FemaleFirst.co.uk: DVD: Frida [DVD] [2003]

Frida [DVD] [2003]
enlarge	Director: Julie Taymor Actors: Salma Hayek, Alfred Molina, Geoffrey Rush, Antonio Banderas, Valeria Golino Studio: Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainm Category: DVD List Price: ~~£15.99~~ Buy New: £3.00 as of 20/3/2010 13:21 GMT details You Save: £12.99 (81%) New (24) Used (10) from £2.50 Seller: pulpmagic Rating: 20 reviews Sales Rank: 2306 Format: PAL Languages: English (Audio Description), English (Original Language), Italian (Original Language), German (Original Language) Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over Region: 2 Discs: 1 Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Number Of Discs: 1 Running Time: 118 Minutes Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2 Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6 EAN: 5017188888424 ASIN: B00007KGCH Theatrical Release Date: March 6, 2003 Release Date: February 16, 2004 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days


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Editorial Reviews: Amazon.co.uk Review Salma Hayek makes up for many bad movies with her fierce performance in the sumptuous biopic IFrida/I. Hayek plays the Mexican surrealist painter Frida Kahlo, whose tempestuous life with her unfaithful husband, muralist Diego Rivera (Alfred Molina), drives the story. Maverick director Julie Taymor (ITitus/I, the stage production of IThe Lion King/I) pulls out a wealth of gorgeous visuals to capture everything from the horrific bus accident that damaged Kahlo's spine to her and Rivera's trip to New York City, where Rivera's political leanings ruptured a commission from the Rockefeller family. Though the script spends too much time telling us how great Frida's painting is (rather than trusting in the power of the images themselves), Taymor's dynamic energy and Kahlo's forceful personality give IFrida/I genuine emotional impact. The superb cast includes Roger Rees, Valeria Golino, Ashley Judd, Geoffrey Rush, Antonio Banderas and Edward Norton. The Oscar-winning score is by Taymor's husband, Elliot Goldenthal. --IBret Fetzer/I

Customer Reviews: Showing reviews 1-5 of 20 1 2 3 4 Next » a work of art, a piece of history January 18, 2003 Alejandra Vernon (Long Beach, California) 29 out of 29 found this review helpful This is the best artist biopic I have seen, and it's a remarkable achievement for Salma Hayek, and director Julie Taymor.brBased ( with certain fictionalizations) on the excellent Hayden Herrera biography, the re-creation of Mexico in the first half of the 20th century is a marvel.brThe cast is wonderful. Hayek is perfect as the petite Frida, and Alfred Molina so believable as Rivera. There are small parts filled in by Edward Norton, Ashley Judd, and Antonio Banderas, and with Geoffrey Rush as Trotsky.brI especially like the acclaimed Welsh actor, Roger Rees, as Guillermo, Frida's father, and beautiful Valeria Golino, as Rivera's ex-wife.pThe soundtrack by Elliot Goldenthal (Taymor's husband) is terrific, full of traditional Mexican songs that add so much to this film.brThe magnificent Lila Downs sings several songs (she is briefly seen in 3 of them), and among them is a signature song for her, "La Llorona"...a second version of this song is sung by the legendary Costa Rican star of years gone by, Chavela Vargas, and another treat is the voice of Caetano Veloso in the final end title song.pPerhaps my favorite part of this film are the "living paintings". Innovative and spectacular, I think Frida would have loved this added dimension to her work. The film ends with the final words from her diary: "I hope the exit is joyful--and I hope never to come back--Frida". Passion and color March 4, 2003 Joseph Haschka (Glendale, CA USA) 21 out of 21 found this review helpful FRIDA, with Salma Hayek in the title role, is a vibrant celebration of the life of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo (1907-1954), and an unsparing look at her tumultuous, passionate marriage to the Mexican muralist Diego Rivera (Alfred Molina). Another major thread is the involvement of both with the Communist Party. In the latter half of the film, Geoffrey Rush makes an appearance as the exiled Leon Trotsky running from Stalin's death squads.pHayek's performance is the finest I've seen by an actress so far in 2002. An Oscar nomination is surely in the cards. Though I understand that FRIDA uncovers nothing new about the life of Kahlo not already known by devotees of her work, the film was a total revelation for me who knew nothing about the artist. And Costuming and Make-up built on Hayek's natural appearance to create the spitting image of the real Frida (whose photo I've just seen on the Web). pVisually, the film is a riot of color. I especially liked those scenes where the viewers' eyes are drawn to a brightly costumed Frida set against surroundings colored with contrasting sepia and/or pastel tones.pMy only picky-picky complaint about FRIDA is its treatment of Kahlo's physical condition after the horrific 1925 bus accident that left her with multiple fractures of her pelvis, spine, ribs and leg, and which necessitated over 30 follow-up operations in her lifetime. The visual force of her paintings is generated both by her complex emotional life as well as the terrible physical pain she constantly suffered. Yet in the film, between that time she learns to walk again without a crutch and much later when she climbs an Inca pyramid with Trotsky, there's absolutely no hint in Hayek's portrayal that the artist was in any way physically debilitated beyond an inability to bear children. Where was the stiffness of movement, or the inevitable grimaces of pain? At one point, Kahlo is shown dancing with the fluidity of perfect health. As one afflicted with yet only mild arthritis in the lower back, I found this aspect of Salma's characterization perhaps unreal. However, this is a trivial hiccup in an otherwise superb performance. Frida is a masterpiece, all must see December 16, 2002 15 out of 15 found this review helpful Whether you are an art historian and fully acquainted with the work and story of Frida Kahlo, or like myself fully blank on her history and willing to search out a movie that isn't made by the usual Hollywood mush factories, either way you will be refreshed, thrilled, and brought to tears by this film. Salma is of course impossibly beautiful, and brilliant. The script is sometimes wooden in the manner of an old but sweet movie, the actors moisten it and bring it to life without a struggle. Visually stupendious, grave, frivolous and well capable of bringing the viewer back to a bygone era, the mix of simplicity with unexpectedly advanced effects is stunning. Goldenthahl's soundtrack is accomplished and well worth seeking out as a separate item, to listen to again and again.brWhether or not this film was faithful to history (I don't know), it has accomplished something extremely valuable and should stand as such, immune to pedants picking at its adherence to detail.brFrida is a beautiful movie. "Acid and tender, hard as steel, fine as a butterfly's wing" October 14, 2004 Mary Whipple (New England) 12 out of 12 found this review helpful Artist Frida Kahlo's paintings are a visual diary of her life--as a revolutionary, as the wife of Diego Rivera, and as a woman in constant pain. Injured in a bus accident as a young woman, she endured over thirty surgeries, unremitting physical agony, and injuries which left her unable to bear a child, but she also endured the pain of a notoriously unfaithful husband. As she once told him, "There were two big accidents in my life. You are the worst." pSalma Hayek, as Frida, is both tough and vulnerable, showing Frida's spontaneous, physical approach to life and her passionate dedication--to Diego, to her hard-edged paintings, and to communist philosophy. Alfred Molina, as Diego, a man who "belongs only to himself," is warm, funny, often protective, and utterly impossible as a husband. An established muralist with many commissions when he first meets her, he encourages her artistic goals, explaining, "I paint what I see--the world outside. You paint from your heart." Married, divorced, and later remarried, Frida and Diego, as we see them here, are both mutually supportive and mutually destructive.pHayden Herrera's biography of Frida is the basis for the Clancy Sigal and Diane Lake screenplay, which emphasizes Frida's pain and her ways of dealing with it--through drink, her work, and through sex, with both women and men, including Leon Trotsky, in exile in Mexico. The settings from the 1920s and 1930s are brilliantly colorful--a bright blue house with a garden of peacocks, monkeys, and colored birds; the worksites of Rivera's passionate and brightly colored murals; and locations in Mexico City and New York. Lively Mexican music plays throughout, with new music (Elliot Goldenthall) inserted to unify scenes, the piano music being especially memorable. The cinematography (Roderigo Prieto) takes full advantage of the architecture and the color, which is enhanced by the vibrant clothing, jewelry, and hair adornments worn by Frida.pDirector Julie Taymor features many of Frida's paintings, and some of Diego Rivera's murals throughout, using them to connect the artists' inner and outer worlds. On several occasions, however, there are jarring intrusions of cartoons and nightmares--people walk through a photograph, which shifts to black and white; King Kong in a film morphs into Diego Rivera; a trip to New York becomes a walk through travel brochures. Unfortunately, the style of these vignettes is so unexpected and foreign to the tone of this film that they feel intrusive, even arch. Hayek and Molina are outstanding in conveying the torment of Frida and Diego Rivera, however, and the film, overall, is a fascinating study of two artists living through the tumult of history and each other. Mary Whipple A truly fascinating woman January 15, 2005 S. Hebbron (Leicester UK) 10 out of 10 found this review helpful This film is a beautiful telling of the Frida Khalo story, a much misunderstood Mexican artist of the early 20th Century.br Frida is played exquisitely so as to truly convey the artists story, compassion, intelligence and great love and understanding of her own culture. br For me, Khalo's work is too often dismissed as quirky, troublesome and surreal. In this brilliantly worked film both director and leading lady work hard to connect the artisits life story, beliefs, passions and trauma's to her great body of work, with empathy and understanding.br The evolution of her art is sensitively juxtaposed agaisnt the major themes of her short life. Her work is seen for what it is, both competant and skillful and contextually rich with the courage to convey her emotional exploration of identity, belonging, dissapointment, greif, development and growth. br Frida is passionate and the film is so in tune with it's subject so as display Khalo the woman with great passion and sensitivity.br This film cleverly escapes the art world labels that have misrepresented Khalo, her art and her culture, for far too long.br The cinematography is stunning, particularly the surreal imagery which is so cleverly played as to ignite the stories richness and flavour in the way the paintings intended. Showing reviews 1-5 of 20 1 2 3 4 Next »

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