Background Information and a Star Rating
Julie Taymor’s Frida is a biographical drama based on Frida Kahlo’s life story. The movie premiered in 2002, producing box sales revenues exceeding its initial budget by more than four times (“Frida: 2002, Biography/Drama, 2h 3m”). As per the movie’s aggregated rating, Frida’s average score given by more than 150 top critics is 75% out of 100% (“Frida: 2002”). This rating is approximately three stars on a four-star scale.
Synopsis
Frida covers Frida Kahlo’s professional and personal life from 18 to 46 years old. As a young woman, she survives a serious bus accident, which impairs her ability to walk, and Frida’s father inspires her to start painting to cope with her suffering (Taymor). As her health ameliorates, she starts unhealthy romantic relationships with Diego Rivera, a well-known muralist, that are full of love affairs (Taymor). In the mid-1930s, Frida experiences other traumatic events, including a miscarriage, her mother’s death, and Diego’s affair with her sister, contributing to her problems with alcohol (Taymor). After her intimate relationship with Lev Trotsky, a Russian revolutionary, the man is assassinated, resulting in the wrongful arrest of Frida (Taymor). Years after their divorce, Diego, and Frida reunite, and her health promptly deteriorates, with Frida developing gangrene requiring toe and leg amputation and inflammatory pneumonia (Taymor). Frida’s very first exhibition as an independent artist takes place when she is on the verge of death, and she can only visit it lying in her bed (Taymor). The film ends after depicting Frida’s brightest moment of fame.
Criticism/Praise
From a technical perspective, the film’s elements generally promote the final work’s high quality and aid in creating a unique atmosphere. Not all scenes are dynamic enough, but the script still manages to emphasize all turning points of Frida’s life, ranging from the car accident to meeting Diego. Salma Hayek and Alfred Molina in Frida resemble their real-life prototypes, which stems from their good skills in showing deeply emotional relationships and brilliant costuming. Regarding production values, the director skillfully uses lighting, sound, and angles to create accents. The scene with Frida pierced by a long bar illustrates this ability to a great extent, making it look as if Frida is the center of all events (Taymor 00:10:42). Finally, for filming and editing, the director uses the third-person point of view and a combination of smooth and more abrupt transitions between the scenes depending on the feeling to be elicited in the viewer.
New Knowledge about the Artist/the Time Period
Being quite accurate historically, the film promotes learning about Frida Kahlo’s life and the historical period. Kahlo’s peculiar attitudes to sexual relationships and affairs and her father’s great influence on her, including motivating her to paint to cope with stress after sustaining traumatic injuries, are among such findings. As a portrait painter, she used self-portraits as an outlet for emotional pain and a way to depict and reflect on life changes and the themes of suffering, betrayal, spiritual search, and political ideals. Regarding the time period, aside from depicting Mexico’s internal problems, the film sheds light on the repercussions of the October Revolution in Russia. These include Trotsky’s desire to seek asylum in Mexico and his subsequent assassination.
Personal Response/Insight
From my perspective, Frida and similar biographical films overcome the other genres in complexity. The movie in question does a brilliant job of recreating the protagonist’s psychological qualities, such as goal-orientedness, toughness, and deep emotional sensitivity. Frida’s versatility of character shown in the film could help the viewer to understand her hidden motives almost intuitively, without words. For me, Frida’s level of elaboration in character creation is in sharp contrast with many newer movies with fictional stories that overemphasize visual appeal and eventually create irrational and poorly-written characters.
Works Cited
“Frida: 2002, Biography/Drama, 2h 3m.” Rotten Tomatoes, n.d., Web.
Taymor, Julie, director. Frida. Miramax Films, 2002.