Post 5

This was my second time seeing the film Frida, I film that I honestly do not have a great desire to see again. Although it was an incredibly well done film the tone and the story do not do very much to ender me to the characters. Although all take part in the great tragedy's of life, they do very little to protect themselves from bad things taking place again their lives. They seem to want to hurt themselves. Frida, knowing full well what kind of man Diego is goes back to him over and over again. This irresponsibility to their emotions is what turns me off to the film. I thought though that cinematically that it was a beautifully done picture. I loved the vibrant colors and how they popped off the screen and how they were indicative of how the characters were feeling. When the palette was gray and dark, the viewer knew that they character was going through a hard time, but when it was bright and vibrant that it was a good time in Frida's life. This was especially evident in the garden, when it was dead and had no life, that was how Frida was feeling, but when it was in full bloom and beautiful, everything was alright in the world. It was when she was coming alive again. The colors were my favorite part of the film, as well as how they merged her art with scenes of her life. However it was slightly disjointed. The parts that depicted her as a lesbian did nothing really for the narrative of the film, and were seen to be used almost a filler or rushed into the film to prove a point. Although I did not like the film I believe that it was a beautifully done film.
Sherry Ornter in her article"Is female to Male as Nature is to culture? asserts that women tend to be identified with nature and men with culture. The film makes this distinction when depicting the life of Frida Kahlo. She says that " I would flatly assert that we find women subordinate to men in every known society. The search...for a matriarchal society has proved fruitless." This idea that women are subordinate to men and are nothing without them is shown over and over again in Frida. The male presences in her life provided the cannon for her art. Without her father she would never have started to paint when she was lying in bed and discovered her true passion for painting. The entrance of Diego Rivera into her life is what made it possible for her work to be discovered and enabled her to create some of the best works of her career. This leads to her discovery by one of the biggest proponents of the surrealist movements and gave her bigger stage in which she was able to show her work. She had to have these men in her life otherwise she might not have gone anywhere. They gave her art to the culture which is in line with Ortner's argument that men are identified with nature. The film shows womens connection to nature, through her garden, showing that it is completely indicative of her mood and what is going on in her life, directly relating her as a woman to nature. Nature is also presence when she begins to come back to life after her accident. She begins to draw butterflies which are somethings that exist in nature. Once they began to make an appearance on her cast it is a representation that she is coming back to life through the advent of nature. Woman are seen as natural, because unlike men they have the ability to create children to create nature. The fact that Frida is unable to create children though, takes away part of her nature connection as a woman. She also has a masculine side to her, she dresses up in mens clothes in the beginning of the film to take a picture with her family, she takes the man role in dancing with the ashley judd character, she is attracted to other woman. She makes her self appear almost a-sexual when cutting off all of her hair. She connects with men on a level that most men don't, she is both man and woman embodied in one person.
Her tragic life and the way that it is represented on film perpetuates the myth in the art world that in order to be a successful woman artist they have to be victims. Frida was the poster child for a tragic life, although one that was partly of her own making. The film makes us believe that she was the victim, which in some cases she was. In some though she was not so much a victim, but the particpant in a sick and twisted game with Diego, of who could hurt each other more. The way however that she depicts her life through her paintings make her a standout amongst women painters. Her tragic scenes are raw and rip the emotion from the person onto the canvas, creating harrowing and tragic scenes that show the raw emotion that she must have felt during the painting of them. This is what makes her standout amongst women artists and something that very few woman have the ability to accomplish. The artist life is the most important aspect of their work, it is what they draw from and what gives them the ability to create work that moves people.