Film Analysis Of The Film Frida, By Julie Taymor

1. Frida Kahlo is one not only Mexico's most iconic artists, but one of the world's most iconic artists as well. She was born on July 6, 1907 in Coyocoan Mexico City, Mexico. Her father was of German descent and migrated to Mexico where he met her mother, who was half Spanish and half AmerIndian. She also had three sisters. Frida was always very close to her father, and was very proud of her Mexican heritage. During her childhood, she contracted a disease called Polio. She was very ill and had to stay in bed for a whole 9 months. The disease caused her right leg to become much skinnier and weaker than the left one. She had a permanent limp because of it and always wore long skirts to hide it. She met her future husband, Diego Rivera, when she was in preparatory school. One day in 1922, she was on a Bus and got in a horrific accident. She was severely injured, as a steel rail impaled her through the hip. During her period of recovery is when she began to paint her famous self-portraits. Frida and Diego reconnected in 1928 and them married in 1929. Their marriage, however, wasn't a healthy one. Diego cheated on Frida many times and they lived in separate houses. Frida, given her condition was always very depressed. She sadly passed away in 1954. Her death was reported to be caused by a pulmonary embolism, but many suspect her death may not have been accidental.

Throughout her career, Frida had shown many different themes of her life through her paintings. It seems clear, through analyzation of her paintings, that Frida lived something of a double life. Frida paints herself in distinctly different ways at times, sometimes she is a beautiful woman with strength like iron, and sometimes she is a frail damsel who has been broken already and will be broken again. Contrasting paintings include Self Portrait with Monkeys (Kahlo, 1) and Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace, Diego and I (Kahlo, 1) and The Love Embrace of the Universe, the Earth (Mexico), Me, Diego, and Mr. Xolotl (Kahlo, 1). All of these paintings show that not only is there a contrast in her personality, in fact, Frida’s is actually two different people, as she paints it.

Frida Kahlo´s image has been exploited for several years, now a days it is quite easy to find: rings, phone cases, t-shirts, among several other products, all with images of Frida´s art. As a result, this got me wondering on, what made this Mexican artist worthy of such success? What did she do that was considered so important? There are many answers to those questions because Frida Kahlo made a significant impact in the world not only because of her artistic style but also, with her way of living.

Rivera and Kahlo's relationship had begun with art, and continued to grow with art. Frida produced more paintings during their marriage than ever. Frida followed Rivera, experimenting with murals as well. However, Diego Rivera continued to encourage Frida, telling her that it would be best if she

Frida Khalo was born in Mexico City, has a young woman she was in a bus accident causing her to have life long injuries and pain. The time spent bedridden recovering, allowed her to develop her painting skill. Khalo had deep connection to her culture and heritage using symbols within her work. In 1928 Khalo married Diego Rivera a fellow artist their relationship was turbulent. Diego cheated on her with many other women that effect Khalo and her Art. Due to her injuries, Khalo could never carry a child to full term, this was

People may refer to Frida Kahlo as the lady with the unibrow, but others refer to her as one the greatest Mexican painters. She was born on July 6, 1907 in Coyocoan Mexico. When she was about 6 she was diagnosed with polio which is a highly contagious viral infection that can lead to paralysis, breathing problems, or even death. (Crosta 1) Due to polio she was bedridden for 9 months. Frida attended the National Preparatory School where she first noticed Diego Rivera who is a famous muralist. At this time she fell in love with another man Alejandro Gomez Arias. She and Alejandro were on a trip when a monumental moment happened which will change her life forever…. (Frida Kahlo Biography 1)

Diego was an important factor in Frida´s Art, he was her husband and as a result he impacted aspects of her life, for example: positive emotions, as well as negative emotions, travels, abortions, support and infidelities. All these topics where expressed on Frida´s masterpiece paintings, without Diego her paintings would have not been the same. Here is a look back on Frida and Diego´s troublous relationship:

One of my most favorite artists is the Mexican painter, Frida Kahlo. She was born Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo y Calderon in Coyoacan, Mexico, July 6, 1907 and died July 13, 1954. She was one of four daughters born to a Hungarian-Jewish father and a mother of Spanish and Mexican Indian descent. Frida Kahlo is the most famous Mexican woman artist on the contemporary art scene. In 1922, Kahlo hung out with a group of politically and intellectually like-minded students. The Mexican mural movement begins. Frida first learns of Diego Rivera, who is painting his mural "Creation" at the school 's lecture hall. Kahlo becoming a painter, was not a part of Frida 's career goals. Her goal in life was to become a doctor but a tragic accident at age 18 left her mentally and physically scared for life. It changed the course of her life forever. It was during her months of convalescence that Frida began to take painting seriously…"to combat the boredom and pain". she said. "I felt I still had enough energy to do something other than studying to become a doctor. Without giving it any particular thought, I started painting." It was the beginning of a life-long career for Frida.

Frida Kahlo, she never intended to become a painter. Kahlo was aspired to become a doctor as a young woman, but after a horrible accident at the age of 18, it left her mentally, as well as physically scared for life. This event had totally changed her life forever. The theme in almost all of Frida’s painting was her own life. Her paintings were based on events took place during her lifetime. As we can see in many of Frida’s paintings, especially in her self-portraits, it expresses her own personal emotions along with feelings about an event that happened in her life, such as her physical condition, her lack of ability to conceive children of her own, her ideology of life and nature, and most important of all, it was her unstable relationship with her husband Diego. Somewhere between the movement of surrealism, realism and symbolism in the art of Frida Kahlo, she was able to bring out tenderness, femininity, reality, cruelty and suffering within her paintings.

Frida Kahlo's influence still lingers around the world. Even with Frida dead for almost two decades, she is still celebrated and thought of as an idol. Frida Kahlo was an artist in many different ways. Besides Frida's incredible talent to paint surrealist thoughts and emotions on canvas, she also was and artist in her mind and body. Frida's attire of traditional Mexican clothing, which consisted of long, colorful dresses and exotic jewelry, and her thick connection eyebrows, became her trademark. To the public, Frida Kahlo appeared to be full of spirit and joy. She walked through life happily, with a smile glued to her face. However, her feelings of anguish, anger, unhappiness of her painful miscarriages, and

Later on, she took a job to lift the financial burdens of her family and was the paid apprentice of Fernando Fernandez who employed her to copy prints and drawings. He was surprised by her innate talent in art and praised Kahlo's work under him. Despite this, she felt no need to be a professional artist and saw art as a mere hobby (Souter 19). On September 17 1925, there was a collision between a bus and a streetcar. This accident left Frida Kahlo bed-ridden for several months because of her many fractures and dislocated legs. To end her boredom she started painting, borrowing oil paint from her father and asking for an easel from her mother (Kettenmann 17 and 18). Her paintings like Self-portrait in a Velvet Dress and Portait of My Sister Cristina were mainly influenced by European art unlike her later works (Kettenmann 21). This was because of the art books she studied mainly focused on the Italian Renaissance. Her friends even nicknamed her early works as her 'Boticelli' because of its similarities to Boticelli's females (Bauer

Throughout Frida’s journey and development as an artist, she beings an adventurous yet dysfunctional relationship with the famous muralist Diego Riviera. Riviera’s political battles also correlate with many of the discussions in our culture Spanish course. Throughout the film, Riviera expressed his views as a communist which shaped his political views and paintings. His mural at Rockefeller Center was removed due to its communist theme/message. He was fighting for his paintings to be shown and celebrated among society by representing his

During the 1930’s and 1940’s, women of the world held virtually one role and one role only…homemaker. This was no different for the women of Mexico, except for one woman in particular, Frida Kahlo. Frida refused to accept the current ideals of society and the accepted social norms by engaging in things that few women in history ever had. Frida was involved in politics, she was promiscuous with men and women, she painted pictures of herself in ways that had never been done before, and she wore the clothes of her indigenous people as opposed to the current fashions of the world. The movie Frida showcases all of these qualities. The director, Julie Taymor, uses the symbolism of these things to show how Frida

Frida Kahlo’s “The Two Fridas” is a manifestation of heartbreak, inner human pain, rejection of colonialism, and emotional journey. An oil on canvas made in 1939 in the midst of Frida Kahlo’s divorce from Diego Rivera, this painting embodied Frida Kahlo’s progression at this time in her life, dealing with what she is and what she wishes to be; as well as setting out how she wishes to do it. An ode to melancholy and overcoming adversity, “The Two Fridas” is a universal, eternal reminder of human capability.

Frida is a 2002 film by Julie Taymor that mirrors the life of esteemed artist Frida Kahlo. The first scene of the movie serves only to foreshadow the last scene of the movie, depicting Kahlo lying on bed, being loaded onto the back of a truck. The movie then flashes to the Kahlo’s younger days in 1922 when she was around fifteen years of age. She is shown in a school where she gathers friends to watch Diego Riviera work, this yet again portrays an important facet of Kahlo’s future. We then learn of Kahlo’s relationship with a boy named Alex, a both Physical and emotional relationship. A following scene shows Frida admiring the photos of a photographer who is shortly revealed to be her father. In true fashion Frida is then seen observing a mural on the walls of the school. Alex comes to get her before the two miss the bus, shortly after the film shows Alex and Frida catching up to a bus and jumping on. When the bus they are on passes another the two busses collide and the bus holding Kahlo is propelled into the side of a stone building, breaking a multitude of her bones, and leaving her in a sleep state for three weeks. The doctors inform Frida and her family that she will most likely not walk again and it is a miracle she survived. When Kahlo is released from the hospital we get the first glimpse of Frida creating her own art, and see her heart being broken when Alex informs her he is leaving. Kahlo then begins to fill her cast with paintings of butterflies. When she is