"Frida"
At the movie's end they advise that some parts had been changed, names changed, and characters modified. I appreciate that honesty. However, when I read Frida Kahlo's brief bio, all the major events of her life from 1907-1954 are there.
Salma Hayak does marvelously as Frida, imparting all the passion one could expect. Her physical image also matches the real personage's as well. The same goes for Al Molina's depiction of Diego Rivera, with whom she had a long and stormy relationship.
That PAIN influenced and inspired her art is imaginatively portrayed in many of her pieces. She'd suffered right leg and pelvis damage in an accident she'd suffered when only eighteen. This only got worse later in life. But she did not let it defeat her spirits.
''Just days before her death, she incorporated the words VIVA LA VIDA (Long Live Life) into a still life of watermelons.'' She then suffered what appeared to be an embolism in her sleep, though some have wondered if she had caused it to happen. However, others dismiss the suspicion. Her passionate love of life, despite the pains which she endured, come across very strongly. '' 'It is not worthwhile,' she once said, 'to leave this world without having had a little fun in life.' ''
The vivid imagery of this movie will stay long with me. I am glad to better know this artist, who had just previously been a name to which I'd attached a vague artistic memory. It is worthwhile to note ''In 2000, a 1929 self-portrait sold for more than $5 million'' ! Now I ask you, did not that painting have the same worth back in 1929 when she was a 'nobody'? Such is fame.
Still it is good that knowledge of such a fascinating personage and her creations is widely known.
(Quotes from a November 2002 Smithsonian article ''Frida Kahlo'', by Phyllis Tuchman)
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