Frida

[jchrisobrien]

Frida is a movie that opens a window to something greater than yourself. You can stand by the window and feel the breeze and light on your face. The rain can sting your skin with icy knives. You can slide your hand along the ledge reach outside to the world that is waiting for you. But when the movie ends, the window closes, and you're stuck with yourself again. Trapped in your flesh.

Frida showed you the lives of two artists. Both filled with visions and talents. Both flawed and very, very human. Their lives held dazzling flashes of beauty, but for every drink of beauty there was a deep draught of pain. Diego couldn’t remain faithful to save his life, and still she loved him. Frida's life was filled with physical pain and emotional wounds. Yet she filled her life with the search for passion and beauty and truth.

I'd like to think that any of us could live our lives that way. I see people I know living that kind of life, and what it can cost them. And I wonder: can I live that way? Is it too late?
That's a rhetorical question: it's never too late. It's just a matter of beginning.

Comments

[atalanta.livejournal.com]

wow, those are 2 lives I would never want to emulate.

[silas7.livejournal.com]

I suppose it depends on which aspect of their life you focus on.
Their lives swng on a pendulum that crossed great extremes. It's certainly not a life made for many people, Frida was only 47 when she died. You could say that she lived twice as much as an average person did in that time, but such a life had it's price.

Frida is certainly the better role model, of the two.

(did you catch the little cameo of Edward Norton in the film?)

[atalanta.livejournal.com]

didn't see the movie, actually ...
my college spanish teacher was a big fan so we were always doing projects and reports on frida and diego :)
I found them quite spirit-crushing to think about, actually, not inspiring at all. maybe the movie paints a prettier picture.

[silas7.livejournal.com]

The movie certainly glamorizes aspects of their life, but it doesn't shy away from the bad times either. Julie Taymor's directing added so much to the film, and I loved the music in the film.

[alonewiththemoon]

The thing I got from the movie was that for Frida, her art was not about life-crushing despair--it was a way of making sense of what had happened to her by visualizing it. The paintings say "there, *that's* how it feels" and then she moves on. Or to think of it another way, by turning her suffering into art she found a purpose for the suffering, took away its pointlessness and arbitrariness. In the movie, Frida herself had a great zest for life--there was a bit of a sense that she and Diego were stuck with each other because nobody else could match either of them in that regard.

Plus, Julie Taymor's work is perfect--images from the artwork often swim across the screen and boundaries between life and painting blur.

[rojagato.livejournal.com]

Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, and Johnny Cash (and June Carter) who worked through and in spite of themselves to create art. I think that they are all people emulate, in their absolute discipline to their art. They all worked at it, every fucking day, no matter what else was going on.

[atalanta.livejournal.com]

The misery part though. No thanks.

[silas7.livejournal.com]

There were components of their lives that are very admirable. Their adherence to their passion is one of them. Becomeing slaves to their passions, not so much. I find it interesting that while both of them grew in experiences, they didn't change who they were as they grew. Whether that's good or not depends on what you are comfortable with.

[silas7.livejournal.com]

The first two certainly apply. They are devoted to their air, and are passionate about it, but they also say that it is a discipline too. They have to paint all the time, including making bad pieces, until something good comes from it. The intensity that they approach life is intoxicating, but like wine it can lift you up and smash you down, and it did that to them in equal measure.

But also, Frida was a fighter. She lived through the pain of her accident, and didn't quit. She married a man who could not be faithful to her, and rather than let it crush her she found her own lovers, and loved him still, while recognizing his faults. She could have chosen to focus on the negative things in her life, but instead she embraced the light in her life. It was Diego who left her, and then begged to come back. She found such beauty in the world around her, and even the pain of her body or her unfaithful husband couldn't shake that from her.

[sbazzy.livejournal.com]

Frida is a wonderful, and deeply moving film. i'm glad you like it as much as i do!

[silas7.livejournal.com]

It's a film that is painful to feel, and yet you still want to watch it through. It's inspirational and despondant. I feel much better for having seen it!

[sepherania.livejournal.com]

your first paragraph brought me as close to a revalation as i've come in a long while... thank you.

[silas7.livejournal.com]

*touched*
I'm glad I could be of service.