Frida

For more information about the movie and its actors go to this website:

Frida. Directed by Julie Taymor. Los Angeles: Handprint Entertainment, Lions Gate Films, Miramax, Ventanarosa Productions 2002.

This is the movie based on Frida Kahlo’s life, starring Salma Hayek. This movie, does have some problems trying to accurately portray Frida’s life, but they produced it in a way to make sure they made money off of it. They made some of the gruesomeness into a painting-like scene; also, the use of Spanish was done in moments of passion. Warning to viewers and teachers: there is some nudity, references to sex, and some strong language so this film is more suitable for upper level teaching, in upper high school and college level classes.

Herrera, Hayden. Frida Kahlo. Oxford University Press: 1996.

This is the biography that they based the movie Frida on. This book explores her entire life from her childhood, the bus accident, her marriage to Diego Rivera, her multiple affairs, and her life as a painter. It explained her life and her lifestyle and her communist ties, it ended with talking about her death.

Morrison, John. Frida Kahlo. New York, Infobase Publishing: 2003, 110. The first 19 pages are accessible through Google books

This biography written by John Morrison is about the life of Frida Kahlo. It begins with the bus accident that nearly claimed her life. It then talks about her recovery from the accident and how she began painting and began to live under her husband’s shadow. After it talks about who she was as a painter it started talking about her early life. This biography goes hand-in-hand with the movie about Frida. This biography flows very well in the way it was written and provides plenty of information about the life of Frida Kahlo.

Lent, Tina Olsin. “Life as Art/Art as Life: Dramatizing the Life and Work of Frida Kahlo.” Journal Of Popular Film & Television 35, no. 2 (Summer 2007): 68-76.

Tina Olsin Lent is the Director of Museum Studies at the Rochester Institute of Technology in the Department of Performing Arts and Visual Culture. In her article “Life as Art/Art as Life: Dramatizing the Life and Work of Frida Kahlo” Lent explains the creation of her artistic culture was born through a series of positive and negative events in Frida Kahlo’s life that was able to be expressed through visual art. Unfortunate and stressful events beginning with Frida’s tragic accident that was a major burden to bear as a young girl drove her to find her passion with the arts. Lent explains that Frida became her own favorite subject in her art because it was a way to self examine in her own way. This summarizes the whole article in the title, being that Frida’s art was her life and on the same spectrum, Frida’s life was her art.

Perez, Alonso Leticia. “Frida Kahlo and the Improper/Unclean: Toward the Condition of Abjection.” Women Studies 43, no 4 (May 2014): 407-424.

This article written by Leticia Pérez Alonso reflects on Frida Kahlo’s artwork as a statement of femininity and emotion.  Although Kahlo is known for being involved in politics, the author believes perhaps too much emphasis has been placed on the potential underlying political motivations of her art, when truly the heart of her artwork was within one’s own emotional identity.  In comparison with the film depiction of Kahlo as an individual, much emphasis is placed on her as an individual woman who draws upon her own feelings of sorrow, despair, and rarely happiness to create artwork.  Drawing on the concept of cathartic abjection, this article seeks to explain why Frida Kahlo’s strong emotional feelings of self-deprecation is an important theme in her work.  By utilizing examples of Kahlo’s paintings of herself, the article compares her works of art which display the “filthy” or “unclean” with renowned feminist Julia Kristeva’s ideas of self-abjection to accomplish an internal emotion of satisfaction.  

Shaw, Deborah. “Transforming the National Body: Salma Hayek and Frida,” Quarterly Review of Film and Video 27, no 4. (2010): 299-313.

Overall, Deborah Shaw analyzes the historical and cultural representation of both the Icon Frida and Salma Hayek. Shaw discusses throughout this article how the physical stereotypes of Latinas in US culture, and are shown in this movie.

Volk, Steven. “Frida Kahlo Remaps the Nation,” Social Identities 6, no. 2 (2000):   165-188.

This article discusses how Frida Kahlo’s life and work shows the problems with national identity. Kahlo emphasizes feminism, mexicanidad, bisexuality, lesbianism, victimhood, glamour and disfigurement, and many more within the realm of national identity. Volk then explains how Kahlo creates a visual language of her own in her paintings. His article brings in her ideas of everyone having a duality and they do not fit into one sphere. After briefly explaining Frida Kahlo, there is a whole section about Kahlo from when she was born, to things she did when she was older, and how she changed over time.

Primary Sources

Davies, Florence. “Wife of Master Mural Painter Gleefully Dabbles in Works of Art.” 1933.

First things first… the title was demeaning to Frida. Also, the article writer points out how condescending Davies sounds when writing about Frida. The article the writer also points out another women as a painter named Margaret Keane who married Walter Keane. The husband is the one who took credit for the work Margaret painted. The mention of sexism is present strongly in the article. The  women are always working behind the scenes before they come to light. Yet, this article just shows how apparent the sexism was back in the day. Even still today sexism is strong in the workforce for the best example is the “Glass Ceiling”. Where women can only go so high before hitting that barrier. To further it there are many examples of pay difference due to gender. Furthermore,  the praise of Frida’s work is greatly commented. Stating she’s “skillful and beautiful” along with many other comments. Yet, they hardly mention any of her paintings she has done in the article. Not one. In the movie Frida Kahlo her artwork was displayed several times throughout in movie.

Johnson, Reed. “Mexico Celebrates Frida,” LA Times (June 18, 2007).

This article examines the appreciation of the beautiful artwork done by Frida Kahlo in the Mexican Culture. First the article talks about Frida’s oil painting “The Two Fridas.” The skill of this painting was to show the contradiction of her European and Mexican identity later on in her career. After Frida passed in 1954, the remnants of her work left behind motivations for many groups of minorities or disabilities. Another reason her work remains popular is because the themes of Frida’s work often reflects Mexico’s history in the 20th century. Mexico has a series of anniversary events and celebrations for Frida and Diego’s work because of its everlasting effect on the Mexican culture.

Muñoz, Lorenza. “She’s on a mission to make Latin Films; Salma Hayek and her producing partner discuss their goals as plans for a mini-studio come to fruition,” LA Times (August 27, 2007).

Salma Hayek and her production partner, José Tamez, had been trying to launch a mini-studio that caters to the Latino audience for nearly a decade, and they are finally getting the chance to do this due to the success of the tv show “Ugly Betty” and Hayek’s acting in Frida Khalo. In April 2007 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. agreed to help finance, market, & distribute several Latin-themed movies, and Hayek and Tamez were going to make English films with Latin American actors and actresses through their small studio. During this interview the interviewer asked them why more studios are not taking the chance with Latin themed movies, in which Hayek says she thinks it’s because there have been a lot of failures with Latin themed movies. Hayek and Tamez are putting up their own money for this adventure in which they feel like there is a real market for it and hope to eventually make money from it. This article highlights the importance of Hayek and her aspirations, which we see reflected in Frida, to produce films that respectfully depict, and appeal to a Latino audience.

Faucher, Sophie. La Casa Azul. Translated by Neil Bartlett. London: Oberon Books, 2002.

La Casa Azul by Sophie Faucher, which is inspired by the writings of Frida Kahlo, is a play. The opening of the play takes on an interesting perspective. There were several scenes which are similar to the movie such as the miscarriage, Diego cheating on Frida with her sister, her dressing up as a man, and several others. Besides the similar scenes with the movie, there are scenes such as the doctor’s letter in scene 21 and scene 23 which seem almost poetic. Then the most oddest part of the book would be the scene 19 which was called ‘puppet trumpeter’. These scenes would have been an interesting add on if these were put into the film. This book in comparison to the film has a definite different take on Frida Kahlo. The difference is the book in comparison makes her seem more individualistic rather than a romantic and torn emotionally.    

Authors: John Abel, Kathryn Goerlinger, Drew Holt, Kol Shuler