| | |
Features: DVD
Frida chronicles the life of artist Frida Kahlo (Salma Hayek), from her humble upbringing to her worldwide fame. The film shows the turbulence and controversy that surrounded both Frida and her husband, Diego Rivera (Alfred Molina), from their complex and enduring relationship to her illicit and controversial affair with Leon Trotsky to her provocative and romantic entanglements with women.
"Hayek is stunning as Frida and...a star-making project" Victoria Alexander, filmsinreview.com
"...a spirited central performance from Salma Hayek..." Guardian/Observer
"...bursts to razzle-dazzling life with bold strokes of audaciously stylized imagery..." Joe leydon, San Francisco Examiner
Editor's Note
Brilliant colors that bring Frida Kahlo's Mexico City to vibrant life combine with a captivating performance by Salma Hayek to make director Julie Taymor's FRIDA a fascinating film. Starting and ending with Frida on her deathbed, the film spans the famous painter's life from her teenage years to her death at the young age of 47. From start to finish, Frida is portrayed as a relentlessly energized, self-righteous, headstrong, assertive woman. At the age of 18, Frida was horribly injured in a bus accident. Though she learned to walk again, she lived her life in physical agony, enduring multiple surgeries, and eventually needing a wheelchair. Yet her condition did not stop her from having an exciting, tumultuous life as the wife of famed artist and womanizer Diego Rivera, who mentored her in her own work and encouraged her passions. Frida had liberal views and socialist politics. She was bisexual and promiscuous. She drank, abused painkillers, sang and danced, and fearlessly poured her pain and beauty into her paintings. Taymor has created a lively and dramatically emotive film with FRIDA, capturing her endearing resiliency with color, music, and, of course, art.
| Features | Frida Kahlo Facts | | Subtitles: Spanish | | Salma's Recording Sessions | | Portrait Of An Artist | | Visual FX | | Bill Moyers' Julie Taymore Interview | | Chavela Vargas Interview | | The Vision, Design & Music Of Frida | | Julie Taymore Feature Commentary | | Elliot Goldenthal Selected Scenes Commentary | | AFI Julie Taymor Q & A | | Widescreen Presentation | | Audio: English Dolby Digital 5.1; French Dolby Digital Stereo | | Salma Hayek Conversation |
| Technical Info
|
Release Information
| | Studio: Buena Vista |
| Release Date: 9/5/2006 |
| Running Time: 122 minutes |
| Original Release Date: 2002 | | Catalog ID: 2608503 | | UPC: 00786936180992 | | Number of Discs: 2 |
Audio & Video
| | Original Language: English | | Available Audio Tracks: English [CC], English, French Dubbed | | Available Subtitles: Spanish | | Video: Color |
Aspect Ratio | | 1.85:1 |
| Cast & Crew | Alfred Molina | | Mia Maestro | | Salma Hayek | | Valeria Golino | | Hayden Herrera - Based On Novel By | | Rodrigo Prieto - Cinematographer | | Julie Taymor - Director | | Francoise Bonnot - Editor | | Mark Amin - Executive Producer | | Elliot Goldenthal - Musical Score | | Lindsay Flickinger - Producer | | Felipe Fernandez del Paso - Production Designer | | Clancy Sigal - Screenplay |
| Awards |
Oscar (2003) |  | John E. Jackson, Beatrice De Alba, Winner, Best Achievement in Makeup | | Elliot Goldenthal, Winner, Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Score | |
British Academy Awards (2003) | | Judy Chin, Beatrice De Alba, John E. Jackson, Regina Reyes, Winner, Best Make Up/Hair | |
Golden Globe (2003) | | Elliot Goldenthal, Winner, Best Original Score--Motion Picture |
|
| | Professional Reviews | Box Office
"...Salma Hayek and director Julie Taymor have infused FRIDA with a visual style unique and inherent to the titular character's paintings and in the process created a masterful work of art of their own..." 10/01/2002 p.54Variety
"...Julie Taymor's robust and imaginative direction highlights Kahlo's passionate love for fellow painter Diego Rivera....Salma Hayek makes the character an icon of female independence, courage and nonconformity..." 09/09/2002 p.29-30 New York Times
"...It honors the artist's brave, anarchic spirit....Ms. Hayek and Mr. Molina are both wonderfully charismatic..." 10/25/2002 p.E8 USA Today
"...[Taymor] creates a vibrant world. Kahlo's surrealistic paintings come to multidimensional life in gorgeous ways, and the tale unfolds in brilliant hues as captivating as Kahlo and Rivera's art..." 10/25/2002 p.15D Entertainment Weekly
"...Taymor sprinkles her movie with glittering miniature theater pieces..." 11/01/2002 p.50 Premiere
"...Taymor brings Kahlo's art to life....This picture is a portrait of the artist as a human being -- volatile and passionate, but also decent and, yes, sane..." 12/01/2002 p.22 Total Film
"...Hayek's motivated performance saves the day...along with some inventive expressionistic flourishes..." 11/01/2003 p.111 James Berardinelli's ReelViews 6 of 10
This is the second feature film for director Julie Taymor, who is perhaps best known for her stage direction of Disney's The Lion King. Although Hayek was the driving force behind getting the film made, Frida's visual dynamics are all Taymor's, from the bright hues that liven up the opening scene to the stylized image of the broken Frida lying on the trolley car's floor (with gold dust all around) to the King Kong recreations with Diego as the big, bad ape. The plot is frequently moribund, but at least Frida is always interesting to look at. However, given the subject material, the result should have been so much better. - James Berardinelli
Chicago Sun-Times 8 of 10
The film opens in 1953, on the date of Frida's only one-woman show in Mexico. Her doctor tells her she is too sick to attend it, but she has her bed lifted into a flat-bed truck and carried to the gallery. This opening gesture provides Taymor with the set-up for the movie's extraordinary closing scenes, in which death itself is seen as another work of art. - Roger Ebert
|
| |
|
|
|
