Frida
Encyclopedia
Frida is a 2002 biographical film which depicts the professional and private life of the surrealist
Mexican painter
Frida Kahlo
. It stars Salma Hayek
in her Academy Award nominated portrayal as Kahlo and Alfred Molina
as her husband, Diego Rivera
.
The movie was adapted by Clancy Sigal
, Diane Lake, Gregory Nava
, Anna Thomas
and Edward Norton
(uncredited) from the book Frida: A Biography of Frida Kahlo by Hayden Herrera. It was directed by Julie Taymor
. It won Oscars for Best Makeup
and Best Original Music Score
(recipient: Elliot Goldenthal
).
tic accident Frida Kahlo (Salma Hayek
) suffered at the age of 18 when a car trolley collided with a bus she was riding. She is impaled by a metal pole and the injuries she sustained plague her for the rest of her life. To help her through convalescence
, her father brings her a canvas upon which to start painting. Throughout the film, a scene starts as a painting, then slowly dissolves into a live-action scene with actors.
Frida also details the artist's dysfunctional relationship with the mural
ist Diego Rivera (Alfred Molina
). When Rivera proposes to Kahlo, she tells him she expects from him loyalty if not fidelity. Diego's appraisal of her painting ability is one of the reasons that she continues to paint. Throughout the marriage, Rivera cheats on her with a wide array of women, while the bisexual
Kahlo takes on male and female lovers.
The two travel to New York City so that he may paint the mural Man at the Crossroads
at the Rockefeller Center
. While in the United States, Kahlo suffers a miscarriage
, and her mother dies in Mexico. Rivera refuses to compromise his communist vision of the work to the needs of the patron, Nelson Rockefeller
(Edward Norton
); as a result, the mural is destroyed. The pair return to Mexico, with Rivera the more reluctant of the two.
Kahlo's sister Cristina moves in with the two at their San Ángel
studio home to work as Rivera's assistant. Soon afterward, Kahlo discovers that Rivera is having an affair with her sister. She leaves him, and subsequently sinks into alcoholism
. The couple reunite when he asks her to welcome and house Leon Trotsky
(Geoffrey Rush
), who has been granted political asylum in Mexico. She and Trotsky begin an affair, which forces the married Trotsky to leave the safety of his Coyoacán
home.
Kahlo leaves for Paris after Diego realizes she was unfaithful to him with Trotsky. When she returns to Mexico, he asks for a divorce. Soon afterwards, Trotsky is murdered in Mexico City
. Rivera is temporarily a suspect, and Kahlo is incarcerated in his place when he is not found. Rivera helps get her released.
Kahlo has her toes removed when they become gangrenous
. Rivera asks her to remarry him, and she agrees. Her health worsens, including the amputation of a leg, and she ultimately dies after finally having a solo exhibition of her paintings in Mexico.
's life was initially championed by Nancy Hardin, a former book editor and Hollywood-based literary agent, turned early "female studio executive", who, in the mid-1980s wished to "make the transition to independent producing." Learning of Hayden Herrara's biography of Kahlo, Hardin saw Kahlo's life as very contemporary, her "story... an emblematic tale for women torn between marriage and career." Optioning the book in 1988, Hardin "tried to sell it as an epic love story in the tradition of Out of Africa, attracting tentative interest from actresses such as Meryl Streep
and Jessica Lange
, but rejection from the film studios. As Kahlo's art gained prominence, however ("[i]n May 1990 one of Kahlo's self-portraits sold at Sotheby's for $1.5 million, the highest price ever paid at auction for a Latin American painting"), Madonna
"announced her plans to star in a film based on Frida's life", and Robert De Niro
's Tribeca Productions
reportedly "envisioned a joint biography of Rivera
and Kahlo."
In the spring of 1991, director Luis Valdez
began production on a New Line feature about Frida Kahlo starring Laura San Giacomo
in the lead. San Giacomo's casting was objected due to her non-Hispanic
ethnicity, and New Line bowed to the protests, and left the then-titled Frida and Diego in August 1992 citing finances. Hardin's project found itself swamped by similar ones:
Valdez was contacted early on by the - then unknown in the US - Salma Hayek, who sent "her [promo] reel to the director and phoned his office", but was ultimately told she was then too young for the role. By 1993 Valdez had retitled the film The Two Fridas with San Giacomo and Ofelia Medina
both playing the portraitist. Raúl Juliá
was cast as Diego Rivera, but his death further delayed the movie. At the same time, Hardin approached HBO, and with "rising young development executive and producer" Lizz Speed (a former assistant to Sherry Lansing
) intended to make a TVM
, hopeful that Brian Gibson (director of "What's Love Got to Do With It, the story of Tina Turner
" and The Josephine Baker
Story) would direct. Casting difficulties proved insurmountable, but Speed joined Hardin in advocating the project, and after four years in development, the two took the project from HBO to Trimark and producer Jay Polstein (with assistant Darlene Caamaño
). At Trimark, Salma Hayek
became interested in the role, having "been fascinated by Kahlo's work from the time she was 13 or 14" - although not immediately a fan:
Hayek was so set on acting the role that she sought out Dolores Olmedo Patino, longtime-lover of Diego Rivera, and (after his death) administrator to the rights of Frida and Rivera's art, which Rivera had "willed... to the Mexican people", bequeath[ing] the trust to Olmedo. Salma Hayek personally secured access to Kahlo's paintings from her, and began to assemble a supporting cast, approaching Alfred Molina for the role of Rivera in 1998. According to Molina, "She turned up backstage [of the Broadway
play 'Art'] rather sheepishly and asked if I would like to play Diego". Molina went on to gain 35 pounds to play Rivera.
When producer Polstein left Trimark, however, the production faltered again, and Hayek approached Harvey Weinstein
and Miramax, and the company purchased the film from Trimark; Julie Taymor
came onto the project as Director. Meanwhile, in August 2000 it was announced that Jennifer Lopez
would star in Valdez' s take on the story, The Two Fridas, by then being produced by American Zoetrope
. Nonetheless, it was Hayek and Miramax who began production in Spring, 2001 on what was to become simply titled Frida.
Among the on location places shot were three UNESCO world heritage sites: Teotihuacan
, Xochimilco
, and Puebla
's historic centre. Other on location sites include Rivera and Kahlo's Juan O'Gorman
-designed San Ángel
studio house and the San Idelfonso National Preparatory School. Replicas of the Casa Azul (Kahlo's Coyoacán house) and the RCA Building's lobby were built at Churubusco Studios
in Mexico City
and shot in Stage 4 there.
For scenes depicting Diego completing a mural, crew members stretched a canvas across a scaffold placed in front of the painter's actual artwork. This "makeshift 'mural'" included sketched outlines and painted portions. The optical "illusion" of a work in progress was achieved through the canvas "flattened" by a camera shooting from a distance and therefore "blending" the edges into the fixed mural.
Salma Hayek wore over fifty costumes as Frida. Some pieces were purchased from street vendors in Mexico City.
in Los Angeles on October 14 of that year. It had its Mexican premiere on November 8, 2002 at Mexico City
's Palace of Fine Arts
.
American Film Institute
Movies of the Year 2002, Official Selection
Rationale:
National Board of Review
Surrealism
Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members....
Mexican painter
Painting
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...
Frida Kahlo
Frida Kahlo
Frida Kahlo de Rivera was a Mexican painter, born in Coyoacán, and perhaps best known for her self-portraits....
. It stars Salma Hayek
Salma Hayek
Salma Valgarma Hayek Jiménez de Pinault is a Mexican film actress, director and producer. She received an Oscar nomination for Best Actress for her role as Frida Kahlo in the film Frida.-Early life:...
in her Academy Award nominated portrayal as Kahlo and Alfred Molina
Alfred Molina
Alfred Molina is a British-born American actor. He first came to public attention in the UK for his supporting role in the 1987 film Prick Up Your Ears...
as her husband, Diego Rivera
Diego Rivera
Diego María de la Concepción Juan Nepomuceno Estanislao de la Rivera y Barrientos Acosta y Rodríguez was a prominent Mexican painter born in Guanajuato, Guanajuato, an active communist, and husband of Frida Kahlo . His large wall works in fresco helped establish the Mexican Mural Movement in...
.
The movie was adapted by Clancy Sigal
Clancy Sigal
Clancy Sigal is an American novelist and screenwriter born in Chicago. He was a part of the Philadelphia Association experiment with R. D. Laing at Kingsley Hall. He was one of several co-writers of the screenplay for the 2002 Salma Hayek film Frida, based on the book Frida: A Biography of Frida...
, Diane Lake, Gregory Nava
Gregory Nava
Gregory Nava is a film director, producer and screenplay writer, of Mexican and Basque heritage.-Education:...
, Anna Thomas
Anna Thomas
Anna Thomas is a film screenwriter, film producer and writer. She was born in Stuttgart, Germany, to a Polish family and came to the United States as an infant. She grew up in Michigan and California....
and Edward Norton
Edward Norton
Edward Harrison Norton is an American actor, screenwriter, film director and producer. In 1996, his supporting role in the courtroom drama Primal Fear garnered him a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor...
(uncredited) from the book Frida: A Biography of Frida Kahlo by Hayden Herrera. It was directed by Julie Taymor
Julie Taymor
Julie Taymor is an American director of theater, opera and film. Taymor's work has received many accolades from critics, and she has earned two Tony Awards out of four nominations, the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Costume Design, an Emmy Award and an Academy Award nomination for Original Song...
. It won Oscars for Best Makeup
Academy Award for Makeup
The Academy Award for Best Makeup is the Oscar given to the best achievement in makeup for film. Usually, only three films are nominated each year rather than five as in most categories...
and Best Original Music Score
Academy Award for Original Music Score
The Academy Award for Original Score is presented to the best substantial body of music in the form of dramatic underscoring written specifically for the film by the submitting composer.-Superlatives:...
(recipient: Elliot Goldenthal
Elliot Goldenthal
Elliot Goldenthal is an American composer of contemporary classical music. He was a student of Aaron Copland and John Corigliano, and is best known for his distinctive style and ability to blend various musical styles and techniques in original and inventive ways...
).
Plot
Frida begins with the traumaPsychological trauma
Psychological trauma is a type of damage to the psyche that occurs as a result of a traumatic event...
tic accident Frida Kahlo (Salma Hayek
Salma Hayek
Salma Valgarma Hayek Jiménez de Pinault is a Mexican film actress, director and producer. She received an Oscar nomination for Best Actress for her role as Frida Kahlo in the film Frida.-Early life:...
) suffered at the age of 18 when a car trolley collided with a bus she was riding. She is impaled by a metal pole and the injuries she sustained plague her for the rest of her life. To help her through convalescence
Convalescence
Convalescence is the gradual recovery and of health and strength after illness. It refers to the later stage of an infectious disease or illness when the patient recovers and returns to normal, but may continue to be a source of infection even if feeling better...
, her father brings her a canvas upon which to start painting. Throughout the film, a scene starts as a painting, then slowly dissolves into a live-action scene with actors.
Frida also details the artist's dysfunctional relationship with the mural
Mural
A mural is any piece of artwork painted or applied directly on a wall, ceiling or other large permanent surface. A particularly distinguishing characteristic of mural painting is that the architectural elements of the given space are harmoniously incorporated into the picture.-History:Murals of...
ist Diego Rivera (Alfred Molina
Alfred Molina
Alfred Molina is a British-born American actor. He first came to public attention in the UK for his supporting role in the 1987 film Prick Up Your Ears...
). When Rivera proposes to Kahlo, she tells him she expects from him loyalty if not fidelity. Diego's appraisal of her painting ability is one of the reasons that she continues to paint. Throughout the marriage, Rivera cheats on her with a wide array of women, while the bisexual
Bisexuality
Bisexuality is sexual behavior or an orientation involving physical or romantic attraction to both males and females, especially with regard to men and women. It is one of the three main classifications of sexual orientation, along with a heterosexual and a homosexual orientation, all a part of the...
Kahlo takes on male and female lovers.
The two travel to New York City so that he may paint the mural Man at the Crossroads
Man at the Crossroads
Man at the Crossroads was a mural by Diego Rivera.The Rockefellers wanted to have a mural put on the ground-floor wall of Rockefeller Center. Nelson Rockefeller wanted Henri Matisse or Pablo Picasso to do it because he favored their modern style, but neither was available...
at the Rockefeller Center
Rockefeller Center
Rockefeller Center is a complex of 19 commercial buildings covering between 48th and 51st streets in New York City, United States. Built by the Rockefeller family, it is located in the center of Midtown Manhattan, spanning the area between Fifth Avenue and Sixth Avenue. It was declared a National...
. While in the United States, Kahlo suffers a miscarriage
Miscarriage
Miscarriage or spontaneous abortion is the spontaneous end of a pregnancy at a stage where the embryo or fetus is incapable of surviving independently, generally defined in humans at prior to 20 weeks of gestation...
, and her mother dies in Mexico. Rivera refuses to compromise his communist vision of the work to the needs of the patron, Nelson Rockefeller
Nelson Rockefeller
Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller was the 41st Vice President of the United States , serving under President Gerald Ford, and the 49th Governor of New York , as well as serving the Roosevelt, Truman and Eisenhower administrations in a variety of positions...
(Edward Norton
Edward Norton
Edward Harrison Norton is an American actor, screenwriter, film director and producer. In 1996, his supporting role in the courtroom drama Primal Fear garnered him a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor...
); as a result, the mural is destroyed. The pair return to Mexico, with Rivera the more reluctant of the two.
Kahlo's sister Cristina moves in with the two at their San Ángel
San Ángel
San Ángel is a colonia or neighborhood of Mexico City, located in the southwest in Álvaro Óbregon borough. Historically, it was a rural community, called Tenanitla in the pre Hispanic period. Its current name is derived from the El Carmen monastery school called San Ángel Mártir...
studio home to work as Rivera's assistant. Soon afterward, Kahlo discovers that Rivera is having an affair with her sister. She leaves him, and subsequently sinks into alcoholism
Alcoholism
Alcoholism is a broad term for problems with alcohol, and is generally used to mean compulsive and uncontrolled consumption of alcoholic beverages, usually to the detriment of the drinker's health, personal relationships, and social standing...
. The couple reunite when he asks her to welcome and house Leon Trotsky
Leon Trotsky
Leon Trotsky , born Lev Davidovich Bronshtein, was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and theorist, Soviet politician, and the founder and first leader of the Red Army....
(Geoffrey Rush
Geoffrey Rush
Geoffrey Roy Rush is an Australian actor and film producer. He is one of the few people who has won the "Triple Crown of Acting": an Academy Award, a Tony Award and an Emmy Award. He has won one Academy Award for acting , three British Academy Film Awards , two Golden Globe Awards and four Screen...
), who has been granted political asylum in Mexico. She and Trotsky begin an affair, which forces the married Trotsky to leave the safety of his Coyoacán
Coyoacán
Coyoacán refers to one of the sixteen boroughs of the Federal District of Mexico City as well as the former village which is now the borough’s “historic center.” The name comes from Nahuatl and most likely means “place of coyotes,” when the Aztecs named a pre-Hispanic village on the southern shore...
home.
Kahlo leaves for Paris after Diego realizes she was unfaithful to him with Trotsky. When she returns to Mexico, he asks for a divorce. Soon afterwards, Trotsky is murdered in Mexico City
Mexico City
Mexico City is the Federal District , capital of Mexico and seat of the federal powers of the Mexican Union. It is a federal entity within Mexico which is not part of any one of the 31 Mexican states but belongs to the federation as a whole...
. Rivera is temporarily a suspect, and Kahlo is incarcerated in his place when he is not found. Rivera helps get her released.
Kahlo has her toes removed when they become gangrenous
Gangrene
Gangrene is a serious and potentially life-threatening condition that arises when a considerable mass of body tissue dies . This may occur after an injury or infection, or in people suffering from any chronic health problem affecting blood circulation. The primary cause of gangrene is reduced blood...
. Rivera asks her to remarry him, and she agrees. Her health worsens, including the amputation of a leg, and she ultimately dies after finally having a solo exhibition of her paintings in Mexico.
Cast
- Salma HayekSalma HayekSalma Valgarma Hayek Jiménez de Pinault is a Mexican film actress, director and producer. She received an Oscar nomination for Best Actress for her role as Frida Kahlo in the film Frida.-Early life:...
as Frida KahloFrida KahloFrida Kahlo de Rivera was a Mexican painter, born in Coyoacán, and perhaps best known for her self-portraits.... - Alfred MolinaAlfred MolinaAlfred Molina is a British-born American actor. He first came to public attention in the UK for his supporting role in the 1987 film Prick Up Your Ears...
as Diego RiveraDiego RiveraDiego María de la Concepción Juan Nepomuceno Estanislao de la Rivera y Barrientos Acosta y Rodríguez was a prominent Mexican painter born in Guanajuato, Guanajuato, an active communist, and husband of Frida Kahlo . His large wall works in fresco helped establish the Mexican Mural Movement in... - Geoffrey RushGeoffrey RushGeoffrey Roy Rush is an Australian actor and film producer. He is one of the few people who has won the "Triple Crown of Acting": an Academy Award, a Tony Award and an Emmy Award. He has won one Academy Award for acting , three British Academy Film Awards , two Golden Globe Awards and four Screen...
as Leon TrotskyLeon TrotskyLeon Trotsky , born Lev Davidovich Bronshtein, was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and theorist, Soviet politician, and the founder and first leader of the Red Army.... - Mía MaestroMía MaestroMía Maestro is an Argentine actress and singer. She is best known for her role as Nadia Santos in the television drama Alias, and as Christina Kahlo in Frida.-Life and acting career:...
as Cristina Kahlo - Ashley JuddAshley JuddAshley Judd is an American television and film actress, who has played lead roles in films including Ruby in Paradise, Kiss the Girls, Double Jeopardy, Where the Heart Is and High Crimes...
as Tina ModottiTina ModottiTina Modotti was an Italian photographer, model, actress, and revolutionary political activist.- Early life :Modotti was born Assunta Adelaide Luigia Modotti Mondini in Udine, Friuli, Italy... - Antonio BanderasAntonio BanderasJosé Antonio Domínguez Banderas , better known as Antonio Banderas, is a Spanish film actor, film director, film producer and singer...
as David Alfaro SiqueirosDavid Alfaro SiqueirosJosé David Alfaro Siqueiros was a social realist painter, known for his large murals in fresco that helped establish the Mexican Mural Renaissance, together with works by Diego Rivera and José Clemente Orozco, and also a member of the Mexican Communist Party who participated in an... - Edward NortonEdward NortonEdward Harrison Norton is an American actor, screenwriter, film director and producer. In 1996, his supporting role in the courtroom drama Primal Fear garnered him a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor...
as Nelson RockefellerNelson RockefellerNelson Aldrich Rockefeller was the 41st Vice President of the United States , serving under President Gerald Ford, and the 49th Governor of New York , as well as serving the Roosevelt, Truman and Eisenhower administrations in a variety of positions... - Amelia Zapata as Maid
- Alejandro Usigli as Professor
- Diego LunaDiego LunaDiego Luna is a Mexican actor known for his childhood telenovela work, a starring role in the film Y tu mamá también, and supporting roles in American films. He is also known for his roles in Rudo y Cursi and Milk. Luna also had minor roles in Frida and Before Night Falls...
as Alejandro Gonzalez Arias - Fermín Martínez as Painter on Bus
- Loló Navarro as Nanny
- Lucia Bravo as Auditorium Model
- Margarita Sanz as Natalia TrotskyNatalia SedovaNatalia Ivanovna Sedova is best known as the second wife of Leon Trotsky, the Russian revolutionary. She was, however, also an active revolutionary in her own right and wrote on cultural matters pertaining to Marxism...
- Patricia Reyes SpíndolaPatricia Reyes SpíndolaPatricia Verónica Núñez Reyes Spíndola is a Mexican actress, director and producer in films, TV series and theatre plays.She studied to become an actress in several ateliers in Mexico and London. She made her début in the movies in 1972, with El señor de Osanto, and two years later she started...
as Matilde Kahlo - Roger ReesRoger ReesRoger Rees is a Welsh actor. He is best known to American audiences for playing the characters Robin Colcord on the American television sitcom show Cheers and Lord John Marbury on the American television drama The West Wing...
as Guillermo KahloGuillermo KahloCarl Wilhelm Kahlo was a German photographer and father of artist Frida Kahlo, who painted his portrait.... - Valeria GolinoValeria GolinoValeria Golino is an Italian-Greek film and television actress. She is best known to English language audiences for the 1988 film Rain Man, and the Hot Shots! films...
as Lupe MarínGuadalupe MarínGuadalupe Marín , born María Guadalupe Marín Preciado, was a model and novelist born in Ciudad Guzmán, Jalisco, Mexico. At eight years of age Marín moved with her family to Guadalajara. In 1922 she became the second wife of muralist Diego Rivera. Marín was the mother of Rivera's two youngest... - Omar Rodriguez as André BretonAndré BretonAndré Breton was a French writer and poet. He is known best as the founder of Surrealism. His writings include the first Surrealist Manifesto of 1924, in which he defined surrealism as "pure psychic automatism"....
- Felipe Fulop as Jean Van HeijenoortJean Van HeijenoortJean Louis Maxime van Heijenoort was a pioneer historian of mathematical logic. He was also a personal secretary to Leon Trotsky from 1932 to 1939, and from then until 1947, an American Trotskyist activist.-Life:Van Heijenoort was born in Creil, France...
- Saffron BurrowsSaffron BurrowsSaffron Dominique Burrows is an English actress and former fashion model, who starred as Det. Serena Stevens on Law & Order: Criminal Intent and Lorraine Weller on Boston Legal.-Early life:...
as Gracie - Chavela VargasChavela VargasIsabel Vargas Lizano is a Costa Rican-born Mexican singer. She is especially known for her rendition of Mexican rancheras genre - a folkloric musical genre widely popular in Mexico - but she is also recognized for her contribution to other popular Latin American song genres...
as La PelonaDeath (personification)The concept of death as a sentient entity has existed in many societies since the beginning of history. In English, Death is often given the name Grim Reaper and, from the 15th century onwards, came to be shown as a skeletal figure carrying a large scythe and clothed in a black cloak with a hood... - Lila DownsLila DownsLila Downs is a Mexican singer-songwriter. She performs her own compositions as well as tapping into Mexican traditional and popular music...
as Singer
Allusions
- The passengers on the trolley Kahlo rides and that crashes with a bus are based on subjects in the painter's 1929 portrait, The Bus.
- The Brothers QuayBrothers QuayStephen and Timothy Quay are American identical twin brothers better known as the Brothers Quay or Quay Brothers. They are influential stop-motion animators...
- created the stop motionStop motionStop motion is an animation technique to make a physically manipulated object appear to move on its own. The object is moved in small increments between individually photographed frames, creating the illusion of movement when the series of frames is played as a continuous sequence...
animation sequence depicting the initial stages of Kahlo's recovery at the hospital after the trolley accident are inspired by Day of the DeadDay of the DeadDay of the Dead is a Mexican holiday celebrated throughout Mexico and around the world in many cultures. The holiday focuses on gatherings of family and friends to pray for and remember friends and family members who have died. It is particularly celebrated in Mexico, where it attains the quality...
. - The gown Valeria GolinoValeria GolinoValeria Golino is an Italian-Greek film and television actress. She is best known to English language audiences for the 1988 film Rain Man, and the Hot Shots! films...
wears at Kahlo's 1953 Mexican solo art exhibition is a replica of the dress her character Lupe Marín wore in Rivera's 1938 portrait of her.
Development
The film version of Frida KahloFrida Kahlo
Frida Kahlo de Rivera was a Mexican painter, born in Coyoacán, and perhaps best known for her self-portraits....
's life was initially championed by Nancy Hardin, a former book editor and Hollywood-based literary agent, turned early "female studio executive", who, in the mid-1980s wished to "make the transition to independent producing." Learning of Hayden Herrara's biography of Kahlo, Hardin saw Kahlo's life as very contemporary, her "story... an emblematic tale for women torn between marriage and career." Optioning the book in 1988, Hardin "tried to sell it as an epic love story in the tradition of Out of Africa, attracting tentative interest from actresses such as Meryl Streep
Meryl Streep
Mary Louise "Meryl" Streep is an American actress who has worked in theatre, television and film.Streep made her professional stage debut in 1971's The Playboy of Seville, before her screen debut in the television movie The Deadliest Season in 1977. In that same year, she made her film debut with...
and Jessica Lange
Jessica Lange
Jessica Phyllis Lange is an American actress who has worked in film, theatre and television. The recipient of several awards, including two Academy Awards, four Golden Globes and one Emmy, Lange is regarded as one of the première female actors of her generation.Lange was discovered by producer...
, but rejection from the film studios. As Kahlo's art gained prominence, however ("[i]n May 1990 one of Kahlo's self-portraits sold at Sotheby's for $1.5 million, the highest price ever paid at auction for a Latin American painting"), Madonna
Madonna (entertainer)
Madonna is an American singer-songwriter, actress and entrepreneur. Born in Bay City, Michigan, she moved to New York City in 1977 to pursue a career in modern dance. After performing in the music groups Breakfast Club and Emmy, she released her debut album in 1983...
"announced her plans to star in a film based on Frida's life", and Robert De Niro
Robert De Niro
Robert De Niro, Jr. is an American actor, director and producer. His first major film roles were in Bang the Drum Slowly and Mean Streets, both in 1973...
's Tribeca Productions
TriBeCa Productions
Tribeca Productions, a film and television production company, was co-founded in 1989 by actor Robert De Niro and producer Jane Rosenthal in the lower Manhattan neighborhood of TriBeCa...
reportedly "envisioned a joint biography of Rivera
Diego Rivera
Diego María de la Concepción Juan Nepomuceno Estanislao de la Rivera y Barrientos Acosta y Rodríguez was a prominent Mexican painter born in Guanajuato, Guanajuato, an active communist, and husband of Frida Kahlo . His large wall works in fresco helped establish the Mexican Mural Movement in...
and Kahlo."
In the spring of 1991, director Luis Valdez
Luis Valdez
Luis Valdez is an American playwright, writer and film director.He is regarded as the father of Chicano theater in the United States.-Education:...
began production on a New Line feature about Frida Kahlo starring Laura San Giacomo
Laura San Giacomo
Laura San Giacomo is an American actress known for playing the role of Maya Gallo on the NBC sitcom Just Shoot Me! and Kit De Luca in the film Pretty Woman, and Cynthia in sex, lies, and videotape as well as other work on television and in films...
in the lead. San Giacomo's casting was objected due to her non-Hispanic
Hispanic
Hispanic is a term that originally denoted a relationship to Hispania, which is to say the Iberian Peninsula: Andorra, Gibraltar, Portugal and Spain. During the Modern Era, Hispanic sometimes takes on a more limited meaning, particularly in the United States, where the term means a person of ...
ethnicity, and New Line bowed to the protests, and left the then-titled Frida and Diego in August 1992 citing finances. Hardin's project found itself swamped by similar ones:
- "When I first tried to sell the project... there was no interest because nobody had heard of Frida. A few years later, I heard the exact opposite--that there were too many Frida projects in development, and nobody wanted mine."
Valdez was contacted early on by the - then unknown in the US - Salma Hayek, who sent "her [promo] reel to the director and phoned his office", but was ultimately told she was then too young for the role. By 1993 Valdez had retitled the film The Two Fridas with San Giacomo and Ofelia Medina
Ofelia Medina
Ofelia Medina is a Mexican actress, singer and screenwriter of Mexican films. She was married to film director Alex Philips Jr. and actor Pedro Armendáriz Jr..-Biography:...
both playing the portraitist. Raúl Juliá
Raúl Juliá
Raúl Rafael Juliá y Arcelay was a Puerto Rican actor.Born in San Juan, he gained interest in acting while still in school. Upon completing his studies, Juliá decided to pursue a career in acting. After performing in the local scene for some time, he was convinced by entertainment personality Orson...
was cast as Diego Rivera, but his death further delayed the movie. At the same time, Hardin approached HBO, and with "rising young development executive and producer" Lizz Speed (a former assistant to Sherry Lansing
Sherry Lansing
Sherry Lansing is a former actress and American film studio executive. She is former CEO of Paramount Pictures, and when president of production at 20th Century Fox was the first woman to head a Hollywood studio In 1996, she became the first woman named Pioneer of the Year by the Foundation of...
) intended to make a TVM
TVM
TVM might be an acronym or abbreviation for:*Television movie*The 1996 Doctor Who television movie, as it is sometimes referred to by fans*Ticket vending machine*Time value of money - Finance and Accounting...
, hopeful that Brian Gibson (director of "What's Love Got to Do With It, the story of Tina Turner
Tina Turner
Tina Turner is an American singer and actress whose career has spanned more than 50 years. She has won numerous awards and her achievements in the rock music genre have led many to call her the "Queen of Rock 'n' Roll".Turner started out her music career with husband Ike Turner as a member of the...
" and The Josephine Baker
Josephine Baker
Josephine Baker was an American dancer, singer, and actress who found fame in her adopted homeland of France. She was given such nicknames as the "Bronze Venus", the "Black Pearl", and the "Créole Goddess"....
Story) would direct. Casting difficulties proved insurmountable, but Speed joined Hardin in advocating the project, and after four years in development, the two took the project from HBO to Trimark and producer Jay Polstein (with assistant Darlene Caamaño
Darlene Caamaño
Darlene Carolynne Caamaño is a film producer, who has been involved in the production of such films as Dan in Real Life , In the Valley of Elah and The Air I Breathe...
). At Trimark, Salma Hayek
Salma Hayek
Salma Valgarma Hayek Jiménez de Pinault is a Mexican film actress, director and producer. She received an Oscar nomination for Best Actress for her role as Frida Kahlo in the film Frida.-Early life:...
became interested in the role, having "been fascinated by Kahlo's work from the time she was 13 or 14" - although not immediately a fan:
Hayek was so set on acting the role that she sought out Dolores Olmedo Patino, longtime-lover of Diego Rivera, and (after his death) administrator to the rights of Frida and Rivera's art, which Rivera had "willed... to the Mexican people", bequeath[ing] the trust to Olmedo. Salma Hayek personally secured access to Kahlo's paintings from her, and began to assemble a supporting cast, approaching Alfred Molina for the role of Rivera in 1998. According to Molina, "She turned up backstage [of the Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
play 'Art'] rather sheepishly and asked if I would like to play Diego". Molina went on to gain 35 pounds to play Rivera.
When producer Polstein left Trimark, however, the production faltered again, and Hayek approached Harvey Weinstein
Harvey Weinstein
Harvey Weinstein, CBE is an American film producer and movie studio chairman. He is best known as co-founder of Miramax Films. He and his brother Bob have been co-chairmen of The Weinstein Company, their film production company, since 2005...
and Miramax, and the company purchased the film from Trimark; Julie Taymor
Julie Taymor
Julie Taymor is an American director of theater, opera and film. Taymor's work has received many accolades from critics, and she has earned two Tony Awards out of four nominations, the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Costume Design, an Emmy Award and an Academy Award nomination for Original Song...
came onto the project as Director. Meanwhile, in August 2000 it was announced that Jennifer Lopez
Jennifer Lopez
Jennifer Lynn Lopez is an American actress, singer, record producer, dancer, television personality, and fashion designer. Lopez began her career as a dancer on the television comedy program In Living Color. Subsequently venturing into acting, she gained recognition in the 1995 action-thriller...
would star in Valdez
American Zoetrope
American Zoetrope is a studio founded by Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas. Founded on December 12, 1969, American Zoetrope was an early adopter of digital filmmaking, including some of the earliest uses of HDTV...
. Nonetheless, it was Hayek and Miramax who began production in Spring, 2001 on what was to become simply titled Frida.
Filming
Filming took place from April 7 through June 2001 and was shot entirely in Mexico.Among the on location places shot were three UNESCO world heritage sites: Teotihuacan
Teotihuacan
Teotihuacan – also written Teotihuacán, with a Spanish orthographic accent on the last syllable – is an enormous archaeological site in the Basin of Mexico, just 30 miles northeast of Mexico City, containing some of the largest pyramidal structures built in the pre-Columbian Americas...
, Xochimilco
Xochimilco
Xochimilco is one of the sixteen delegaciones or boroughs within Mexican Federal District. The borough is centered on the formerly independent city of Xochimilco, which was established on what was the southern shore of Lake Xochimilco in the pre-Hispanic period...
, and Puebla
Puebla, Puebla
The city and municipality of Puebla is the capital of the state of Puebla, and one of the five most important colonial cities in Mexico. Being a planned city, it is located to the east of Mexico City and west of Mexico's main port, Veracruz, on the main route between the two.The city was founded...
's historic centre. Other on location sites include Rivera and Kahlo's Juan O'Gorman
Juan O'Gorman
Juan O'Gorman was a Mexican painter and architect.-Biography:O'Gorman was born in Coyoacán, then a village to the south of Mexico City and now a borough of the Federal District, to an Irish father, Cecil Crawford O'Gorman and a Mexican mother...
-designed San Ángel
San Ángel
San Ángel is a colonia or neighborhood of Mexico City, located in the southwest in Álvaro Óbregon borough. Historically, it was a rural community, called Tenanitla in the pre Hispanic period. Its current name is derived from the El Carmen monastery school called San Ángel Mártir...
studio house and the San Idelfonso National Preparatory School. Replicas of the Casa Azul (Kahlo's Coyoacán house) and the RCA Building's lobby were built at Churubusco Studios
Estudios Churubusco
Estudios Churubusco is one of the oldest and largest movie studios in Latin America located in the Churubusco neighborhood of Mexico City.It was inaugurated in 1945 after a 1943 agreement between RKO and Emilio Azcárraga Vidaurreta...
in Mexico City
Mexico City
Mexico City is the Federal District , capital of Mexico and seat of the federal powers of the Mexican Union. It is a federal entity within Mexico which is not part of any one of the 31 Mexican states but belongs to the federation as a whole...
and shot in Stage 4 there.
For scenes depicting Diego completing a mural, crew members stretched a canvas across a scaffold placed in front of the painter's actual artwork. This "makeshift 'mural'" included sketched outlines and painted portions. The optical "illusion" of a work in progress was achieved through the canvas "flattened" by a camera shooting from a distance and therefore "blending" the edges into the fixed mural.
Salma Hayek wore over fifty costumes as Frida. Some pieces were purchased from street vendors in Mexico City.
Release
On August 29, 2002, the film made its world premiere opening the Venice International Film Festival. Fridas American premiere was at the Los Angeles County Museum of ArtLos Angeles County Museum of Art
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art is an art museum in Los Angeles, California. It is located on Wilshire Boulevard along Museum Row in the Miracle Mile vicinity of Los Angeles, adjacent to the George C. Page Museum and La Brea Tar Pits....
in Los Angeles on October 14 of that year. It had its Mexican premiere on November 8, 2002 at Mexico City
Mexico City
Mexico City is the Federal District , capital of Mexico and seat of the federal powers of the Mexican Union. It is a federal entity within Mexico which is not part of any one of the 31 Mexican states but belongs to the federation as a whole...
's Palace of Fine Arts
Palacio de Bellas Artes
The Palacio de Bellas Artes is the most important cultural center in Mexico City as well as the rest of the country of Mexico...
.
Honors
| Award | Category | Recipient | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Academy Awards Academy Awards An Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers... |
Best Actress in a Leading Role Academy Award for Best Actress Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry... |
Salma Hayek Salma Hayek Salma Valgarma Hayek Jiménez de Pinault is a Mexican film actress, director and producer. She received an Oscar nomination for Best Actress for her role as Frida Kahlo in the film Frida.-Early life:... |
Nominated |
| Best Art Direction Academy Award for Best Art Direction The Academy Awards are the oldest awards ceremony for achievements in motion pictures. The Academy Award for Best Art Direction recognizes achievement in art direction on a film. The films below are listed with their production year, so the Oscar 2000 for best art direction went to a film from 1999... |
Felipe Fernández del Paso, Hania Robledo | Nominated | |
| Best Costume Design | Julie Weiss | Nominated | |
| Best Makeup | John E. Jackson, Beatriz De Alba | Won | |
| Best Original Score Academy Award for Best Original Score The Academy Award for Original Score is presented to the best substantial body of music in the form of dramatic underscoring written specifically for the film by the submitting composer.-Superlatives:... |
Elliot Goldenthal Elliot Goldenthal Elliot Goldenthal is an American composer of contemporary classical music. He was a student of Aaron Copland and John Corigliano, and is best known for his distinctive style and ability to blend various musical styles and techniques in original and inventive ways... |
Won | |
| Best Original Song Academy Award for Best Original Song The Academy Award for Best Original Song is one of the awards given annually to people working in the motion picture industry by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences . It is presented to the songwriters who have composed the best original song written specifically for a film... ("Burn It Blue") |
Julie Taymor Julie Taymor Julie Taymor is an American director of theater, opera and film. Taymor's work has received many accolades from critics, and she has earned two Tony Awards out of four nominations, the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Costume Design, an Emmy Award and an Academy Award nomination for Original Song... , Elliot Goldenthal |
Nominated | |
| Golden Globes | Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama | Salma Hayek Salma Hayek Salma Valgarma Hayek Jiménez de Pinault is a Mexican film actress, director and producer. She received an Oscar nomination for Best Actress for her role as Frida Kahlo in the film Frida.-Early life:... |
Nominated |
| Best Original Score Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score The Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score is one of several categories presented by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association , an organization of journalists who cover the United States film industry, but are affiliated with publications outside North America, since its institution in 1947... |
Elliot Goldenthal Elliot Goldenthal Elliot Goldenthal is an American composer of contemporary classical music. He was a student of Aaron Copland and John Corigliano, and is best known for his distinctive style and ability to blend various musical styles and techniques in original and inventive ways... |
Won | |
| BAFTA Awards | Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role | Salma Hayek Salma Hayek Salma Valgarma Hayek Jiménez de Pinault is a Mexican film actress, director and producer. She received an Oscar nomination for Best Actress for her role as Frida Kahlo in the film Frida.-Early life:... |
Nominated |
| Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role | Alfred Molina Alfred Molina Alfred Molina is a British-born American actor. He first came to public attention in the UK for his supporting role in the 1987 film Prick Up Your Ears... |
Nominated | |
| Best Costume Design | Julie Weiss | Nominated | |
| Best Make Up/Hair | Judy Chin, Beatriz De Alba, John E. Jackson, Regina Reyes | Won | |
| Screen Actors Guild Awards Screen Actors Guild Awards A Screen Actors Guild Award is an accolade given by the Screen Actors Guild to recognize outstanding performances by its members. The statuette given, a nude male figure holding both a mask of comedy and a mask of tragedy, is called "The Actor"... |
Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role | Salma Hayek | Nominated |
| Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role | Alfred Molina | Nominated |
American Film Institute
American Film Institute
The American Film Institute is an independent non-profit organization created by the National Endowment for the Arts, which was established in 1967 when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act...
Movies of the Year 2002, Official Selection
Rationale:
FRIDA is a movie about art that is a work of art in itself. The film's unique visual language takes us into an artist's head and reminds us that art is best enjoyed when it moves, breathes and is painted on a giant canvas, as only the movies can provide.
National Board of Review
- Top Ten Films