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]

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.