‘Frida’ documentary review: A story of passion and resilience, intimately told
The first-person narrative based on Kahlo’s own writings and interviews is an intimate exploration of a wounded yet glorious heart, aided well by meditative music, exclusive archival footage digitalised to pristine quality, and the deftly done animations of her surreal paintings
(Originally published in The Hindu on March 18, 2024)
The story of Frida Kahlo, one of the most influential artists of the 20th century, has been told many times in the past few decades, Julie Taymor’s 2002 film starring Salma Hayek as the Mexican surrealist painter being the most popular of them all. This is ever since the world realised it needed to tell how this meek young Mexican girl went on to live so passionately, chasing her ideals of freedom, painted like a dream, braced a world of suffering, and became an ever-inspiring champion of resilience, independent thinking, womanhood, and sexual and emotional liberation.
To tell Kahlo’s story in her latest documentary film, Frida, filmmaker Carla Gutierrez uses a goldmine that most of the previous tellings missed out on; the film is a first-person narrative that is largely based on Kahlo’s own writings, letters, an illustrated diary and interviews. Raw, heart-achingly passionate, sharp-witted, yet as tender as that of a child, Kahlo’s words evoke a thousand waves of emotions. See how tenderly she expresses her coloured desires when she talks about what went through her when she was with her first boyfriend, Alejandro: “I’m attracted to intelligent people. I choose those I feel are superior to me. My Alex. My beloved Alex. I wanted Alejandro to f*** me but he preferred to tell me nice things. He’d recite poetry and give me kisses and hugs. I think that everything that gives pleasure is good. Breath. Aroma. Armpit. Love. Abyss.” It’s a revelation to know what a gifted writer we missed in Kahlo.
Adding to Fernanda Echevarría’s soul-stirring narration as Kahlo, Carla also uses first-person accounts of pivotal figures from Kahlo’s life — like her husband and prominent Mexican frescoes painter Diego Rivera, and Bertram Wolfe, Rivera’s friend and American scholar, among others — to tell the story from…
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