Frida -- December 2002

A HUMANIST MANIFESTO
OR:  HOLLYWOOD'S AGENDA IS ALIVE AND WELL


I was looking forward to seeing Frida because I once had a beautiful poster of a Diego Rivera mural and was dimly aware that Rivera was married to painter Frida Kahlo. I didn’t know much about either of them outside of a general impression that they were leftist bohemian types. The movie, I hoped, would fill in the gaps about Kahlo and Rivera and satisfy my history-buff side. It did that in a way, but it also gave me more than I’d bargained for. You’d have to search hard to find a better film example of secular humanism. Frida might as well be subtitled A Hollywood Humanist Manifesto.


The movie opens in Mexico City in 1954 with a scene of the 47-year-old Kahlo, so ill that her doctor has forbidden her to leave her bed, being carried to an exhibition of her paintings. We then flash back to the year 1922 and see the young, vibrant Frida romping with her classmates on the streets of Mexico City. Shortly thereafter Frida is very seriously injured in a bus accident. She’d been studying to be a doctor, but during her long and painful recovery she discovers her love for painting. Once well, she goes to see muralist Rivera, Mexico’s most famous artist, to ask his opinion of her artistic talent. Addressing him with “Hey, Potbelly, I need to talk to you,” Frida initiates the relationship that leads to their eventual marriage and 25-year association.


It’s the 1920s, just a few years after the Russian revolution, so communism is just the thing for young, restless intellectuals. Frida’s “Comrade Rivera” is a leader in the local communist party. She marries Diego despite his clear and plain statement to her that he is “physiologically incapable of fidelity.” After this we witness Frida and Diego’s stormy relationship, his many affairs, and hers with ousted communist leader Leon Trotsky just before Trotsky’s assassination. We also see three shocking scenes of Frida in lesbian encounters.


As we might expect given the film's R rating, Frida is full of four-letter words and has its share of violence. Worse, it presents marital infidelity and lesbianism as normal behavior and the pursuit of self as the highest ideal. One of the most telling scenes occurs when Frida fires a gun to drive away some old women in front of her house. Asked who they are, Frida says, “They’re just my mother’s sisters spouting conservative religious nonsense.”


I must admit that the movie is interesting and holds your attention. It’s colorful and artistic and has good acting performances. The viewer does learn something about Mexico and about Kahlo and Rivera, though a caveat during the credits cautions us that “Some of the characters are fictitious and some of the events invented.” If you go to this movie, be sure that your humanism vaccinations are current. Better get a Hollywood-agenda shot too.



Film Rating: R
My Rating: 2 ¼ stars