Latino Narrative Film - Essay Example

Introduction Frida Kahlo in the Movie Frida Carrie Rickey, a modern art critic, once called Frida Kahlo “a transformer of pain” (Rickey, “A Phenoms Phenomenal Art In the Art Museums Frida Kahlo). Indeed, the life of the flamboyant Mexican Modernist artist Frida Kahlo, who died just at the age of 47, was an experience of magic transformation and tough life choices – from pain to art through love and determination. It is probably this transformational power that has drawn attention of modern filmmakers to the personality of Frida Kahlo and made them want to bring her sad yet exciting story to screen. The 2002 movie Frida, directed by Julie Taymor, focuses on this transformational aspect of Kahlo’s personality while it immerses the viewer into the world of Frida’s love, creativity, marriage, passion and hatred. With Salma Hayek as Frida Kahlo in Frida, we step into the life story of the now world famous painter Kahlo. Her life seems to be a sequence of tough choices and a total challenge. Once suffering from polio as a kid, Kahlo managed to recover from this crippling disease only to find herself severely injured in a car accident, which left her physically disabled for the rest of her life. As she starts painting, Kahlo makes herself get together all her willpower to opt for this active life position rather than, bedridden, merely wait for the death coming. She goes through two volcanic yet artistically inspiring marriages to the renowned Mexican artist Diego Rivera (Alfred Molina). The film shows how throughout all her life-changing choices, Frida Kahlo manages to be “never conventional about anything she does”, to be “always herself” though it is often not easy (“Frida Movie”). The opening sequence starts with the protagonist being carried in bedridden out of her home. It then switches to Kahlo’s years at high school and the calamitous accident the heroine suffers just at 18. Frida gets pierced by a metal pole when a streetcar and the bus that she is riding collide. The injuries that Frida receives leave her disabled for the rest of her life, so that she moves on crutches, in wheelchairs, or stays in her bed. While she is confined to her bed with the shattered back, Frida’s father brings her canvas to help her recuperate from the accident. From that time on, Frida paints. Taking up painting is probably one of her most dramatic life-changing choices. My opinion can be explained by the fact that Frida’s works, as it is vividly shown in the film, are always along her life events. Whatever the surrealist artists goes through, she continues to pain. In these paintings, it seems, she deconstructs her suffering and pain, both physical and emotional. Paintings help her live and who knows how long Frida might have lived but for her passion for painting and her constant self-expression through self-portraits. Why does Frida make this life choice and becomes a painter? In my view, she struggles to find her new identity. Bedstricken, crippled and physically disadvantaged, Frida strives to grow spiritually and express her inner self with a brush. It needs to be said that the decision to survive and struggle for her life with the help of a brush and a canvas does not come to the protagonist at once. Frida needs to first accept the idea that she is limited in her physical activity and then gather all her hope strength to do this little act of courage – start painting - which would eventually transform her entire life. At the same time, Kahlo may have taken up art also because she feel her calling is to be an artist and because she realizes this is what she was born to do. To my mind, this life choice is good, not just for Frida but for the generations after the painter. As for Frida she benefits from being immersed in the world of artistic beauty and finds ways to express herself, besides she is lucky to have an occupation that she loves. As for the benefit that her artistic work has brought to the future generations, it may be well realized just as one thinks how many people are inspired by her art and her ability to transform pain. Indeed, “Kahlo may not have wanted a comeback, but ever since feminist and Latina artists rediscovered her in the 1970s, her seductive face - enigmatic as the Mona Lisa, provocative as Manets Olympia - has beckoned from gallery walls, refrigerator magnets, mousepads, and even Jean Paul Gaultier couture” (Rickey, “Putting Frida on Film”) Another dramatic choice made by Frida, as shown in the movie, is her marriage to Diego Rivera, a famous Mexican mural artist. Later in her life Frida is portrayed saying that she has suffered two main accidents in her whole life: the first when she was run over by a streetcar and the second when she married Diego. Indeed, marriage to Diego Rivera was tumultuous and resulted in a divorce and finally remarriage. Having taken Frida as his third wife, Diego was well-known for his numerous love affairs, yet his infidelity did hurt Frida. At the same time, this marriage was a source for inspiration for Frida, whose artwork was appraised by Diego. Frida valued her husband not just as a passionate lover, but as her mentor and artistic guide. Also, marriage to Diego changed her life in its social aspect. Diego, with his strong Marxist and Trotskyist political background, and Frida are portrayed as active socialists sharing most radical left views. This involvement in politics eventually leads to Frida’s harboring Trotsky, with whom she later has an affair, and Trotsky’s assassination in the end. All in all, it is hard to say whether marring Rivera is a right a choice since it clearly plays a double role in Frida’s life: it is both a cause of her love and artistic inspiration and her bitter disappointments which have led to some fatal events, a miscarriage among others. The life story of Frida Kahlo portrayed in Frida is made to ring true thanks to elaborate director’s work and a variety of cinematic techniques, as well as the contribution by the production and costume designers, and beautiful music score. Specifically, Taymor, recreates many of outstanding paintings by Frida Kahlo, which suddenly dissolve into the scenes from Frida and Diego’s private life. This helps realize the strong bonds between life and art in Kahlo’s creative work. Thanks to Taymor’s efficient weaving in a number of elements of magical realism via puppetry and collage the audience gets a feeling of the nature of Frida’s creative process. Some impressive images that immerse the viewer into the world of the Mexican painter are Aztec ruins, postcards from the period, floating gardens, as well as Mexican death masks. The opening scene enables us to observe, thanks to the technique of camera panning, a wonderful Mexican garden full of peacocks, cacti, and monkeys. It seems just from nowhere a wooden bed is moving in, which resembles a coffin borne out. The aging Frida lays on it, it seems, in quite peaceful mood and looking quite good. Music interpretation of Gabriel García Márquez by Wagner accompanies the scene, which appears natural. Yet, the audience need to leave this scene quickly and move to reality. This intertwined reality and collage helps to convey to convey the depth of Frida’s artistic nature, showing both worlds of hers: an outer world and an inner world. Apart from various special effects used, Rodrigo Prieto’s work as a cinematographer contributes to the realistic perception of the story through the use of colors. To illustrate, Mexico is shown in gaudy colors and much sunlight, while New York or Paris are shot in desaturated tones to convey the sophisticated atmosphere. Next, the contribution by the production designer is his focus on giving the movie a distinct ethnic look as Felipe Fernandez del Paso recreates Kahlo’s homes, which are often real locations. In addition, the score by Elliot Goldenthal can be said to follow the folk music of Mexicans closely, plus Caetano Velosa and Lila Downs singing a lyrical sidestep helps to create the mood of the film. Finally, it is the design of costumes by Julie Weiss that helps to recreate the real atmosphere of the period and country Kahlo lived and worked. Frida (Salma Hayek) is wearing elaborately ornamented outfits whose gaudy colors make her stand out in a variety of situations in Mexico, as well as Paris and New York. Frida Kahlo in Frida versus Tita de la Garza in Like Water for Chocolate Read More