Tom at IMproPRieTies has reviewed Frida, the movie. I haven't seen it but want to. I have seen the play in Spanish (that the film is taken from?) and quite a bit of her (and many other twentieth century, Mexican artists) work in the Gelman Collection. While Diego Rivera (her husband) injected his art into an emerging Mexican culture, Khalo is detached - even difficult to see. A dark humor runs through her body of work, but it is often obscured, for no good reason.
Her paintings disclose unfinished dreams, she always wakes before completion - and we are left guessing. It's difficult to warm to her paintings, but like a rubber-necker at an accident I must look. Frida's alienation is almost palpable, no wonder this two hour movie must fail as a full introduction.
