Frida is a 2002 American biopic drama 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 by Clancy Sigal, Diane Lake, Gregory Nava and Anna Thomas from
the book Frida: A Biography of Frida Kahlo by Hayden Herrera. It was
directed by Julie Taymor. It won two Academy Awards for Best Makeup and
Best Original Score.
Plot
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, while the bisexual Kahlo takes on male and female
lovers, including in one case having an affair with the same woman as
Rivera.
The two travel to New York City so that he may paint the mural Man at
the Crossroads at the Rockefeller Center. While in the United States,
Kahlo suffers a miscarriage, and her mother dies in Mexico. Rivera
refuses to compromise his Communist vision of the work to the needs of
the patron, Nelson Rockefeller (Edward Norton); as a result, the mural
is destroyed. The pair return to Mexico, with Rivera the more reluctant
of the two.
Kahlo's sister Cristina moves in with the two at their San Ángel studio
home to work as Rivera's assistant. Soon afterward, Kahlo discovers that
Rivera is having an affair with her sister. She leaves him, and
subsequently sinks into alcoholism. The couple reunite when he asks her
to welcome and house Leon Trotsky (Geoffrey Rush), who has been granted
political asylum in Mexico. She and Trotsky begin an affair, which
forces the married Trotsky to leave the safety of his Coyoacán home.
Kahlo leaves for Paris after Diego realizes she was unfaithful to him
with Trotsky; although Rivera had little problem with Kahlo's other
affairs, Trotsky was too important to Rivera to be intimately involved
with his wife. When she returns to Mexico, he asks for a divorce. Soon
afterwards, Trotsky is murdered in Mexico City. Rivera is temporarily a
suspect, and Kahlo is incarcerated in his place when he is not found.
Rivera helps get her released.
Kahlo has her toes removed when they become gangrenous. Rivera asks her
to remarry him, and she agrees. Her health continues to worsen,
including the amputation of a leg, and she ultimately dies after finally
having a solo exhibition of her paintings in Mexico.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frida