Frida
Spring 2003 Main series
Sunday, April 13, 2003 at 4:00pm
Sunday, April 13, 2003 at 7:00pm
Monday, April 14, 2003 at 7:00pm
Empire Theatres, New Minas, NS
Directed by
Starring
Rated 14A ·
2h 0m
USA
English
The life of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo is a compelling topic for a biopic in itself, but star/producer Salma Hayek (Time Code, Desperado) and acclaimed director Julie Taymor (Titus) have infused Frida with a unique visual style inherent to the titular character’s paintings and in the process created a masterful work of art of their own. A fascinating pairing of Taymor’s unique sensibility with Kahlo’s own renowned style and imagination, Frida – a presentation of the Toronto International Film Festival – is wry, touching and painfully true. The film focuses on the contentious and unconventional relationship between Frida Kahlo (Hayek) and her husband, the famous painter Diego Rivera (Alfred Molina, Boogie Nights, Magnolia). They first meet when Frida is in college and then again later after a terrible trolley accident severely handicaps her, and she seeks his opinion on her art – the only skill with which she can attempt to repay her family’s debt. Although they marry, he pledges only loyalty to Frida, not fidelity. They embark on a whirlwind life-long adventure in which they debate left-wing politics with influential artists of the time (played by Ashley Judd, High Crimes, and Antonio Banderas, Femme Fatale), butt heads with Nelson Rockefeller Jr. (Edward Norton, Red Dragon) when Diego refuses to erase a portrait of Lenin from a commissioned painting, divorce, and eventually house exiled political philosopher Leon Trotsky (a completely unrecognizable Geoffrey Rush, Lantana, Quills), with whom Frida has a passionate affair. Interspersed with animated vignettes, in which many of Frida’s evocative paintings come startlingly to life, Frida one of the most visually breathtaking films of the year. But what brings the story to life is Hayek’s commanding, sincere, tour-de-force performance as Frida, a role the native Mexican was seemingly born to play.
“Frida brilliantly captures the brightness of the light, the intensity of the colors and the omnipresence of Mexican motifs that informed Kahlo’s art.” – Jonathan Foreman, The New York Post
“Well-constructed portrait of the indomitability of the human spirit.” – Brent Simon, Entertainment Today
“It’s a personal triumph for Hayek.” – Roger Ebert, The Chicago Sun-Times
“The further it strays from sober naturalism, the better Frida is.” – A.O. Scott, The New York Times