Watching Frida

For many years personally I have been a big fan of Frida Kahlo. So naturally, when given an opportunity to watch a film based on her life, I wasn’t ready to miss it. Revival house, here I am.

By the end, I felt a deep connection and some kind of sadness. Through  movie her pain, her love for life, biggest sufferings and aches, sense of humor really showed how amazing this woman truly was.

Magdalena Carmen, better known as Frida Kahlo, was born on 6th of July in 1907 from a German father and Mestizo mother in Coyoacán, Mexico. Her paintings had raw but emotional and fantasy elements mixed with folk art style while exploring gender,class race, postcolonialism and Mexican society. As a student she suffered a bus accident that resulted in lifelong pain and medical issues that still didn’t bring her spirits down but gave her an opportunity  to paint as she often had to be in bed.

Now, there is so much about her but I would like to focus on parts of the movie.

Throughout the movie emphasis was on her charm and ability to engage in everyday life even when the pain was present. Charm followed her everywhere. From presenting her mastery portraits to her first mentor turned lover and husband Diego Rivera, through her fights and dances in bars to the short love affair with Trotsky. In one scene she was very ill and was advised by a doctor not to under any circumstances, get out of bed. As she has lived to present one day her work in front of her home Mexico audience, she was carried in with the whole bed. Showing boldness and willingness to engage in the happiness of domestic spectators. She owned the room thus she represented Mexico in full glory. The most painful scene to watch was the loss of her child which made her heart ache which can be seen in her silence, sadness and painting called “The flying bed” where she painted her emotions and depicted the ache of misscarriage. Maybe the most beautiful scene of all was Diego explaining and describing what her paintings and depicting as in words :

 

“Her work is acid and tender,

Hard as steel.

And fine as a smile.

Cruel as the bitterness of life.

I don’t believe that ever before has a woman put such agonized poetry on canvas”.

 

I would definitely recommend watching this beauty of a movie and see why Salma Hayek has earned an oscar nomination representing none other than amazing Frida Kahlo.

 

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