at it!!!