September 17 - Frida

This film has a scene that happens today – September 17. I hope you will enjoy this movie while watching it tonight.

FRIDA

Frida Kahlo is an unconventional teen in 1920’s Mexico. On September 17, 1925 [8:03 to 10:45] she’s injured in a bus accident. During her lengthy and painful recovery she starts to draw and paint. She asks the prominent artist Diego Rivera if she should continue and he says yes. She gradually becomes a part of Rivera’s circle of radical leftists. They have an affair and are later married, with Frida telling the philandering Rivera she expects loyalty, if not fidelity. They go to New York City, so Rivera can work on a mural for the lobby of Rockefeller Center. Frida has a miscarriage and returns briefly to Mexico when her mother dies. Rivera paints in the face of Lenin, then refuses to remove it, Rivera is fired and the mural is painted over. Frida and Rivera return to Mexico. They live in two side-by-side houses. Then Frida learns Rivera is having an affair with her sister, leading to their separation and alcoholic depression. They reunite when Leon Trotsky comes to Mexico. Frida and Trotsky begin an affair, which he later ends. This leads to another separation between Frida and Rivera. She moves to Paris. When she returns she and Rivera divorce. Trostky is murdered and Rivera is considered a suspect. When he can’t be found Frida is jailed for a time.  She remarries Rivera and later dies, after having to have her leg amputated.      

An interesting biopic. Frida was certainly unusual. This film uses interesting special effects,  moving from pictures into live action.

Frida Kahlo by Elizabeth Carpenter (D.A.P., New York, 2007) at page 94 gives the date of her accident 

Producer - Sarah Green, Salma Hayek and Jay Polstein

Director - Julie Taymor

Screenplay - Clancy Sigal, Diane Lake, Gregory Nava and Anna Thomas

Awards – The movie won the Best Makeup and Best Original Score Oscars. It was also

                 Nominated for the Best Actress(Hayek), Best Art Direction, Best Costume

                 Design and Best Original Song at the 75^th Academy Awards.   

Runtime – 2 hours 3 minutes

Released – August 29, 2002

Starring -

Salma Hayek as Frida Kahlo

Alfred Molina as Diego Rivera

Geoffrey Rush as Leon Trotsky

Mía Maestro as Cristina Kahlo

Ashley Judd as Tina Modotti

Antonio Banderas as David Alfaro Siqueiros

Edward Norton as Nelson Rockefeller

Amelia Zapata as Maid

Alejandro Usigli as Professor

Diego Luna as Alejandro Gonzalez Arias

Fermín Martínez as Painter on Bus

Loló Navarro as Nanny

Lucia Bravo as Auditorium Model

Margarita Sanz as Natalia Sedova

Patricia Reyes Spíndola as Matilde Kahlo

Roger Rees as Guillermo Kahlo

Valeria Golino as Lupe Marín

Omar Rodriguez as André Breton

Felipe Fulop as Jean Van Heijenoort

Saffron Burrows as Gracie

Chavela Vargas as La Pelona

Lila Downs as Tango Singer

Karine Plantadit as Paris chanteuse