Frida (film)

Movie
German title	Frida
Original title	Frida
Country of production	United States ; Canada ; Mexico
original language	English
Publishing year	2002
length	118 minutes
Age rating	FSK 12
Rod
Director	Julie Taymor
script	Hayden Herrera ; Clancy Sigal ; Diane Lake ; Gregory Nava ; Anna Thomas
production	Salma Hayek ; Lindsay Flickinger ; Sarah Green ; Nancy Hardin ; Jay Polstein ; Roberto Sneider ; Lizz Speed
music	Elliot Goldenthal
camera	Rodrigo Prieto
cut	Françoise Bonnot
occupation
	Salma Hayek : Frida Kahlo ; Alfred Molina : Diego Rivera ; Antonio Banderas : David Alfaro Siqueiros ; Valeria Golino : Lupe Marín ; Ashley Judd : Tina Modotti ; Mía Maestro : Cristina Kahlo; Edward Norton : Nelson Rockefeller ; Geoffrey Rush : Leon Trotsky ; Roger Rees : Guillermo Kahlo ; Patricia Reyes Spindola : Matilde Kahlo; Diego Luna : Alejandro Gómez Arias;

Frida is a biopic from 2002 with Salma Hayek in the title role. The film, directed by Julie Taymor , traces the life of the Mexican painter Frida Kahlo . Key roles are occupied by Alfred Molina , Antonio Banderas and Valeria Golino .

action

The background is metropolitan life in the capital of Mexico in the early 20th century. A pretty and spirited young woman, Frida, suffers a tragic traffic accident that ties her to bed for a long time. But she does not give up, but with an iron will begins to paint out of bedridden . She processes her dreams, longings and especially her pains in passionate, blunt oil paintings, through whose genuine urgency she wins the attention and love of her long-term partner and husband, Diego Rivera . A wildly romantic love story develops in which flirtations and affairs by both spouses take up a lot of space. Frida also ties up with such illustrious personalities as Leon Trotsky .

When Frida catches Diego having sex with her sister, she breaks up with him. Later, the divorce occurs, which is followed shortly after by a new marriage under dramatic circumstances: After her toes of a foot had to be amputated because of gangrene, Diego proposed another marriage to her, which she also accepts. This time the marriage lasted until Frida's premature death.

production

Production notes, background

The original literary template came from Hayden Herrera , and the optimization of the script was done by Rodrigo García , Diane Lake , Gregory Nava , Edward Norton , Walter Salles , Clancy Sigal and Anna Thomas . The soundtrack is by Elliot Goldenthal , who in addition to his own compositions has drawn on Mexican artists such as Lila Downs and Chavela Vargas , but also Caetano Veloso .

Among other things, Frida Kahlo had an affair with the singer Chavela Vargas, who played in the film when she was over 80 and sings the Bolero La Llorona .

Salma Hayek sings the song La Bruja in the film , one of Diego Rivera's favorite songs .

According to her own statement, Salma Hayek was massively sexually molested during the shooting by the owner of the Miramax production company , Harvey Weinstein , and forced into a "senseless" nude scene that is said to have led to a nervous breakdown on the set. She held the right to the script, he threatened to take away the lead role, which she fought against with the help of lawyers. Weinstein denies the allegations.

publication

Internationally, the $ 12 million feature film was released for cinemas on August 29, 2002; it was released in Germany on March 6, 2003, and also in Austria. In Switzerland, it was released in cinemas in the German-speaking region on March 27, 2003. It was also presented at the following festivals:

29 August 2002 Venice Film Festival (premiere)
September 7, 2002 Toronto International Film Festival
October 17, 2002 Chicago International Film Festival
November 16, 2002 Oslo International Film Festival
December 3, 2002 Festival of the New Latin American Cinema
January 11, 2003 Palm Springs International Film Festival
January 17, 2003 Bangkok International Film Festival
March 2003 Valenciennes Film Festival
June 22nd, 2003 Art Film Festival in Slovakia

In 2002 the film was released in the following countries: Italy, Canada, USA, Israel, Norway, Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, Cuba, Finland, Denmark, Sweden and Australia; 2003 in Belgium, Thailand, the Netherlands, Iceland, Russia, Peru, United Kingdom, Spain, Poland, France, Chile, Bulgaria, Hong Kong, Ireland, Turkey, Hungary, Slovenia, Brazil, Greece, Portugal, Georgia, Czech Republic, Philippines, Japan (Tokyo), Lithuania, Serbia and South Korea. The English working title was: Frida Kahlo .

Reviews

"'Frida' is a scenic mosaic, composed of more conventionally told passages, the centerpiece of which is the dramatic love story between Frida and Diego, and sudden outbursts in which everything starts to glow: the colors, the passions, the music, the sex, the exuberantly theatrical and imaginatively playful. "

- Rainer Gansera - Süddeutsche Zeitung

“The pictures that animate some of Kahlo's works as slides are beautiful, bringing art into life in such a playful way and allowing it to solidify again into art. Salma Hayek is also beautiful, not only beautiful, also committed, also good, also eccentric. [...] When Frida, the young girl, learns after the accident that her boyfriend is going to Europe, she paints a butterfly on the plaster of paris, later she sprinkles the whole body plaster with butterflies. This is how she learns her medicine while suffering. And so is this film: beautiful butterflies, including plain plaster. "

- Henryk Goldberg - film mirror

“The excursions into the surreal, the fantastic, the picturesque match the film to the art of its heroine in a congenial way. Then 'Frida' is no longer a staid portrait, but a picture from a film - colorful, imaginative and enigmatic. "

- Daniel Haas - Spiegel Online

“The pride and joy of the production, however, are the '3-D live painting', a specially developed animation technique in which Kahlo's pictures learn to move. In an oeuvre that uses anatomical details to tell of shocking injuries, miscarriages, detached hearts and organic drainage, such trickery is involuntarily funny. The vehemence of Kahlo's painterly dialogue with himself is lost here in a tragically cute cartoon à la ' Monty Python's Flying Circus '. "

- Birgit Glombitza - The daily newspaper

Awards (selection)

When Oscar - awarded in 2003 the film was awarded in the following categories:

" Best Film Music " ( Elliot Goldenthal ) and
" Best Mask " ( John E. Jackson )

He was nominated in the four other categories:

" Best Actress " (Salma Hayek)
" Best production design " (Felipe Fernández del Paso, Hannia Robledo)
" Best costume design " ( Julie Weiss )
" Best Movie Song " ( Burn It Blue - Elliot Goldenthal, Julie Taymor)

Golden Globe Awards 2003 :

Winner: Elliot Goldenthal in the category "Best Film Music"
nominated: Salma Hayek in the category "Best Actress"

British Academy Film Awards 2003

Winners: Judy Chin, Beatrice De Alba , John E. Jackson , Regina Reyes in the "Best Mask" category
nominated: Salma Hayek in the category "Best Actress"
nominated: Alfred Molina in the category "Best Supporting Actor"
nominated: Julie Weiss in the category "Best Costumes"

American Film Institute 2003