Actress Salma Hayek portrays the famed Mexican surrealist painter in a biopic that neither mythologizes nor decries the artist's accomplishments on or beyond the canvas.
Frida (2002)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted: 147
Fresh: 110
Rotten:37
Average Rating: 6.9/10
Consensus: Frida is a passionate, visually striking biopic about the larger-than-life artist.
Theatrical Release: Oct 25, 2002 Limited
Box Office: $25,681,203
Synopsis: 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... 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. [More]
Starring: Salma Hayek, Alfred Molina, Valeria Golino, Mia Maestro
Starring: Salma Hayek, Alfred Molina, Valeria Golino, Mia Maestro, Ashley Judd, Geoffrey Rush, Edward Norton, Roger Rees
Director: Julie Taymor
Director: Julie Taymor
Screenwriter: Clancy Sigal, Diane Lake, Gregory Nava, Anna Thomas
Producer: Sarah Green, Salma Hayek, Jay Polstein, Lizz Speed, Nancy Hardin, Lindsay Flickinger, Roberto Sneider
Studio: Miramax Films
Get This Movie
Release:
Jun 10, 2003
DVD Features:
- Region 1
- 2-Disc Set
- Disc #1: Theatrical Version
- Anamorphic Widescreen - 1.85
Audio:
- Dolby Digital 5.1 - English
Additional Release Material:
- Audio Commentary - 1. Julie Taymor - Director
- 2. Elliot Goldenthal - Composer (On Select Scenes)
- Interview - 1. Salma Hayek - Star
Interactive Features:
- Scene Access
- Interactive Menus
- Disc #2: Supplementary Material
Additional Release Material:
- Additional Footage - 1. Salma's Recording Session
- 2. The Brothers Quay Visual FX Piece
- 3. Amoeba Proteus Visual FX Piece
- Interview - 1. Julie Taymor - Director (by Bill Moyers)
- 2. Chavela Vargas
- 3. AFI Q&A With Julie Taymor
- Featurette - 1. THE VOICE OF LILA DOWNS
- 2. THE VISION OF FRIDA: With Rodrigo Prieto and Julie Taymor
- 3. THE DESIGN OF FRIDA: With Felipe Fernandez
- 4. THE MUSIC OF FRIDA: With Elliot Goldenthal and Salma Hayek
- Documentary - 1. Bringing Frida Kahlo's Life and Art to Film: A Walk Through the Real Locations
Interactive Features:
- Scene Access
- Interactive Menus
Text/Photo Galleries:
- Frida Kahlo Facts
Reviews for Frida
Taymor brings all of her artist's compassion to bear on a subject that deserves it.
[A]s in soap opera, drama is synonymous with the torments of love. Hayek is a brave, tireless performer, ... but given the script she can only play Kahlo the "beguiling personality" she liked to think of herself as ... rather than Kahlo the artist.
Frida boasts a small galaxy of charismatic stars orbiting two appealing actors in the juiciest roles of their careers.
While this conventional bio-pic may please middle brow audiences, fans of Ms. Taymor are almost certain to realize that the film could have been so much more than this.
While Hayek's portrayal is appealing and sincere, it's a shade too adoring. She doesn't convey the excruciating pain that besieged Kahlo.
Disappointingly conventional, particularly given Taymor's past work on stage and screen.
A glossy, paint-by-numbers portrait best hung in a bank lobby. Taymor seems to forget that what defined Kahlo’s artistic output was the terrible pain she endured...
A blasé etching of a fraught relationship, largely ignoring the social and political influences on Frida’s art.
Latest News for Frida
June 17, 2005:
A Lot More Actors Climb Aboard the "Poseidon"
Last week we announced that Kurt Russell, Richard Dreyfuss, and Emmy Rossum had been signed to star in Wolfgang Petersen's remake of "The Poseidon Adventure," but The... More...
February 04, 2005:
Julie Taymor to Direct Musical
More...
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