Notes
The film opens with a scene of Frida Kahlo being carried in her bed out of her house and onto the bed of a truck. She is accompanied by her sister Cristina, in a foretelling of the trip shown at the close of the film that the artist makes to her solo exhibition in 1953. Salma Hayek, as "Frida," provides voice-over narration at various points in the film. During the beginning of the New York sequence in the film, Alfred Molina's voice narrates the highlights of their stay. Some passages of Frida's dialogue in the film and quoted in the above summary were taken from Kahlo's own diaries and interviews. In the opening credits nine principal actors are listed beginning with Salma Hayek and Alfred Molina; however, in the film's closing credits the cast is listed in order of appearance.
The picture lists the following companies and individuals as providing the Photography (Montage) stills: Archive Films by Getty Images; Hulton/Archives by Getty Images; Museum of the City of New York; George Eastman House; Engineering Site; Library of Congress, Prints & Photography Division; Serge Patzak and Jeremy Dawson. The credits state that reproduction of artwork by both artists was authorized by the National Institute of Fine Arts and Literature and that original rights to each artists' artwork belong to The Banco De Mexico Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo Museums Trust. In addition, the credits note that the Vogue magazine with Kahlo on the front cover is used by permission of the Condé Nast Publications, Inc. Many individuals and companies are listed in the "A Very Special Thanks" section in the closing credits of the film, including: Miramax executives Bob and Harvey Weinstein, the Instituto Nacional De Bellas Artes and actor-writer Edward Norton, who is credited in several magazine articles as contributing to the screenplay, but only listed onscreen in this section.
As portrayed in the film, Frida Kahlo (1907-1954) grew up in Mexico City in her family home, Casa Azul. At age eighteen she was involved in a bus accident that left her with chronic health problems and caused her to endure over thirty operations in her lifetime. After her initial recovery, Kahlo began to paint. She met Mexican artist Diego Rivera (1886-1957) in 1928, married him the next year, divorced him in 1939 and remarried him in 1940. While Rivera enjoyed an international art career through commissioned murals, Kahlo continued to create intensively autobiographical paintings and became world renowned several decades after her death. As depicted in the film, Diego's mural for the Rockefeller Center lobby was destroyed in 1934 when Rivera refused to remove its portrait of Lenin.
The couple's studios were made into the Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo Studio-House Museum, where many of their works are on display. During their marriage the couple socialized with many world-renowned personalities, including Communist Leon Trotsky, who immigrated to Mexico in 1937 and, as depicted in the film, was assassinated in 1940; surrealist André Breton; photographer Tina Modotti; singer Josephine Baker, although the character is called "Paris chanteuse" in credits, and others. One year before Kahlo's death, Rivera lauded his wife's work in an interview, stating, "Kahlo is the greatest Mexican painter. Her work is destined to be multiplied by reproductions and will speak . . . to the whole world."
Frida is based on the 1983 novel Frida, a Biography of Frida Kahlo by Hayden Herrera. According to an August 2002 Hollywood Reporter article, in 1988 film producer Nancy Hardin purchased the rights to the book. When HBO agreed to make the film for cable television in 1994, Mexican director Roberto Sneider, producer Sarah Green and, according to a August 23, 2002 Screen International article, producer Lizz Speed, joined the team. The August 2002 Hollywood Reporter article states that Rodrigo Garcia, son of Nobel prize-winning novelist Gabriel García Márquez, worked on the script.
By the early 1990s, several other companies were interested in producing television and feature-film versions of Kahlo's story. Musician and actress Madonna approached HBO about joining her project with Hardin's and, according to a June 17, 2001 The Times (London) article, had lined up Marlon Brando to star as Rivera. The August 2002 Hollywood Reporter article states that producer January Rosenthal and actor Robert De Niro considered making a version. According to a August 30, 2000 Los Angeles Times article, Venezuelan director Betty Kaplan also had plans to make a film based on Kahlo, starring Edward James Olmos.
Another version was slated to begin under the direction of Latin American Luis Valdez entitled Frida and Diego. The production was to be based on Martha Zamora's Frida Kahlo: The Brush of Anguish and to star Raul Julia and Jennifer Lopez; however, when the film was to begin production in 2001, Julia had died and Lopez left due to other film commitments. According to a August 23, 2002 Screen International article, Francis Ford Coppola had agreed to produce the Valdez production.
According to a July 15, 2001 Los Angeles Times article, in the meantime, the HBO project was purchased by Trimark Pictures in 1996 with Hayek assigned to star. As noted in the August 2002 Hollywood Reporter article, Hayek had auditioned for the lead in Valdez's version, but was rejected at the time because the former Mexican soap opera star was not the internationally popular draw required by the director. A August 23, 2002 Screen International article states that after Sneider left the Trimark project, Hayek became a producer, as well as the star, for the film under her production company, Ventanarosa.
Although a March 3, 1998 Hollywood Reporter production chart states shooting would start in the spring of that year, according to Screen International, Hayek left the project to work with Miramax, and promised Hardin to try to convince Miramax to take on the production. The article also notes that Hayek worked with producer Walter Salles, who left the project due to scheduling conflicts. A October 13, 2002 Los Angeles Times article notes that Spanish director Pedro Almodovar also considered the project in 1997-1998. According to an August 2002 Hollywood Reporter article, after Trimark subsequently dropped the project in 1998 because of Hayek's budget, the star, as promised, then took the project to Miramax on the condition that Julie Taymor direct it.
Taymor, known for her experimental work in both theater and film, chose several techniques to highlight Kahlo's creative process. Among these techniques were the blending of live-action sequences into versions of Kahlo's paintings and vice versa. As noted in an October 2002 American Cinematographer article, Taymor filmed Hayek in makeup that closely matched the paintings "The Two Fridas, Self Portrait with Cropped Hair" and "The Broken Column" in order to make the illusion seamless. The paintings "My Dress Hangs There," "The Suicide of Dorothy Hale" and "What the Water Gave Me" were animated to blend the paintings into live-action sequences.
As also noted in the article, Kahlo and Rivera's journey through New York is depicted through the use of montage, referencing early 20th century Dadaist collage. Black-and-white film documenting Rivera's visit to a Detroit factory was used, as well as cityscape cutouts which form the background on which paper dolls of Kahlo and Rivera walk. An actual clip of the film King Kong is used during a sequence in which Frida visits a movie theater. Later, a King Kong sequence is recreated in which Diego is portrayed as Kong climbing up the Empire State Building. In addition, the surreal images of dancing skeletons and broken bones depicted during Frida's early hospital stay were created by the use of puppet-animation sequencing. Tinting was used to highlight the differences in location including vibrant color for Mexico, sepia tones for Paris and cooler tones for New York.
In addition to the recreation of the Casa Azul and other sets at the Churubusco Studios in Mexico City, portions of the film were shot on location in Mexico City and the outlying towns of Puebla and San Luis Potosi. According to the October 2002 American Cinematographer article, permission was also granted to shoot at a number of locations central to Kahlo and Rivera's life, including the Mexican Ministry of Education, the site of one of Rivera's murals; the San Angel studio where the couple lived and worked and the Teotihuacan pyramids, which according to the August 2002 Hollywood Reporter article, required the special permission of Mexican president Vincente Fox. Although early production charts list shooting in New York and Paris, due to financial constraints, Taymor choose to recreate both metropolitan locations within Mexico City.
A November 7, 2002 Wall Street Journal article notes that composer Elliot Goldenthal blended period music with his own compositions and augmented the orchestra with a small group of Mexican musicians playing traditional instruments including the vihuela, guitarrón, marimba and the Mexican harp. In the film, the over-ninety-year-old Costa Rican singer Chavela Vargas, at one time Frida's lover, sings "La Ilorona" while portraying death haunting a drunk and depressed Frida.
Frida opened the Venice Film Festival on August 29, 2002. In addition to being selected as one of AFI's top ten films of the year, the picture earned a Golden Globe for Best Original Score, by Elliot Goldenthal, and received a Golden Globe nomination in the category of Best Actress-Drama, for Hayek. Hayek was also nominated for an Oscar for Best Actress, and the film received Academy Awards for Best Makeup and Best Original Score, in addition to being nominated for Best Art Direction and Best Costume Design. Hayek received a SAG nomination for Best Lead Actress in a Movie, and Alfred Molina was nominated in the Best Supporting Actor category. The National Board of Review included the film in its list of the 2002 top ten films. The film received a BAFTA for Achievement in Makeup and Hair.
Although Kahlo has been the subject of many documentaries, according to modern sources, only one other major feature exists about the painter. The 1984 Frida is a Mexican film by director Paul Leduc starring Ofelia Medina, in which, according to a August 30, 2000 Los Angeles Times article, the painter is portrayed as an innocent victim of Rivera's tyranny. Diego and Kahlo's New York stay, Diego's Rockefeller Center commission and the mural's subsequent destruction, were also depicted in the 1999 film The Cradle Will Rock, about a WPA Federal Theatre Program play in 1930s New York.
Miscellaneous Notes
Nominated for two 2002 Screen Actor's Guild (SAG) awards, including Best Actress (Salma Hayek) and Best Supprting Actor (Alfred Molina).
Voted one of the 10 best films of 2002 by the American Film Institute (AFI).
Nominated for Best Film by the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) Media Awards.
Released in United States Fall October 25, 2002
Expanded Release in United States November 8, 2002
Released in United States on Video June 10, 2003
Released in United States May 2001
Released in United States 2002
Released in United States January 2003
Shown at Cannes International Film Festival (market) May 9-20, 2001.
Shown at Venice International Film Festival (Opening Night) August 29 - September 8, 2002.
Shown at Palm Springs International Film Festival January 9-20, 2003.
Project was previously in development at New Line Cinema.
Project was previously in development at HBO.
Project was previously in development at Trimark Pictures.
Ventanarosa is Salma Hayek's production company.
Ed Norton rewrote the screenplay for free.
Released in United States Fall October 25, 2002
Expanded Release in United States November 8, 2002
Released in United States on Video June 10, 2003
Released in United States May 2001 (Shown at Cannes International Film Festival (market) May 9-20, 2001.)
Released in United States 2002 (Shown at Venice International Film Festival (Opening Night) August 29 - September 8, 2002.)
Released in United States January 2003 (Shown at Palm Springs International Film Festival January 9-20, 2003.)
Nominated for two 2002 awards by the Broadcast Film Critics Association including Best Actress (Salma Hayek) and Best Supporting Actor (Alfred Molina).
