Frida (2002)
Country: US/CAN/MEX
Technical: col 123m
Director: Julie Taymor
Cast: Salma Hayek, Alfred Molina, Roger Rees, Valeria Golino, Geoffrey Rush
Synopsis:
The career of Mexican painter, Frida Kahlo, from the twenties to the fifties, is compromised by a brush with polio and a near-fatal trolley accident, and dominated by her relationship with the Communist painter, Diego Rivera.
Review:
Colourful biopic, which falls into the common trap of attending less to the painting than to the sexual hi-jinks of its subject, whose revolutionary politics seem to be characterised more than anything by the inclusiveness of her amorous exploits, embracing in addition to her licentiously fickle spouse both her own sex and Leon Trotsky himself. There are some eye-catching animation effects whereby the director toys with the genesis of some famous paintings and their real-life inspiration, but the narrative is flimsy and perfunctory, acquiring only specious coherence via the framing device of the artist's bedridden person being transported to a triumphant exhibition of her work; and for a subject so often stricken with illness, near-poverty and alcohol abuse, Miss Hayek's flesh tones positively radiate with a resiliently healthy sheen, no doubt insisted upon by producer Harvey Weinstein.
Country: US/CAN/MEX
Technical: col 123m
Director: Julie Taymor
Cast: Salma Hayek, Alfred Molina, Roger Rees, Valeria Golino, Geoffrey Rush
Synopsis:
The career of Mexican painter, Frida Kahlo, from the twenties to the fifties, is compromised by a brush with polio and a near-fatal trolley accident, and dominated by her relationship with the Communist painter, Diego Rivera.
Review:
Colourful biopic, which falls into the common trap of attending less to the painting than to the sexual hi-jinks of its subject, whose revolutionary politics seem to be characterised more than anything by the inclusiveness of her amorous exploits, embracing in addition to her licentiously fickle spouse both her own sex and Leon Trotsky himself. There are some eye-catching animation effects whereby the director toys with the genesis of some famous paintings and their real-life inspiration, but the narrative is flimsy and perfunctory, acquiring only specious coherence via the framing device of the artist's bedridden person being transported to a triumphant exhibition of her work; and for a subject so often stricken with illness, near-poverty and alcohol abuse, Miss Hayek's flesh tones positively radiate with a resiliently healthy sheen, no doubt insisted upon by producer Harvey Weinstein.
Country: US/CAN/MEX
Technical: col 123m
Director: Julie Taymor
Cast: Salma Hayek, Alfred Molina, Roger Rees, Valeria Golino, Geoffrey Rush
Synopsis:
The career of Mexican painter, Frida Kahlo, from the twenties to the fifties, is compromised by a brush with polio and a near-fatal trolley accident, and dominated by her relationship with the Communist painter, Diego Rivera.
Review:
Colourful biopic, which falls into the common trap of attending less to the painting than to the sexual hi-jinks of its subject, whose revolutionary politics seem to be characterised more than anything by the inclusiveness of her amorous exploits, embracing in addition to her licentiously fickle spouse both her own sex and Leon Trotsky himself. There are some eye-catching animation effects whereby the director toys with the genesis of some famous paintings and their real-life inspiration, but the narrative is flimsy and perfunctory, acquiring only specious coherence via the framing device of the artist's bedridden person being transported to a triumphant exhibition of her work; and for a subject so often stricken with illness, near-poverty and alcohol abuse, Miss Hayek's flesh tones positively radiate with a resiliently healthy sheen, no doubt insisted upon by producer Harvey Weinstein.