The French New Wave, or La Nouvelle Vague is one of the most important movements in film history. Its fresh energy and vision changed the cinematic landscape during the 50s and 60s and greatly impacted pop culture. The new wave of cinematic auteurs was on the rise and pushed back on the traditional form of filmmaking, instead focusing on social realism, experimentation, and depicting everyday life through the lens.
At the forefront of this movement were French directors François Truffaut, Francoise Bonnot, Éric Rohmer, Jacques Rivette, and Jean-Luc Godard who pushed visual and stylistic techniques. These included a move away from traditional storytelling by applying nonlinear narrative techniques, jump cuts, and handheld cameras that impacted cinema around the world and influenced a new movement of cinema in the United States.
This volume French New Wave: A Revolution in Design celebrates the groundbreaking poster art in selling these Nouvelle Vague films...
At the forefront of this movement were French directors François Truffaut, Francoise Bonnot, Éric Rohmer, Jacques Rivette, and Jean-Luc Godard who pushed visual and stylistic techniques. These included a move away from traditional storytelling by applying nonlinear narrative techniques, jump cuts, and handheld cameras that impacted cinema around the world and influenced a new movement of cinema in the United States.
This volume French New Wave: A Revolution in Design celebrates the groundbreaking poster art in selling these Nouvelle Vague films...
- 4/26/2023
- by Robert Lang
- Deadline Film + TV
Click here to read the full article.
Legendary political director Costa-Gavras (Z, Missing) will receive this year’s lifetime achievement award from the Locarno International Film Festival.
The Greek filmmaker, who has been making social-activist cinema for nearly 60 years, will be honored at the 75th edition of the Swiss festival on Aug. 11.
Locarno will also screen two of Costa-Gavras’ early works, that are now rarely seen: Shock Troops from 1967 and The Sleeping Car Murders (1965).
Costa-Gavras is perhaps best known for his political thrillers Z (1969), a look at the Greek military coup of 1967, which won the best international feature Oscar in 1970 as well as the Oscar for best editing for Françoise Bonnot, and for Missing (1982), a dramatization of the CIA’s involvement in the coup d’état in Chile in 1973, which starred Jack Lemmon and Sissy Spacek and which was nominated for four Oscars, winning best-adapted screenplay honors for Costa-Gavras and co-writer Donald E. Stewart.
Legendary political director Costa-Gavras (Z, Missing) will receive this year’s lifetime achievement award from the Locarno International Film Festival.
The Greek filmmaker, who has been making social-activist cinema for nearly 60 years, will be honored at the 75th edition of the Swiss festival on Aug. 11.
Locarno will also screen two of Costa-Gavras’ early works, that are now rarely seen: Shock Troops from 1967 and The Sleeping Car Murders (1965).
Costa-Gavras is perhaps best known for his political thrillers Z (1969), a look at the Greek military coup of 1967, which won the best international feature Oscar in 1970 as well as the Oscar for best editing for Françoise Bonnot, and for Missing (1982), a dramatization of the CIA’s involvement in the coup d’état in Chile in 1973, which starred Jack Lemmon and Sissy Spacek and which was nominated for four Oscars, winning best-adapted screenplay honors for Costa-Gavras and co-writer Donald E. Stewart.
- 6/8/2022
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Jean-Pierre Melville’s most accomplished, most personal movie gets a new reissue. Ignored in 1969 and released in the United States only 37 years later, this somber, ultra-realistic look at the French resistance has never been equalled. Forget thrilling adventure tales with daring escapes, patriotic oaths and beautiful spies; Melville presents resistance activities in the Occupied territory as a fearful grind leading in one direction only. Criterion’s extras include an interview piece with historical operatives, who still argue points of strategy.
Army of Shadows
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 385
1969 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 145 min. / L’Armée des ombres / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date April 7, 2020 / 39.95
Starring: Lino Ventura, Paul Meurisse, Jean-Pierre Cassel, Simone Signoret, Claude Mann, Paul Crauchet, Christian Barbier, Serge Reggiani, André Dewavrin.
Cinematography: Pierre Lhomme, Walter Wottitz
Film Editor: Françoise Bonnot
Original Music: Eric De Marsan
Written by Jean-Pierre Melville from the novel by Joseph Kessel
Produced by Jacques Dorfmann
Directed...
Army of Shadows
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 385
1969 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 145 min. / L’Armée des ombres / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date April 7, 2020 / 39.95
Starring: Lino Ventura, Paul Meurisse, Jean-Pierre Cassel, Simone Signoret, Claude Mann, Paul Crauchet, Christian Barbier, Serge Reggiani, André Dewavrin.
Cinematography: Pierre Lhomme, Walter Wottitz
Film Editor: Françoise Bonnot
Original Music: Eric De Marsan
Written by Jean-Pierre Melville from the novel by Joseph Kessel
Produced by Jacques Dorfmann
Directed...
- 4/7/2020
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
For Sunday’s Oscars 2019 ceremony, producers had a difficult decision of which film industry people would make the cut and who would be left out of the “In Memoriam.” For the segment, Gustavo Dudamel and the L.A. Philharmonic performed music by Oscar winner John Williams.
Over 100 Academy members or film industry veterans died in the past 12 months. Visit our own Gold Derby memoriam galleries for the year of 2018 and the newly-started gallery for 2019.
SEEDirector Stanley Donen, dead at 94, was light on his feet and a movie musical heavyweight
Stanley Donen would have certainly been included, but he died on the weekend after the segment had been finalized (look for him on the 2020 show). Here is list of some of the people included in the Memoriam tribute for the ceremony (Academy members are indicated with ** by their names):
Susan Anspach (actor)
Bernardo Bertolucci (director)
Yvonne Blake (costume designer)**
Paul Bloch...
Over 100 Academy members or film industry veterans died in the past 12 months. Visit our own Gold Derby memoriam galleries for the year of 2018 and the newly-started gallery for 2019.
SEEDirector Stanley Donen, dead at 94, was light on his feet and a movie musical heavyweight
Stanley Donen would have certainly been included, but he died on the weekend after the segment had been finalized (look for him on the 2020 show). Here is list of some of the people included in the Memoriam tribute for the ceremony (Academy members are indicated with ** by their names):
Susan Anspach (actor)
Bernardo Bertolucci (director)
Yvonne Blake (costume designer)**
Paul Bloch...
- 2/25/2019
- by Chris Beachum
- Gold Derby
While Academy Awards producers have strived for a much shorter ceremony this year, the annual “In Memoriam” segment will definitely remain. In fact this moment on Sunday’s 2019 event should be extra classy since Gustavo Dudamel and the L.A. Philharmonic will be performing as part of the tribute.
Over 100 Academy members or film industry veterans died in the past 12 months. But which ones will be featured in the short segment? There are generally outcries each year from family members upset about people being left out. Visit our own Gold Derby memoriam galleries for the year of 2018 and the newly-started gallery for 2019.
Virtually certain to be part of the montage are Oscar-winning directors Bernardo Bertolucci and Milos Forman, Oscar-nominated actors Carol Channing, Albert Finney and Burt Reynolds, director and actress Penny Marshall, executive producer and entertainment icon Stan Lee and many more.
SEEDana Carvey, Mike Myers, Queen Latifah, Barbra Streisand...
Over 100 Academy members or film industry veterans died in the past 12 months. But which ones will be featured in the short segment? There are generally outcries each year from family members upset about people being left out. Visit our own Gold Derby memoriam galleries for the year of 2018 and the newly-started gallery for 2019.
Virtually certain to be part of the montage are Oscar-winning directors Bernardo Bertolucci and Milos Forman, Oscar-nominated actors Carol Channing, Albert Finney and Burt Reynolds, director and actress Penny Marshall, executive producer and entertainment icon Stan Lee and many more.
SEEDana Carvey, Mike Myers, Queen Latifah, Barbra Streisand...
- 2/22/2019
- by Chris Beachum
- Gold Derby
Costa-Gavras’ superlative political thriller begins with a skeptical attitude, but soon pulls viewers into the depth and breadth of a monstrous political crime aided and abetted by our own U.S. government. Sissy Spacek and Jack Lemmon headline a strong cast, in a story that our State Department called a pack of lies — until the truth became undeniable.
Missing
Region B Blu-ray
Powerhouse Indicator
1982 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 122 min. / / Street Date August 27, 2018 / available from Powerhouse Films UK / £18.47
Starring: Jack Lemmon, Sissy Spacek, Melanie Mayron, John Shea, Charles Cioffi, David Clennon, Richard Venture, Jerry Hardin, Richard Bradford, Joe Regalbuto.
Cinematography: Ricardo Aronovich
Film Editor: Françoise Bonnot
Original Music: Vangelis
Written by Costa-Gavras, Donald Stewart from a book by Thomas Hauser
Produced by Edward Lewis, Mildred Lewis
Directed by Costa-Gavras
Costa-Gavras’ 1981 Missing has by now topped the Greek-French director’s list of powerful political thrillers: ‘Z’, State of Siege, The Confession. Still considered a highly controversial title,...
Missing
Region B Blu-ray
Powerhouse Indicator
1982 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 122 min. / / Street Date August 27, 2018 / available from Powerhouse Films UK / £18.47
Starring: Jack Lemmon, Sissy Spacek, Melanie Mayron, John Shea, Charles Cioffi, David Clennon, Richard Venture, Jerry Hardin, Richard Bradford, Joe Regalbuto.
Cinematography: Ricardo Aronovich
Film Editor: Françoise Bonnot
Original Music: Vangelis
Written by Costa-Gavras, Donald Stewart from a book by Thomas Hauser
Produced by Edward Lewis, Mildred Lewis
Directed by Costa-Gavras
Costa-Gavras’ 1981 Missing has by now topped the Greek-French director’s list of powerful political thrillers: ‘Z’, State of Siege, The Confession. Still considered a highly controversial title,...
- 9/4/2018
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Francoise Bonnot, the Oscar-winning editor of Costa-Gavras' 1969 thriller Z, has died. She was 78.
Bonnot died Saturday in Paris of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease COPD, her son, Patrick Malakian, told The Hollywood Reporter.
"Her life was characterized by the inspiration she gave to so many people personally as well as professionally," he said. "The age of the people she was friends with ranged from 10 to 90. She was one of the first editors to try different editing methods. I remember her editing with a rack of VHS players long before it became digital, which she ...
Bonnot died Saturday in Paris of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease COPD, her son, Patrick Malakian, told The Hollywood Reporter.
"Her life was characterized by the inspiration she gave to so many people personally as well as professionally," he said. "The age of the people she was friends with ranged from 10 to 90. She was one of the first editors to try different editing methods. I remember her editing with a rack of VHS players long before it became digital, which she ...
- 6/13/2018
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Born 1917, as Jean-Pierre Grumbach, son of Alsatian Jews, Jean-Pierre adopted the name Melville as his nom de guerre in 1940 when France fell to the German Nazis and he joined the French Resistance. He kept it as his stage name when he returned to France and began making films.
Melville at 100 at the American Cinematheque in Hollywood is showcasing eight of his films made from 1949 to to 1972 to honor the 100th year since his birth.
Americn Cinemtheque’s historic Egyptian Theater in Hollywood
The American Cinematheque has grown tremendously sophisticated since its early days creating the 1960 dream of “The Two Garys” (for those who remember). Still staffed by stalwarts Barbara Smith, Gwen Deglise, Margot Gerber and Tom Harris, and with a Board of Directors of Hollywood heavy hitters, it has also been renovated by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association which has spent more than $500,000 restoring its infrastructure and repainting its famous murals.
Melville at 100 at the American Cinematheque in Hollywood is showcasing eight of his films made from 1949 to to 1972 to honor the 100th year since his birth.
Americn Cinemtheque’s historic Egyptian Theater in Hollywood
The American Cinematheque has grown tremendously sophisticated since its early days creating the 1960 dream of “The Two Garys” (for those who remember). Still staffed by stalwarts Barbara Smith, Gwen Deglise, Margot Gerber and Tom Harris, and with a Board of Directors of Hollywood heavy hitters, it has also been renovated by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association which has spent more than $500,000 restoring its infrastructure and repainting its famous murals.
- 8/7/2017
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Criterion adds two more early works of auteur Costa-Gavras to the collection, rounding out his early trilogy of political thrillers headlined by Yves Montand with 1970’s The Confession and 1972’s State of Siege. Having blazed into the cinematic scene of the late 60’s with the dramatic Z in 1969, his immediate follow-up was a more sobering treatment of historical bureaucratic wrongdoing. Wearying, to say the least, the film is based on the real life account of the Communist Party show trials in 1952 Czechoslovakia as accounted in Lise and Artur Lindon’s book. Intelligently rendered, Costa-Gavras highlights the sobering reality of a mind-numbingly Kafkaesque scenario, filmed in an era where these depictions caused significant unrest, with communist factions of the period banning the film’s release in several countries.
Anton Ludvik (Yves Montand), also known as Gerard from his days in the French Resistance, is vice minister of Foreign Affairs in Czechoslovakia.
Anton Ludvik (Yves Montand), also known as Gerard from his days in the French Resistance, is vice minister of Foreign Affairs in Czechoslovakia.
- 6/2/2015
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
A random bit of researching on a Tuesday night led me to something I didn't know existed: The Motion Picture Editors Guild's list of the 75 best-edited films of all time. It was a feature in part celebrating the Guild's 75th anniversary in 2012. Is this news to anyone else? I confess to having missed it entirely. Naturally, I had to dig in. What was immediately striking to me about the list — which was decided upon by the Guild membership and, per instruction, was considered in terms of picture and sound editorial as opposed to just the former — was the most popular decade ranking. Naturally, the 1970s led with 17 mentions, but right on its heels was the 1990s. I wouldn't have expected that but I happen to agree with the assessment. Thelma Schoonmaker's work on "Raging Bull" came out on top, an objectively difficult choice to dispute, really. It was so transformative,...
- 2/4/2015
- by Kristopher Tapley
- Hitfix
Chicago – Imagine working on the most ambitious, personal artistic endeavor of your life only to watch the most unusual circumstances of fate tear it away from the public eye. Such was the case with 1969’s excellent “Army of Shadows,” a film that took 37 years to find an audience stateside. Released in U.S. theaters for the first time in 2006, Jean-Pierre Melville’s fascinating tale of the French Resistance has now been given the Criterion Blu-ray upgrade and firmly stands as the excellent piece of work that it should have been recognized as for the last several decades.
Blu-Ray Rating: 4.5/5.0
Like its characters, “Army of Shadows” fell victim to politics, revolution, misunderstanding, and a bit of propaganda. The film was released in France shortly after a quelled uprising in 1968 had turned President De Gaulle into an enemy of the cultural revolution. The immensely-powerful Cahier du Cinema read the film as a...
Blu-Ray Rating: 4.5/5.0
Like its characters, “Army of Shadows” fell victim to politics, revolution, misunderstanding, and a bit of propaganda. The film was released in France shortly after a quelled uprising in 1968 had turned President De Gaulle into an enemy of the cultural revolution. The immensely-powerful Cahier du Cinema read the film as a...
- 1/21/2011
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
Once I got to the end of my first viewing of Jean-Pierre Melville's Army of Shadows I realized a close analogy was to compare it to a weather forecast for a thunderstorm. If you do any research into why Criterion would release this film on Blu-ray after their 2007 DVD edition hit shelves following a complete restoration of the 1969 classic you'll find reviewers shouting from the rooftops about the film's quality. Essentially, even though this film begins as something of a mild rainstorm with hints of thunder on the horizon by the time it's over you are in for one hell of a thunder and lightning show.
Dark clouds loom as Army of Shadows opens with marching German troops in front of the Arc de Triomphe in a scene Melville continued to move back-and-forth from the beginning of the film, to the end and ultimately back to the beginning. The...
Dark clouds loom as Army of Shadows opens with marching German troops in front of the Arc de Triomphe in a scene Melville continued to move back-and-forth from the beginning of the film, to the end and ultimately back to the beginning. The...
- 1/11/2011
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
Rome -- Julie Taymor's version of William Shakespeare's "The Tempest" will be the closing film at the Venice Film Festival, screening on Sept. 11, after the main awards ceremony.
Among Taymor's changes to the nearly 400-year-old classic is changing the sorcerer Propero into Prospera, a sorceress played by Oscar winner Helen Mirren.
The film's Oscar connections run deep: In addition to Mirren, the score for the film is from Oscar-winner Ellio Goldenthal, a long-time Taymor collaborator, and the costumes were designed by three-time Oscar honoree Sandy Powell. Oscar winner Francoise Bonnot edited the film.
The festival also announced the makeup of its main competition jury, which will include Mexican writer Guillermo Arriaga; Lithuanian actress Ingeborga Dapkunaite; Arnaud Desplechin, the French director and screenwriter; American compeposer and musician Danny Elfman; Luca Guadagnino, the Italian director and screenwriter; and Oscar=winning director Gabriele Salvatores. As announced previously, American director and actor...
Among Taymor's changes to the nearly 400-year-old classic is changing the sorcerer Propero into Prospera, a sorceress played by Oscar winner Helen Mirren.
The film's Oscar connections run deep: In addition to Mirren, the score for the film is from Oscar-winner Ellio Goldenthal, a long-time Taymor collaborator, and the costumes were designed by three-time Oscar honoree Sandy Powell. Oscar winner Francoise Bonnot edited the film.
The festival also announced the makeup of its main competition jury, which will include Mexican writer Guillermo Arriaga; Lithuanian actress Ingeborga Dapkunaite; Arnaud Desplechin, the French director and screenwriter; American compeposer and musician Danny Elfman; Luca Guadagnino, the Italian director and screenwriter; and Oscar=winning director Gabriele Salvatores. As announced previously, American director and actor...
- 7/27/2010
- by By Eric J. Lyman
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Wow, we made it, and to think this is just the early round of Oscar consideration. By the time we hit the November time frame this list of 87 total films will most likely be whittled down to what I assume will be about 30 or so titles of actual contenders. The real question is just how many from this preliminary list will be left standing once we get to that point? 20? 15? Less?
No matter, this is all for fun anyway as well as taking a moment to introduce you to a few films you may not have known were coming out this year. After all, isn't it better to be "in the know" so you can impress your friends?
In today's fourth and final installment we have the final 13 individual films to make my preliminary list followed by the ten films I can currently see as Animated Feature Film contenders as...
No matter, this is all for fun anyway as well as taking a moment to introduce you to a few films you may not have known were coming out this year. After all, isn't it better to be "in the know" so you can impress your friends?
In today's fourth and final installment we have the final 13 individual films to make my preliminary list followed by the ten films I can currently see as Animated Feature Film contenders as...
- 3/18/2010
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
The lives of great artists are notorious for their resistance to the biopic treatment. The iconic Mexican painter Frida Kahlo proves no exception.
While this film dutifully chronicles her suffering, obsessions and battles with her own body, it stands in pale contrast to Kahlo's real biography, which is her amazing paintings.
In development for nearly a decade, battling rival projects and studio skittishness, "Frida" emerges as a fairly convention biopic rather than the artistic statement one might anticipate given director Julie Taymor's theatrical background and actress-producer Salma Hayek's passion for the role.
The film hues closely to the facts of Kahlo's life and her tempestuous relationship with world-famous muralist Diego Rivera, her mentor and husband. Taymor puts Frida's vivid and often disturbing art to sagacious use, slipping the famous images into scenes to reflect or comment on dramatic developments. But the film somehow misses the mark, having made rather tidy a messy and brutally painful life.
As more than 100 published books concern Kahlo and Rivera, one should never underestimate the public appetite for this story. With a stellar cast -- Alfred Molina as Rivera, Geoffrey Rush as Leon Trotsky, Edward Norton as Nelson Rockefeller, Antonio Banderas as muralist David Siqueiros and Ashley Judd as photographer Tina Modotti -- along with a careful rollout and Miramax's marketing muscle, "Frida" does have potential as an art house hit. The outlook overseas and in ancillary markets is even more positive.
The movie begins on the day of Frida's one and only exhibit in Mexico, in the spring of 1953. Her health has deteriorated so greatly, the doctor forbids her to leave her bed. So she has her bed carted to the gallery. On the ride over, the movie goes into a flashback. Frida, a high-school tomboy, loves to get into mischief with a gang of boys. She sneaks into a school auditorium where the great Rivera is painting.
The movie quickly moves to the trauma that shapes her life: A trolley accident in 1925 leaves her impaled on a metal rod. So devastated is her body that it's a miracle she even lives, much less that she walks again. Lying in bed for months, bored and in pain, she takes up painting. Her parents (Roger Rees and Patricia Reyes Spindola) give her a special easel and canopied bed with a mirror above her so she can be her own model. A life of self-portraiture, of painting the inner and outer Frida Kahlo, thus begins.
The story of her event-filled life understandably moves swiftly. Yet the consequence is that the movie gives short shrift to Frida's recovery and the enormous will power she developed to tolerate pain and fatigue. Clearly, the drinking, smoking and drug use that come later help her to dull that pain.
The bond between Diego and Frida is handled with empathy. Molina captures Diego's bearish personality, his huge body, his embrace of sensual pleasures and his fierce commitment to leftist political principles. In one of the film's welcome flights of surreal fancy, Rivera is fittingly depicted, in cutout images, as King Kong atop the Empire State Building, batting at airplanes as he would his critics. Molina gets the essential goodness of the man, his firm belief in loyalty and a set of principles that sometimes gets overshadowed by his many adulterous affairs, the worst being with Frida's own sister (Mia Maestro).
Hayek learned how to paint and how to effect the outer Frida -- including her wearing of traditional Mexican clothing. Other than Frida's trademark thick, connecting eyebrows, though, she has not allowed the makeup artist to de-glamorize her. More problematic is the fact Hayek doesn't inhabit her character as Molina does his. She is playing a role while Molina is Diego.
The film neither makes too much nor too little of its protagonists' wild side -- their open marriage, where they even shared lovers, or Frida's bisexuality and her affair with Trotsky, which may have cost him his life. The only sugar-coating comes near the end: It's quite possible Frida took her own life but the film never hints of this.
Rodrigo Preito's colorful and appealing cinematography, designer Felipe Fernandez's period re-creations and Elliot Goldenthal's guitar-flavored music, picking up Mexican themes, make a tight budget go a long way.
FRIDA
Miramax Films
Miramax presents in association with Margaret Rose Perenchio
A Ventanarosa Production in association with Lions Gate Films
Credits:
Director: Julie Taymor
Writers: Clancy Sigel, Diane Lake, Gregory Nava, Anna Thomas
Based on the book by: Hayden Herrera
Producers: Sarah Green, Salma Hayek, Jay Polstein, Nancy Hardin, Lindsay Flickinger, Roberto Sneiders
Executive producer: Mark Amin, Brian Gibson, Mark Gill, Jill Sobel Messick, Amy Slotnick
Director of photography: Rodrigo Prieto
Production designer: Felipe Fernandez
Music: Elliot Goldenthal
Costume designer: Julie Weiss
Editor: Francoise Bonnot
Cast:
Frida Kahlo: Salma Hayek
Diego Rivera: Alfred Molina
Leon Trotsky: Geoffrey Rush
Nelson Rockefeller: Edward Norton
David Siqueiros: Antonio Banderas
Cristina Kahlo: Mia Maestro
Tina Modotti: Ashley Judd
Guillermo Kahlo: Roger Rees
Lupe Marin: Valeria Golino
Matilde Kahlo: Patricia Reyes Spindola
Alejandro: Diego Luna
Running time -- 119 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
While this film dutifully chronicles her suffering, obsessions and battles with her own body, it stands in pale contrast to Kahlo's real biography, which is her amazing paintings.
In development for nearly a decade, battling rival projects and studio skittishness, "Frida" emerges as a fairly convention biopic rather than the artistic statement one might anticipate given director Julie Taymor's theatrical background and actress-producer Salma Hayek's passion for the role.
The film hues closely to the facts of Kahlo's life and her tempestuous relationship with world-famous muralist Diego Rivera, her mentor and husband. Taymor puts Frida's vivid and often disturbing art to sagacious use, slipping the famous images into scenes to reflect or comment on dramatic developments. But the film somehow misses the mark, having made rather tidy a messy and brutally painful life.
As more than 100 published books concern Kahlo and Rivera, one should never underestimate the public appetite for this story. With a stellar cast -- Alfred Molina as Rivera, Geoffrey Rush as Leon Trotsky, Edward Norton as Nelson Rockefeller, Antonio Banderas as muralist David Siqueiros and Ashley Judd as photographer Tina Modotti -- along with a careful rollout and Miramax's marketing muscle, "Frida" does have potential as an art house hit. The outlook overseas and in ancillary markets is even more positive.
The movie begins on the day of Frida's one and only exhibit in Mexico, in the spring of 1953. Her health has deteriorated so greatly, the doctor forbids her to leave her bed. So she has her bed carted to the gallery. On the ride over, the movie goes into a flashback. Frida, a high-school tomboy, loves to get into mischief with a gang of boys. She sneaks into a school auditorium where the great Rivera is painting.
The movie quickly moves to the trauma that shapes her life: A trolley accident in 1925 leaves her impaled on a metal rod. So devastated is her body that it's a miracle she even lives, much less that she walks again. Lying in bed for months, bored and in pain, she takes up painting. Her parents (Roger Rees and Patricia Reyes Spindola) give her a special easel and canopied bed with a mirror above her so she can be her own model. A life of self-portraiture, of painting the inner and outer Frida Kahlo, thus begins.
The story of her event-filled life understandably moves swiftly. Yet the consequence is that the movie gives short shrift to Frida's recovery and the enormous will power she developed to tolerate pain and fatigue. Clearly, the drinking, smoking and drug use that come later help her to dull that pain.
The bond between Diego and Frida is handled with empathy. Molina captures Diego's bearish personality, his huge body, his embrace of sensual pleasures and his fierce commitment to leftist political principles. In one of the film's welcome flights of surreal fancy, Rivera is fittingly depicted, in cutout images, as King Kong atop the Empire State Building, batting at airplanes as he would his critics. Molina gets the essential goodness of the man, his firm belief in loyalty and a set of principles that sometimes gets overshadowed by his many adulterous affairs, the worst being with Frida's own sister (Mia Maestro).
Hayek learned how to paint and how to effect the outer Frida -- including her wearing of traditional Mexican clothing. Other than Frida's trademark thick, connecting eyebrows, though, she has not allowed the makeup artist to de-glamorize her. More problematic is the fact Hayek doesn't inhabit her character as Molina does his. She is playing a role while Molina is Diego.
The film neither makes too much nor too little of its protagonists' wild side -- their open marriage, where they even shared lovers, or Frida's bisexuality and her affair with Trotsky, which may have cost him his life. The only sugar-coating comes near the end: It's quite possible Frida took her own life but the film never hints of this.
Rodrigo Preito's colorful and appealing cinematography, designer Felipe Fernandez's period re-creations and Elliot Goldenthal's guitar-flavored music, picking up Mexican themes, make a tight budget go a long way.
FRIDA
Miramax Films
Miramax presents in association with Margaret Rose Perenchio
A Ventanarosa Production in association with Lions Gate Films
Credits:
Director: Julie Taymor
Writers: Clancy Sigel, Diane Lake, Gregory Nava, Anna Thomas
Based on the book by: Hayden Herrera
Producers: Sarah Green, Salma Hayek, Jay Polstein, Nancy Hardin, Lindsay Flickinger, Roberto Sneiders
Executive producer: Mark Amin, Brian Gibson, Mark Gill, Jill Sobel Messick, Amy Slotnick
Director of photography: Rodrigo Prieto
Production designer: Felipe Fernandez
Music: Elliot Goldenthal
Costume designer: Julie Weiss
Editor: Francoise Bonnot
Cast:
Frida Kahlo: Salma Hayek
Diego Rivera: Alfred Molina
Leon Trotsky: Geoffrey Rush
Nelson Rockefeller: Edward Norton
David Siqueiros: Antonio Banderas
Cristina Kahlo: Mia Maestro
Tina Modotti: Ashley Judd
Guillermo Kahlo: Roger Rees
Lupe Marin: Valeria Golino
Matilde Kahlo: Patricia Reyes Spindola
Alejandro: Diego Luna
Running time -- 119 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
- 8/30/2002
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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