Sunday, June 24, 2007

Also Recommended

Last week I watched the 2002 movie Frida, about Mexican surrealist artist Frida Kahlo, played by Salma Hayek. I found it visually sumptuous, and was inspired by this woman whose life was framed by physical pain. If anything, it might have been a little too sympathetic to her, but director Julie Taymor is cautious enough. Most exciting of all were the inserted fantasy/animation vignettes, illustrating things difficult to portray without being cheesy: unconsciousness, pain, art, death. The imagination of these little embellishments embodied understanding of the artist's inner life. This is a movie to bathe in when you are looking for sustenance yet narrative satisfaction.

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