Frida is a 2002 American film, which depicts the professional and private life of the surrealist Mexican painter Frida Kahlo. It stars Salma Hayek in her Academy Award-nominated portrayal as Kahlo and Alfred Molina as her husband, Diego Rivera.
The movie was adapted from the book Frida: A Biography of Frida Kahlo by Hayden Herrera, directed by Julie Taymor. Frida begins just before the traumatic accident Frida Kahlo (Salma Hayek) suffered at the age of 18 when a trolley bus collided with a motor bus she was riding. She is impaled by a metal pole and the injuries she sustained plague her for the rest of her life. To help her through convalescence, her father brings her a canvas upon which to start painting.
Throughout the film, a scene starts as a painting, then slowly dissolves into a live-action scene with actors. Frida also details the artist’s dysfunctional relationship with the muralist Diego Rivera (Alfred Molina). When Rivera proposes to Kahlo, she tells him she expects from him loyalty if not fidelity.
Diego’s appraisal of her painting ability is one of the reasons that she continues to paint. Throughout the marriage, Rivera cheats on her with a wide array of women, including having an affair with her sister, while the bisexual Kahlo takes on male and female lovers, this all resulting in difficult circumstances.
In English, with English subtitles, IMDB rating 7,4, 118 mins.
