Frida: The Film

I saw this film when it first came out, so it was nice to revisit it. I remember thinking then that Frida had become a superstar who already far eclipsed Diego Rivera. And of course her star has only continued to shine ever more brightly since then, especially in San Francisco, which I think has adopted her as a patron saint. (Has Frida gone uni-name yet, like Cher and Madonna, to match her unibrow? Oh wait. There's already Frida from ABBA. That would be too confusing.)

One part of this film that has all of the "trappings" of Hollywood in it was also a part that I quite enjoyed: When Taymor creates a mise en scène that replicates one of Frida's paintings, and then brings it to life. Delightful and arty, pretty and "creative". But haven't I seen that in at least a dozen music videos?  Maybe Taymor did it first. (When I think of Julie Taymor, I think of the staging and direction of "The Lion King" on Broadway.)

I forgot about the saucy lesbian scenes! Salma Hayak almost got my propeller turning! In that sense, it was somewhat defiant of usual Hollywood norm of defining lesbianism through the male gaze, probably because of the female-centric production core of this film. Hayak was sensational in this film! Memorably, the scenes of her stoically enduring the sadistic torture of the various devices she was put into over the years. Some of those looked like they were purchased at the Folsom Street Fair. But of course, unlike Frida, FSF-goers enter their devices by choice. When Hayak delivered the line: "I don't feel pain." OMG! Definitely not Madonna and probably not J-Lo could have pulled off this role as well as Hayak did.

Overall, I'm not going to complain about the film. It is what it is, and it's not bad, and sometimes that's good enough!  I'll be interested to read about what aspects of Frida's life my classmates would like to have seen covered in the film, since I don't have strong feelings about this. I was happy to see they filmed at Frida's actual Casa Azul in the suburbs of Mexico City. I was able to visit there a couple of years ago, and I recognized it right away!