Frida (2002)
This adaptation of Frida: A Biography Of Frida Kahlo by Hayden Herrera is produced by and stars Salma Hayek in an Oscar-nominated role as surrealist Mexican painter, Frida Kahlo. At the age of eighteen – in 1925 – Kahlo was involved in a terrible bus crash, during which she was impaled by a metal pole. Though she survived her injuries, they caused her intense pain and extended periods of isolation for the rest of her life – greatly influencing her work, which most often took the form of self-portraits.
Kahlo’s is a tale of great depth and drama. It includes her complex and volatile relationship with fellow artist (and twice husband) Diego Rivera (here, played by Alfred Molina), her affair with exiled Russian Marxist revolutionary and theorist Leon Trotsky (here, played by Geoffrey Rush), her constant health struggles, her amputations, her miscarriages, and her bi-sexuality.
Though, in the past, she has often been thought of by the general public as simply being Diego Rivera’s wife, the film Frida breathed life into the story of an incredible individual, who overcame enormous obstacles to create extraordinary art.