FRIDA review

Marta Russell ap888 at lafn.org
Mon Jan 27 16:48:53 PST 2003


I know I am over my post but really this must receive a due answer.


>Kelley
>'course, apparently, by hayek's own admission, she downplayed many
>parts of frida's life, particularly the political part of her life.
>gee. too bad that wasn't mentioned on a 'zine site that is supposed
>to be about left politics! not that disability isn't political, but
>Frida was a communist,

here we go the Kelly buzzsaw -- But????? But?????????


>I talked to many people that knew her and some people would say she
>never limped, some people would say she always limped, and some
>people would say she limped sometimes. So what I did is have the
>shoe bigger than the other one and then try not to limp, try to hide
>it. But then at times when I thought she was very tired or going
>through a hard time, I would surrender to whatever that did
>naturally. I'd stop trying."
>
><http://www.filmmonthly.com/Profiles/Articles/SHayek/SHayek.html>
><http://www.salmahayek.org/frida/article_comingsoon.html>
><http://www.splicedonline.com/02features/shayek.html>

It was not just the limp. You miss entirely the point. To accurately portray Frida would have meant to show the leg, the obviously smaller one. All those nude scenes in bed needed to show the smaller leg. It is possible, to do that on film.


>
>i think it unfortunate that hayek was mischaracterized as not as
>interested as lewis in getting into the physical aspects of her role
>and of supposedly ignoring the polio and scholiosis because she was
>uninterested in dealing with that aspect of her life. As she says,
>she decided not to focus on that theme but, rather, on what Frida,
>herself, was more focused on in her life.

Again you miss the point, just like Salma. The polio was central to Frida's life. It was the cause of much of her physical pain which is central to this film. If you must throw away the polio then you must throw away the pain.


>
>also, apparently, she played sports as a child. her father involved
>her in them, another unconventional aspect of her life.

The doctors suggestted -- wrongly -- that she should do sports to make her smaller leg hardier. This is now known to be entirely wrong medically. That is the part in the review about "use it and then lose it." T


>
>it's not at all clear to me that she's a "bimbo all over" let alone
>one of the "mexican variety".

You have convinced me that Hollywood can fake anything as evidenced by your defense of this mediocre and untrue film. I am surprised that you do not pick up on the feminist critique of this film which even my 22 year old daughter complained about -- the movie's obsession with making Frida a victim of the marriage to Rivera. She wasn't that either.

Marta --



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