Barnes & Noble

The life and work of one of Mexico's greatest artists is celebrated in Frida, the lush biographical film from acclaimed stage director Julie Taymor. Beginning in 1922, the film follows the life of painter Frida Kahlo (Salma Hayek) from her days as a student to her death in 1954. At first glance, Kahlo's life seems one of suffering, dominated by lifelong medical problems that would eventually result in amputations, and by a chronically unfaithful husband in Mexican muralist Diego Rivera (Alfred Molina). Yet Kahlo is no martyr; the film fashions a buoyant, life-affirming saga out of her struggles. This Kahlo is an energetic, irrepressible, and triumphant spirit, a strong-willed woman who faces the world with eyes wide open. Hayek's performance brilliantly captures Kahlo's expansive emotional palette -- the exuberance, despair, rage, and feisty rebelliousness that was so often reflected in her work -- and she earned an Academy Award nomination for the portrayal. As an effective counterpoint, Molina's Rivera is surprisingly sympathetic in his big-hearted childishness and insatiable appetites. Since her death, Kahlo has evolved into a sort of feminist icon, and Frida makes it easy to see why. It's a triumphant testament to the beauty and genius of a great woman, and it wowed Academy voters, earning nominations in six categories. In addition to Hayek's nod, Frida was recognized in for its art direction, costume design, and makeup, winning the latter category. Composer Elliot Goldenthal's splendid score, steeped in romantic and folkloric themes, triumphed in that category; although his collaboration with Taymor, "Burn It Blue," came up short in the competition for Best Song. Gregory Baird

All Movie Guide

The life of an uncompromising, iconoclastic artist has never seemed as rote and inevitable as it does in Julie Taymor's Frida, an intermittently engaging but wholly ordinary biography that wouldn't be out of place premiering on a basic-cable channel. Ticking off the events in Kahlo's life like a grade-school filmstrip, Frida's screenplay -- credited to no less than four writers, not including the purported rewrites from Ed Norton -- is full of clumsy passage-of-time indicators and halting, expository dialogue. Luckily, the performers manage to bring it alive somewhat: Though notably lacking in the kind of mythic swagger Kahlo requires, Salma Hayek digs into her long-gestating "role of a lifetime" with vigor. Better yet is Alfred Molina's Diego Rivera, who threatens to swallow the movie whole (both figuratively and literally). To her credit, Taymor attempts to infuse Frida with the kind of broad, expressionistic strokes she lent 2000's Titus -- the movie is nothing if not lush. Cinematographer Rodrigo Pietra renders Mexico as a paradise of reds, blues, and greens, playing up the contrasts between Kahlo's homeland and the steely, blue-gray New York sequences. But however brilliant they often are, Taymor's directorial flourishes are just that, and Frida -- which by all accounts could've been as daring as Vincent and Theo or Before Night Falls -- never rises above standard bio-pic fare. Michael Hastings

Washington Post

Endlessly interesting. It's about people who thought ideas and art mattered, which makes it a rarity today. Stephen Hunter

Variety

Salma Hayek makes the character an icon of female independence, courage and nonconformity, forecasting special appeal for women viewers. Deborah Young

New York Post

The most effective moments in Taymor's gorgeous, surprisingly romantic Frida are those that evoke the visual world from which Kahlo's work was formed or the paintings themselves, often using clever animation and other special effects. Jonathan Foreman

Product Details

• UPC: 786936180992
• Source: MIRAMAX
• Region Code: 1
• Aspect Ratio: Theatre Wide-Screen (1.85.1)
• Presentation: Wide Screen
• Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
• Language: English, Français
• Subtitles: Español
• Time: 2:03:00
• Sales Rank: 8,437

This DVD is also available as part of a box set:

• Academy Award Winning Movies 1
• Evita & Frida (2002) (2pc)

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