Frida (2002 film)

Last updated

Frida
Fridaposter.jpg
Promotional poster
Directed by Julie Taymor
Screenplay by
Based on Frida: A Biography of Frida Kahlo
by Hayden Herrera
Produced by
Starring
Cinematography Rodrigo Prieto
Edited by Françoise Bonnot
Music by Elliot Goldenthal
Production
companies
Distributed by Miramax Films
Release dates
  • August 29, 2002 (2002-08-29)(Venice)
  • October 25, 2002 (2002-10-25)(United States)
Running time
123 minutes
CountryUnited States [1]
LanguageEnglish
Budget$12 million [2]
Box office$56.3 million [3]

Frida is a 2002 American biographical drama film directed by Julie Taymor which depicts the professional and private life of the surrealist Mexican artist Frida Kahlo.

Contents

Starring Salma Hayek in an Academy Award–nominated portrayal as Kahlo and Alfred Molina as her husband, Diego Rivera, the film was adapted by Clancy Sigal, Diane Lake, Gregory Nava, Anna Thomas, Antonio Banderas and unofficially by Edward Norton from the 1983 book Frida: A Biography of Frida Kahlo by Hayden Herrera. Frida received generally positive reviews from critics, and won two Academy Awards for Best Makeup and Best Original Score among six nominations.

Plot

In 1925, Frida Kahlo suffers a traumatic accident at the age of 18 on board a wooden-bodied bus that collides with a streetcar. Impaled by a metal pole, the injuries she sustains plague her for the rest of her life. To help her through convalescence, her father brings her a canvas to paint on.

Once regaining the ability to walk with a cane, Frida visits muralist Diego Rivera, demanding an honest critique of her paintings. Rivera falls in love with her work, and they begin a dysfunctional relationship. When he proposes, she tells him she expects loyalty from him, if not fidelity. Throughout the marriage, Rivera has affairs with a wide array of women. At the same time, the bisexual Kahlo takes on male and female lovers, including, in one case, the same woman as Rivera.

The couple travels to New York City in 1934, so Rivera may paint the mural Man at the Crossroads , at the behest of the Rockefeller family, inside Rockefeller Center. While living in the United States, Kahlo suffers a miscarriage and travels back to Mexico for her mother's funeral. Rivera refuses to compromise his communist vision of the work to the needs of the patron, Nelson Rockefeller; as a result, the mural is destroyed. The pair return to Mexico, with Rivera more reluctant.

Kahlo's sister, Cristina, moves in with them at their San Ángel studio home as Rivera's assistant. Soon afterward, Kahlo discovers Rivera is sleeping with her. Leaving him, she subsequently sinks into alcoholism after moving back to her family's Coyoacán home. They reunite during a Día de los Muertos celebration where he asks her to welcome and house Leon Trotsky, who has been granted political asylum in Mexico. Trotsky expresses his love for Kahlo's work during an excursion to Teotihuacan, and they begin an affair. Soon, Trotsky's wife learns of the affair, forcing the couple to leave the safety of Kahlo's home.

Kahlo leaves for Paris when Diego realizes she was unfaithful to him with Trotsky. However, Rivera had little problem with Kahlo's other affairs, as Trotsky was too important to be intimately involved with his wife. When she returns to Mexico, he asks for a divorce. In 1940, Trotsky is murdered in Mexico City. Initially, Rivera is suspected by police of orchestrating the assassination. When they fail to locate him, Kahlo is arrested. Cristina arrives and escorts Kahlo out of prison, explaining that Rivera convinced President Cárdenas to release her.

Kahlo has her toes removed when her doctor notices they have become gangrenous. Rivera remorsefully asks Kahlo to remarry him, and she agrees. Her health worsens, leading to the amputation of a leg and bronchopneumonia, which leaves her bedridden. In 1953, Kahlo's bed is carried from her home to a museum to attend her first solo exhibition in her native country.

Cast

Allusions and paintings

The passengers in the bus Kahlo rides in that crashes with a streetcar are based on subjects in the painter's 1929 portrait, The Bus. Other Kahlo paintings either shown directly or depicted in the film by the characters include Frieda and Diego Rivera (1931), What the Water Gave Me (1938), The Two Fridas (1939), The Broken Column (1944), and The Wounded Deer (1946).

The Brothers Quay created the stop motion animation sequence in the film depicting the initial stages of Kahlo's recovery at the hospital after the accident are inspired by the Mexican holiday Day of the Dead. The gown Valeria Golino wears at Kahlo's 1953 Mexican solo art exhibition is a replica of the dress that her character, Lupe Marín, wore in Rivera's 1938 portrait of her.

Production

The film version of Frida Kahlo's life was initially championed by Nancy Hardin, a former book editor and Hollywood-based literary agent, turned early "female studio executive", who, in the mid-1980s wished to "make the transition to independent producing." [4] Learning of Hayden Herrera's biography of Kahlo, Hardin saw Kahlo's life as very contemporary, her "story ... an emblematic tale for women torn between marriage and career." [4] Optioning the book in 1988, Hardin "tried to sell it as an epic love story in the tradition of Out of Africa , attracting tentative interest from actresses such as Meryl Streep and Jessica Lange, but receiving rejection from the film studios.

Kahlo's art gained prominence, and "in May 1990 one of Kahlo's self-portraits sold at Sotheby's for $1.5 million, the highest price ever paid at auction for a Latin American painting." [4] Madonna "announced her plans to star in a film based on Frida's life", and Robert De Niro's Tribeca Productions reportedly "envisioned a joint biography of Rivera and Kahlo." [4] In the spring of 1991, director Luis Valdez began production on a New Line feature about Frida Kahlo starring Laura San Giacomo in the lead. San Giacomo's casting received objections due to her non-Hispanic ethnicity, and New Line complied with the protesters' demands, and left the then-titled Frida and Diego in August 1992 citing finances. [4] Hardin's project found itself swamped by similar ones:

When I first tried to sell the project ... there was no interest because nobody had heard of Frida. A few years later, I heard the exact opposite –that there were too many Frida projects in development, and nobody wanted mine. [4]

Valdez was contacted early on by Salma Hayek, then unknown in the U.S., who sent "her [promo] reel to the director and phoned his office", but was ultimately told she was then too young for the role. [5] By 1993, Valdez had retitled the film The Two Fridas with San Giacomo and Ofelia Medina both playing the portraitist. [6] Raúl Juliá was cast as Diego Rivera, but his death further delayed the movie. At the same time, Hardin approached HBO, and with "rising young development executive and producer" Lizz Speed (a former assistant to Sherry Lansing) intended to make a television movie, hopeful that Brian Gibson (director of " What's Love Got to Do With It , the story of Tina Turner" and The Josephine Baker Story) would direct. [4] Casting difficulties proved insurmountable, but Speed joined Hardin in advocating for the project, and after four years in development, the two took the project from HBO to Trimark and producer Jay Polstein (with assistant Darlene Caamaño). At Trimark, Salma Hayek became interested in the role, having "been fascinated by Kahlo's work from the time she was 13 or 14" –although not immediately a fan:

At that age I did not like her work ... I found it ugly and grotesque. But something intrigued me, and the more I learned, the more I started to appreciate her work. There was a lot of passion and depth. Some people see only pain, but I also see irony and humor. I think what draws me to her is what Diego saw in her. She was a fighter. Many things could have diminished her spirit, like the accident or Diego's infidelities. But she wasn't crushed by anything. [4]

Hayek was so determined to play the role that she sought out Dolores Olmedo Patino, longtime-lover of Diego Rivera, and, after his death, administrator to the rights of Frida and Rivera's art, which Rivera had "willed ... to the Mexican people", bequeathing the trust to Olmedo. [5] Hayek personally secured access to Kahlo's paintings from her, and began to assemble a supporting cast, approaching Alfred Molina for the role of Rivera in 1998. According to Molina, "She turned up backstage [of the Broadway play 'Art' ] rather sheepishly, and asked if I would like to play Diego". Molina went on to gain 35 pounds to play Rivera. [7] When producer Polstein left Trimark, however, the production faltered again, and Hayek approached Harvey Weinstein and Miramax, and the company purchased the film from Trimark; Julie Taymor came onto the project as director. Meanwhile, in August 2000 it was announced that Jennifer Lopez would star in Valdez's take on the story, The Two Fridas, by then being produced by American Zoetrope. [8] Nonetheless, it was Hayek and Miramax who began production in Spring, 2001 on what was to become simply titled Frida. [5] Edward Norton rewrote the script at least once but was not credited as a writer. [9] [10]

Sexual misconduct by producer Harvey Weinstein

In a December 2017 op-ed for The New York Times , Hayek stated that Weinstein attempted to thwart the making of the film because Hayek had refused to grant him sexual favors and that he had threatened to shut down the film unless Hayek agreed to include a full-frontal nude sex scene with herself and another woman. [10] In response, Weinstein claimed that none of the sexual allegations made by Hayek was accurate and that he did not recall pressuring Hayek "to do a gratuitous sex scene." [11]

Release

On August 29, 2002, Frida made its world premiere opening at the Venice International Film Festival. [12] Frida's American premiere was at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in Los Angeles on October 14 of that year. It had its Mexican premiere on November 8, 2002, at Mexico City's Palace of Fine Arts. [13] [14]

Box office

Frida grossed $25.9 million in the United States and Canada and $30.4 million in other countries for a worldwide total of $56.3 million, [3] against a production budget of $12 million. [2] It was initially shown in five theaters and earned $205,996 upon its opening weekend in the United States. [15] The following week the film expanded to forty-seven theaters, earning $1,323,935. [16] By late December 2002, Frida was playing in 283 theaters and had earned over $20 million. [17]

Critical reception

Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 75% of 158 critics have given the film a positive review, with an average rating of 6.88/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Frida is a passionate, visually striking biopic about the larger-than-life artist." [18] Metacritic, which assigns a score of 1–100 to individual film reviews, gives the film an average rating of 61 based on 38 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". [19]

Stella Papamichael from the BBC gave the film three out of five stars and stated "Julie Taymor's biography of Mexican painter Frida Kahlo connects the dots between art and anguish. The disparity lies in the fact that Frida settles for tickling a fancy where it should be packing a punch. Although involving and sprightly, it offers the kind of guilty pleasure a Fine Arts student might derive from a glossy cartoon strip." [20]

Film critic Roger Ebert awarded Frida three and a half stars and commented: "Sometimes we feel as if the film careens from one colorful event to another without respite, but sometimes it must have seemed to Frida Kahlo as if her life did, too." [21] Ebert thought Taymor and the writers had "obviously struggled with the material", though he called the closing scenes "extraordinary." [21]

The New York Post's Jonathan Foreman praised the score and Taymor's direction, saying that she "captures both the glamorous, deeply cosmopolitan milieu Kahlo and Rivera inhabited, and the importance Mexico had in the '30s for the international left." [22] He added that the odd accents adopted by the likes of Judd and Rush let the authenticity down. [22]

Andrew Pulver from The Guardian gave the film three stars and proclaimed that it is "a substantial film, its story told with economy and clarity." [23]

Accolades

The American Film Institute included Frida in their Movies of the Year 2002, [24] Official Selection. Their rationale was:

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.

Soundtrack

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Salma Hayek</span> Mexican and American actress and film producer (born 1966)

Salma Hayek Pinault is a Mexican and American actress and film producer. She began her career in Mexico with starring roles in the telenovela Teresa (1989–1991) as well as the romantic drama Midaq Alley (1995). She soon established herself in Hollywood with appearances in films such as Desperado (1995), From Dusk till Dawn (1996), Wild Wild West (1999), and Dogma (1999).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Diego Rivera</span> Mexican muralist (1886–1957)

Diego María de la Concepción Juan Nepomuceno Estanislao de la Rivera y Barrientos Acosta y Rodríguez, known as Diego Rivera, was a prominent Mexican painter. His large frescoes helped establish the mural movement in Mexican and international art.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frida Kahlo</span> Mexican painter (1907–1954)

Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo y Calderón was a Mexican painter known for her many portraits, self-portraits, and works inspired by the nature and artifacts of Mexico. Inspired by the country's popular culture, she employed a naïve folk art style to explore questions of identity, postcolonialism, gender, class, and race in Mexican society. Her paintings often had strong autobiographical elements and mixed realism with fantasy. In addition to belonging to the post-revolutionary Mexicayotl movement, which sought to define a Mexican identity, Kahlo has been described as a surrealist or magical realist. She is also known for painting about her experience of chronic pain.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Julie Taymor</span> American film and theatre director and writer (born 1952)

Julie Taymor is an American director and writer of theater, opera, and film. Her stage adaptation of The Lion King debuted in 1997 and received eleven Tony Award nominations, with Taymor receiving Tony Awards for her direction and costume design. Her 2002 film Frida, about Mexican artist Frida Kahlo, was nominated for five Academy Awards, including a Best Original Song nomination for Taymor's composition "Burn It Blue." She also directed the 2007 jukebox musical film Across the Universe, based on the music of the Beatles.

<i>Frida: A Biography of Frida Kahlo</i> 1983 book by Hayden Herrera

Frida: A Biography of Frida Kahlo is a 1983 book by Hayden Herrera about the life of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo, her art, and her relationship with muralist Diego Rivera.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Guadalupe Marín</span> Mexican model and novelist

Guadalupe "Lupe" Marín, born María Guadalupe Marín Preciado, was a Mexican model and novelist.

<i>Frida</i> (opera) Opera by Robert Xavier Rodriguez

Frida is a 1991 opera based on the life of Mexican painter Frida Kahlo with music by Robert Xavier Rodriguez, book by Hilary Blecher, lyrics and monologues by Migdalia Cruz, conceived by Hilary Blecher.

Fanny Rabel, born Fanny Rabinovich, was a Polish-born Mexican artist who is considered to be the first modern female muralist and one of the youngest associated with the Mexican muralism of the early to mid 20th century. She and her family arrived to Mexico in 1938 from Europe and she studied art at the Escuela Nacional de Pintura, Escultura y Grabado "La Esmeralda", where she met and became friends with Frida Kahlo. She became the only female member of “Los Fridos” a group of students under Kahlo’s tutelage. She also worked as an assistant and apprentice to Diego Rivera and David Alfaro Siqueiros, painting a number of murals of her own during her career. The most significant of these is "Ronda en el tiempo" at the Museo Nacional de Antropología in Mexico City. She also created canvases and other works, with children often featured in her work, and was one of the first of her generation to work with ecological themes in a series of works begun in 1979.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frida Kahlo Museum</span> Art museum in Mexico City

The Frida Kahlo Museum, also known as the Blue House for the structure's cobalt-blue walls, is a historic house museum and art museum dedicated to the life and work of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo. It is located in the Colonia del Carmen neighborhood of Coyoacán in Mexico City. The building was Kahlo's birthplace, the home where she grew up, lived with her husband Diego Rivera for a number of years, and where she later died in a room on the upper floor. In 1957, Diego Rivera donated the home and its contents to turn it into a museum in Frida's honor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">La Llorona (song)</span> Mexican folk song

"La Llorona" is a Mexican folk song derived from the legend of La Llorona. There are many versions of the song. Its origins are obscure, but, around 1941, composer Andres Henestrosa mentioned hearing the song in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. He popularized the song and may have added to the existing verses.

Frida Still Life is a 1983 Mexican drama film about artists Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera directed by Paul Leduc. The film was selected as the Mexican entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 58th Academy Awards, but was not accepted as a nominee.

<i>The Two Fridas</i> Painting by Frida Kahlo

The Two Fridas is an oil painting by Mexican artist Frida Kahlo. The painting was the first large-scale work done by Kahlo and is considered one of her most notable paintings. It is a double self-portrait, depicting two versions of Kahlo seated together. One is wearing a white European-style Victorian dress while the other is wearing a traditional Tehuana dress. The painting is housed at the Museo de Arte Moderno in Mexico City.

<i>Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird</i> Painting by Frida Kahlo

Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird is a 1940 self-portrait by Mexican painter Frida Kahlo which also includes a black cat, a gorila and two dragonflies. It was painted after Kahlo's divorce from Diego Rivera and the end of her affair with photographer Nickolas Muray.

<i>The Love Embrace of the Universe, the Earth (Mexico), Myself, Diego, and Señor Xolotl</i> Painting by Frida Kahlo

The Love Embrace of the Universe, the Earth (Mexico), Myself, Diego, and Señor Xolotl is a 1949 painting by Frida Kahlo. Created in Mexico, the 70 cm x 60.5 cm painting was painted with oil on Masonite. It was featured on the reverse of the Series F $500 peso banknote, issued in 2010.

Cristina Kahlo y Calderón (1908–1964) was the sister of artist Frida Kahlo. Frida painted a portrait of Cristina, titled Portrait of Cristina, My Sister, and Diego Rivera, Frida's husband, also portrayed Cristina Kahlo in his work. Cristina, with whom Rivera had an affair, was painted by Rivera in the nude.

Hayden Herrera is an American author and historian. Her book Frida: A Biography of Frida Kahlo was turned into a movie in 2002 and Herrera's biography Arshile Gorky: His Life and Work was named a finalist for the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography.

The Rivals is a 1931 oil-on-canvas painting by the Mexican artist Diego Rivera (1886–1957). It was commissioned by Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, the leading personage behind the inception of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. Rivera created the work while on the ship SS Moro en route from Mexico to New York City. The picture portrays "Las Velas", a festival held in the Mexican state of Oaxaca, a fete in honor of local patron saints and of the abundance of spring.

<i>Self-Portrait Dedicated to Leon Trotsky</i> 1937 painting by Frida Kahlo

Self-Portrait Dedicated to Leon Trotsky, also known as Between the Curtains, is a 1937 painting by Mexican artist Frida Kahlo, given to Leon Trotsky on his birthday and the 20th anniversary of the October Revolution. Kahlo and her husband, artist Diego Rivera, had convinced government officials to allow Trotsky and his second wife, Natalia Sedova, to live in exile in Mexico. The Russian couple moved into the Blue House (La Casa Azul), where they resided for two years.

<i>Frida</i> (2024 film) 2024 documentary film

Frida is a 2024 documentary film directed by Carla Gutierrez about the life of Mexican painter Frida Kahlo. As Gutierrez's directorial debut, it was first shown at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival where it won the U.S. Documentary Jonathan Oppenheim Editing Award.

References

  1. ↑ "Frida". British Film Institute . London. Archived from the original on January 14, 2009. Retrieved November 6, 2012.
  2. 1 2 "Frida controversy brews with Mexican critics". Screen Daily . March 27, 2002. Retrieved March 27, 2020.
  3. 1 2 "Frida". Box Office Mojo . IMDb . Retrieved November 11, 2012.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Farber, Stephen. "Salma & Frida". THEBOOKla.com. Archived from the original on January 13, 2009.
  5. 1 2 3 "adaptation frida: bringing frida's story to the big screen". writingstudio.co.za. Archived from the original on December 18, 2007. Retrieved April 10, 2008.
  6. ↑ Mark, Andy (May 17, 1993). "Kahlo biopic gets new wakeup call". Variety. Retrieved November 5, 2023.
  7. ↑ Tuckman, Jo (August 30, 2001). "That Frida feeling". The Guardian. London.
  8. ↑ Norman, Neil (June 14, 2001). "Fascinated by Frida". This is London. Archived from the original on January 16, 2009. Retrieved March 27, 2008.
  9. ↑ Friedman, Roger (August 5, 2002). "Edward Norton Rewrites Salma Hayek". Fox News . Retrieved December 13, 2017.
  10. 1 2 Hayek, Salma (December 13, 2017). "Harvey Weinstein Is My Monster Too". The New York Times . Retrieved December 13, 2017.
  11. ↑ Moniuszko, Sara M (December 13, 2017). "Harvey Weinstein responds to Salma Hayek calling him her 'monster'". USA Today . Retrieved December 14, 2017.
  12. ↑ Rooney, David (August 28, 2002). "Barbs fly at Biennale". Variety . Retrieved August 19, 2018.
  13. ↑ "Salma Hayek, deslumbrante en el estreno de 'Frida' en México". Hola! (in Spanish). November 10, 2002. Retrieved August 19, 2018.
  14. ↑ Aznarez, Juan Jesús (November 22, 2002). "La tormenta de Frida Kahlo vuelve a México". El País (in Spanish). Mexico: Prisa. Retrieved August 19, 2018.
  15. ↑ "October 25-27, 2002 Weekend". Box Office Mojo. IMDb. Retrieved November 11, 2012.
  16. ↑ "November 1-3, 2002 Weekend". Box Office Mojo. IMDb. Retrieved November 11, 2012.
  17. ↑ "December 27-29, 2002 Weekend". Box Office Mojo. IMDb. Retrieved November 11, 2012.
  18. ↑ "Frida (2002)". Rotten Tomatoes . Fandango Media . Retrieved March 27, 2020.
  19. ↑ "Frida Reviews". Metacritic . CBS Interactive . Retrieved November 11, 2012.
  20. ↑ Papamichael, Stella (February 24, 2003). "Frida (2003)". BBC Movies. BBC . Retrieved November 11, 2012.
  21. 1 2 Ebert, Roger (November 1, 2002). "Frida". Chicago Sun-Times . Archived from the original on February 18, 2013. Retrieved November 11, 2012.
  22. 1 2 Foreman, Jonathan (October 25, 2002). "Frida,' Ole!". New York Post . News Corporation. Archived from the original on November 30, 2002. Retrieved November 11, 2012.
  23. ↑ Pulver, Andrew (February 28, 2003). "Frida". The Guardian . London. Retrieved November 11, 2012.
  24. ↑ "AFI Awards 2002". American Film Institute . Retrieved August 29, 2017.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.