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Lionsgate
Miramax
Not part of a collection.
Prepare to be seduced.
A biography of artist Frida Kahlo, who channeled the pain of a crippling injury and her tempestuous marriage into her work.
Filipe Manuel Neto
Jul 8, 2023 · via TMDB
**A good biographical film about one of the greatest American painters of the 20th century.** I'm not a deep connoisseur of Mexican painting, but I don't think I'm saying heresy if I consider Frida Kahlo the most international and well-known artist in the country, the most notable of Mexican painters. She was considered a surrealist, but she didn't really agree with that because she didn't paint dreams. In fact, I agree with the artist: what she left us, in powerful and dramatic canvases, is a portrait of her life, what she lived, felt and saw. Kahlo's paintings look simple. She was not an academic, coming out of a very expensive and elegant school. She painted with feeling, with an art that was her own, not a copy of others, nor an attempt to follow any school or any master. She painted with simplicity, emotion and drama, in what we can call a “naïf style”. She was married, in a very tempestuous relationship, to the painter Diego Rivera, but he, although more technically perfect, is not as good as she is because he lacks in emotion and sincerity what he has left in political activism. In fact, what I don't like about Rivera's art is the constant apology for communist ideas. Art and propaganda are different things, although they can be harmonized. The film, directed in a very elegant and competent way by Julie Taymor, invites us to know the artist's life from her youth until her death. It begins shortly before she suffers the accident that will weaken her for the rest of her life (something the film does not tell us – and it is a pity – is that she had polio as a child). The film focuses on her relationship with Rivera and, later, on her affair with the exiled Leon Trotsky. However, and as the film makes clear, the artist was bisexual and had a lot of extramarital relationships with men and women, like her husband, who had a variety of lovers. I dare say that this is one of the most solid cinematographic works of Salma Hayek's career so far. The actress gave us a powerful, intense and personality-filled performance. Beside her, Alfred Molina also gives us a strong and charismatic work. Geoffrey Rush, an actor who rarely lets us down, was not so good as the disgraced Russian revolutionary. I found it unconvincing, and the romantic relationship with Kahlo sounds artificial, more like a whim than a powerful attraction between characters. The film also has cameos by António Banderas, Edward Norton and others, but they were misused and accessories. Technically, the highlight goes to the cinematography, crafted with a lot of creativity: I cannot fail to highlight, for example, the scenes in the Aztec ruins, or that scene where Kahlo is treated in the hospital, with a graphic animation that remembers the artist's paintings. The insertion of the paintings is very well executed, so that we can clearly understand the connection between Kahlo's art and life. The soundtrack, with various themes alluding to traditional Mexican music, does an excellent job, and the recreation of historical times and environments was also done with great care and discretion.
User reviews courtesy of TMDB.
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Fandango At Home
Spectrum On Demand
Salma Hayek Pinault
Frida Kahlo
Alfred Molina
Diego Rivera
Mía Maestro
Cristina Kahlo
Patricia Reyes Spíndola
Matilde Kahlo
Edward Norton
Nelson Rockefeller
Antonio Banderas
David Alfaro Siqueiros
Diego Luna
Alejandro
Roger Rees
Guillermo Kahlo
Ashley Judd
Tina Modotti
Saffron Burrows
Gracie
Geoffrey Rush
Leon Trotsky
Margarita Sanz
Natalia Trotsky
Omar Rodríguez
André Breton
Lila Downs
Tango Singer
Valeria Golino
Lupe Marín
Karine Plantadit
Paris Chanteuse
Didi Conn
Waitress
Alejandro Usigli
Professor
Amelia Zapata
Maid
Fermín Martínez
Painter on Bus
Roberto Medina
Dr. Farril
Martha Claudia Moreno
Woman at Wedding
Rodrigo Prieto
Director of Photography
Julie Weiss
Costume Design
Matthew W. Mungle
Prosthetic Designer
Clinton Wayne
Prosthetics Sculptor
Bob Weinstein
Thanks
Edward Norton
Thanks
Harvey Weinstein
Thanks
Julie Taymor
Director
Adrian Grünberg
First Assistant Director
Françoise Bonnot
Editor
Brian Gibson
Executive Producer
Jill Messick
Executive Producer
Mark Amin
Executive Producer
Mark Gill
Executive Producer
Roberto Sneider
Producer
Salma Hayek Pinault
Producer
Sarah Green
Producer
Elliot Goldenthal
Original Music Composer
Elliot Goldenthal
Songs
Julie Taymor
Lyricist
Gregory Nava
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Stripper Wives
1999
Sally's Beauty Spot
1990
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Battle your watched movies head-to-head
Community Top Movies
Evil Dead II
1987 · 14 wins
The Dark Knight
2008 · 14 wins
Halloween
1978 · 13 wins
Final Destination
2000 · 12 wins
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1981 · 11 wins
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