Frida

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Template:Infobox Film Frida is a 2002 film which depicts the life of the artist Frida Kahlo. It portrays the tortured personal life of the Mexican artist. It stars Salma Hayek and Alfred Molina.

The movie was adapted by Clancy Sigal, Diane Lake, Gregory Nava, Anna Thomas and Edward Norton (uncredited) from the book Frida: A Biography of Frida Kahlo by Hayden Herrera. It was directed by Julie Taymor while the soundtrack was written by Elliot Goldenthal.

Some of the paintings attributed to Kahlo in the film were actually painted by Salma Hayek.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Frida includes a tramway accident at the age of 18 in which Frida suffers a severe injury. Her initial stages of recovery at the hospital are depicted through a nightmarish stop motion animation sequence created by the Brothers Quay. Her father brings her a canvas upon which to start painting while she is lying in hospital and cannot move. She goes on to do many more paintings. A few times the film shows a scene as a painting, then slowly dissolves into a real scene with actors. Frida also details the artist's on-again-off-again relationship with the artist Diego Rivera, especially her anger at his infidelity, and her continuing love for him despite this. Diego's appraisal of her painting ability is one of the reasons that she continues to paint. The two travel to New York in the film so that Diego can paint a mural at the Rockefeller Plaza in New York, but he refuses to compromise his vision of the work to the needs of the patron and it is destroyed, leading to their return to Mexico. The relationship between her suffering and her art is explored.