Tepintzin´s Movie Pick of the Week
Jul. 9th, 2003 05:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lady_kishiria¨Frida¨ with Selma Hayek. I cannot recommend this movie enough. If you don´t know who Frida was, she was an impressionist painter in Mexico in the first half of the 20th century. She´s known for her disturbing and surrealistic self-portraits, done ¨because I spend so much time alone¨.
The movie uses the techniques of her paintings to tell the story of this brilliant and troubled woman. Frida learned to paint after a nightmarish trolley accident which broke her spine and pelvis and left her in constant pain even after many months in a body cast. She went on to marry muralist Diego Rivera, who cheated on her incessantly---but what´s good for the gander is good for the goose, she decided.
I liked the dreamlike quality of the film and the brilliant colours it used all through it. Hayek was one of the producers, this film is her initiative, and it´s Mexico through and through. Matter of fact, some layers of meaning are lost if you *don´t* know the culture inside out; if I hadn´t been there two months I wouldn´t have known that a devil figure she is carrying in one scene is called a Judas. You´ll see what I mean if you watch the movie.
The only thing I didn´t like was Alfred Molina as Diego Rivera. He wasn´t fat or toadlike enough. I have always thought that the ideal Diego would be Benicio del Toro in a fat suit. As it was, I didn´t have the needed reaction of ¨OH YUCK! How did HE manage to be such a player when he´s uglier than Ron Jeremy?¨
Anyway, check it out. Queer female readers be aware: Frida was also a foremother of the family.
The movie uses the techniques of her paintings to tell the story of this brilliant and troubled woman. Frida learned to paint after a nightmarish trolley accident which broke her spine and pelvis and left her in constant pain even after many months in a body cast. She went on to marry muralist Diego Rivera, who cheated on her incessantly---but what´s good for the gander is good for the goose, she decided.
I liked the dreamlike quality of the film and the brilliant colours it used all through it. Hayek was one of the producers, this film is her initiative, and it´s Mexico through and through. Matter of fact, some layers of meaning are lost if you *don´t* know the culture inside out; if I hadn´t been there two months I wouldn´t have known that a devil figure she is carrying in one scene is called a Judas. You´ll see what I mean if you watch the movie.
The only thing I didn´t like was Alfred Molina as Diego Rivera. He wasn´t fat or toadlike enough. I have always thought that the ideal Diego would be Benicio del Toro in a fat suit. As it was, I didn´t have the needed reaction of ¨OH YUCK! How did HE manage to be such a player when he´s uglier than Ron Jeremy?¨
Anyway, check it out. Queer female readers be aware: Frida was also a foremother of the family.
