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FRIDA
ABOUT THE PRODUCTION
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FRIDA
ABOUT
THE PRODUCTION
This
page was created on November 30, 2002
This page was last updated on
May 23, 2005
Frida
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Frida
-- About Frida Kahlo -click
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Frida
-- About this Film -click here
Frida
-- About the Cast and Crew -click
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Frida
--Spiritual Connections -click
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Frida
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ABOUT
THIS FILM
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ABOUT
THE PRODUCTION
"My Birth"
"I optioned the Hayden Herrera book Frida when it came out in 1983
and took it around to all the studios. Nobody was interested. No one."
producer Nancy Hardin remembers of the long process to bring FRIDA
to the screen. Many books have been written about Frida Kahlo, but
Hayden Herrera's exhaustively researched biography is considered the
definitive narrative portrait of the artist. Although Frida led a
rich and fascinating life, Hardin could not find a studio to back
a film about the virtually unknown Latina painter. But after decades
of relative obscurity, Frida's popularity exploded in the early 1990's,
when her artwork enjoyed a long-overdue renaissance. In true Hollywood
form, interest in bringing the posthumously adored artist's life story
to the screen skyrocketed. Suddenly, 'Frida' became the hottest name
in town. "There was a period in 1993, when I'd gone around and gotten
the usual 'no's,' and then I came back three months later and everyone
had a Frida script," Hardin recalls. "From no one to everyone. It
was incredible."
Salma Hayek, a longtime fan of Frida Kahlo, heard that director Luis
Valdez (LA BAMBA) was in place to helm one of those films. Then an
unknown in the United States, Hayek set her sights on winning the
coveted title role. She sent her reel to the director and phoned his
office until she heard an official response. When Hayek was told she
was too young for the part, she replied, "Then you are going to have
to wait until I'm old enough."
Hayek's words would prove prophetic: Valdez's film (along with many
other stalled Frida projects) never made it into production. By the
time Hardin took Herrera's book to Trimark Pictures in 1997, Hayek
had established herself as a bankable lead actress, starring in such
hits as DESPERADO and FROM DUSK TILL DAWN. Trimark signed Hayek to
star in and produce their FRIDA. Hayek, Hardin, Lizz Speed and Jay
Polstein were pleased to find that they shared a reverence for the
painter and a devotion to telling her story with dignity and honesty.
But, the small, independent film company ultimately decided against
making the film and gave Hayek the chance to sell the project to another
company.
But this was not a time of frustration for the actress. She embraced
the painter's presence in her life, and she remained patient and positive.
It was as simple as that. "I don't know how to separate the time I
was actually developing it from the time that she just became part
of my life," Hayek recalls. "I flew many times to different places
just to see an exhibition. I'd find and talk to people that met her
and spent time with her. I've adopted many of these people into my
life.
"Frida and this film are not like another character and movie where
you do it and you move on," she continues. "She's part of my life
now." Hayek continued gathering elements she knew were essential to
making her film. When Diego Rivera passed away, he willed the rights
to his and Frida's artwork to the Mexican people and bequeathed the
trust to longtime lover Dolores Olmedo (who kept her 25 Frida works
and 137 Diego works in her museum in Mexico.) Hayek was the only prospective
film producer to show up at Olmedos' door to discuss the artist's
work and getting rights to re-creating her work. Honored by the actress's
enthusiasm and knowledge of the artist, Olmedo graciously offered
her the rights to reproduce Frida's paintings for five years. (Olmedo
passed away on July 27th, 2002.)
With the blessing of Frida's trust, Hayek set out to assemble her
ideal cast. She first approached Alfred Molina, her one and only choice
to play Diego Rivera.
"She has incredible stamina, passion, guts, determination," Molina
says of what first endeared him to his co-star and producer. "She's
very intelligent and hard-working. She's a dynamo. The fact that this
movie is getting made, when all the other projects fell apart, is
testimony to her strength and skills as a producer."
"We were both on a jet being whizzed over to Las Vegas for ShoWest.
I'd never met her before and this project came up in casual conversation,"
says twotime Oscar-winner Geoffrey Rush. "Her passion, zeal and practicality
were very inspiring. I remain loyal to the instinct I had when she
first spoke about it."
Armed with a dream ensemble cast, Hayek took FRIDA to Miramax's Harvey
Weinstein. Impressed by the script as well as her devotion, thoroughness
and tenacity, Weinstein agreed to finance and produce the project
and enlisted Tony Award winner Julie Taymor to direct. Jay Polstein
reflects that "the first thing that Salma and I ever talked about
was trying to ensure that the film was as artistic as the artist that
the film was about. It's an easy thing to say but a hard thing to
find. Julie Taymor was the best director to make that true."
After years of slammed doors and stalled efforts, FRIDA began production
in the late spring of 2001 with Sarah Green (GIRLFIGHT, STATE AND
MAIN) taking the lead producer role.
For all of the difficulties she faced, Hayek wouldn't change a moment
of the journey she traveled in making FRIDA. She feels that she helped
produce a movie that honors the artist, and that does not compromise
any of her struggle, integrity, or spirit. But Hayek also realizes
how dedicated her friends are, and how their belief in her fueled
her trademark determination. "I expected to do a movie that was going
to say something fantastic about Mexico and a movie about a woman
that was extraordinary, but there is something more that Frida gave
me that I was not counting on, " Hayek says. "It was an extra present.
It was going to prove to me how loved I was by my friends and the
people close to me. That has been even more overwhelming in a very
personal way than everything else that has gone on around it. This
film has already given me something very few people get to experience
in a lifetime - proof of friendship. That's Frida's real gift to me."
"Roots" ("Raices")
Hailed by both critics and audiences for her work on Broadway's THE
LION KING and her feature film debut, TITUS, director Julie Taymor
has distinguished herself as a writer-director of bold and surreal
stories. Taymor's ability to apply her keen visual imagination to
breathtaking, colorful narratives made FRIDA a perfect fit for her.
"As a woman and an artist, Julie Taymor has the experience and imagination
to understand the very special world of Frida," Hayek says of her
director. "Frida, as an artist, saw the world in a different way,
saw her reality in a graphic way. Julie has a style that incorporates
this into the film. She knows how to show Frida's pain, what she's
thinking and feeling behind her paintings."
"When you look at Frida's paintings, there is something contained
and sort of hysterical about them [at once]. There's a juxtaposition
of things that seem normal and casual with something very fantastic
happening simultaneously," says Ashley Judd, who plays Italian photographer
Tina Modotti. "I think Julie has the ability to make the movie reflect
that sensibility of Frida's art. She has the ability to choreograph
and pull off a spectacle, to impose the surreal on the real, which
is what Frida did."
Taymor 's interest in directing FRIDA stemmed primarily from the complexity
of the artist's relationship with her husband. "The story of the love
between Diego and Frida was what really got me," she explains. "Quite
often in love stories we have 'boy meets girl, they fall out of love,
they get together, and it's over. Maybe five months or five days has
passed. This is a very in-depth, beautiful, tormented and funny love
story."
Much of the aforementioned marital torment was a result of Diego's
affair with Frida's sister, Cristina. For Taymor, this unfathomable
indiscretion brought out the film's theme of fidelity vs. loyalty.
"The power of the Frida/Diego story is that the true depth of their
love managed to transcend the broken promises, the numerous infidelities
on both parts, the tempests, the separations and ultimately a divorce,"
Taymor says. "In the last years of Frida's life, when she was sick,
bedridden and dependent on morphine - even then Diego came back to
her. They truly couldn't live without one another."
But Taymor also had a strong desire to creatively present the events
and impulses that informed Frida's deeply autobiographical paintings.
"She has said that her paintings were her reality - that they tell
the truth as thoroughly experienced," Taymor says of Frida's relationship
with her art. "I didn't want to do a normal biopic. Frida quite clearly
painted episodes from her life, but very subjective episodes. The
idea that I could show an artist, and how this artist created, was
very attractive to me."
"In conceptualizing the film, I envisioned juxtaposing period realism
with a surreal approach to what could be called '3-D live paintings,'"
she says of the practical application of this unique, groundbreaking
choice. "Elements of her paintings would unfold before your eyes as
Frida was experiencing them in both a literal and subconscious manner."
One example of this use of the "Frida style" was in the film's New
York sequence. "With the help of Amoeba Proteus, a special effects
company, we designed a scroll-like Russian constructivist poster art,
emblematic of the period," Taymor explains. "We used documentary photos
as well as film footage of the actual trips they took to create the
breadth of their journey with minimal means.
This collage technique was used in Frida's painting: My Dress Hangs
There. Frida and Diego Rivera (The Wedding Portrait), Self Portrait
with Cropped Hair, The Two Fridas, The Broken Column, and The Dream
are some of the other works that I charted during the course of Frida's
tale. Each was approached with a different style and makes its way
into the film from a specific emotional event that serves as a catalyst."
In order to bring the tremendous story of Frida Kahlo to the screen
it was essential to have a strong script to carry the audience through
the narrative of her life. Julie Taymor explains, "I signed on to
do this film based on the wonderful draft of the script by Rodrigo
Garcia, and enormous credit must go to Edward Norton for his revisions
which made it all possible" (1).
Finally, when Taymor began production she had one request: she asked
that her leads have a full understanding of the art of painting. Unlike
Taymor, however, Hayek and Molina had never taken a brush to canvas.
The director felt that painting lessons would not only assist the
actors' understanding of their characters, but also enhance the authenticity
of the film.
"Salma found a skill which she never knew she had," Molina says of
their foray into the art world. "She's done some extraordinary paintings
both of her1 own and in the style of Frida. It's as if she's somehow
channeled Frida Kahlo. She's done some seriously, extraordinarily
brilliant work. She's a natural."
"I, on the other hand, discovered no such gift," Molina laments, jokingly.
"I can't paint to save my life. I can't draw. I said to one of my
teachers, 'Look, I'm an actor and my job is creating an illusion.
I have to fake it, you've got to help make me look good enough to
fake it in a real and plausible way.'"
"When we were rehearsing she showed me some paintings she'd done.
I thought she was pulling my leg. The work that she showed me was
absolutely extraordinary," Rush remembers. "I said, 'You must have
painted when you were a child' and she said, 'I've never touched a
brush before in my life.' And I said, 'Well then something's happening
because the detail and feel is quite extraordinary. To see an actor
discover this unknown talent is very exciting."
1 The film's credited writers are as follows: Clancy Sigal, Diane
Lake, Anna Thomas and Gregory Nava.
Fortunately for Molina, the murals and paintings used in FRIDA were
not created by the film's stars. Forty carpenters, thirty-five set
painters and fifteen "Diego and Frida" painters worked meticulously
to re-create famous paintings and murals.
"They were two completely different groups," says production designer
Felipe Fernandez. "Those who paint Diego's work do not paint Frida's
and viceversa. They are different techniques and styles."
FRIDA's team of artists re-created nearly 50 Frida paintings, including
The Two Fridas (1939), Portrait of My Sister Cristina (1928), Frida
and Diego or The Wedding Portrait (1931), My Dress Hangs There (1933),
Self Portrait dedicated to Leon Trotsky (1937), The Suicide of Dorothy
Hale (1938/39), Self Portrait with Cropped Hair (1940), The Broken
Column (1944), and Fruit of Life (1953).
In scenes where Diego was seen painting a mural, the crew stretched
a canvas across a scaffold situated in front of Diego's original work.
The set artists sketched outlines and painted portions of their makeshift
"mural." Since the camera flattens objects at a distance, the edges
of the canvas blended into the existing mural, creating the illusion
of a work in progress. For close-up brushstrokes and scene coverage,
smaller portions of several murals (including the famous Rockefeller
Center mural) were re-created on the FRIDA stages at Churubusco Studios
in Mexico City.
*****
For Mexican-born director of photography Rodrigo Prieto, production
designer Felipe Fernandez and art director Bernardo Trujillo, collaborating
with Taymor and Hayek was both a welcome labor of love and a source
of pride in their native country's culture.
"We're telling the story of these incredibly important visual artists
in Mexico, which is my country. I've known of them since I was very
young," says Prieto, whose credits include the award-winning AMORES
PERROS as well as ORIGINAL SIN. "You feel a sense of responsibility
to tell the story well, to do your very best job. In addition to telling
the events of Frida's life, we wanted to get into her mind. When Julie
Taymor and I first met, I was very excited by her ideas about camera
movement and speed, color and lighting to visually suggest what is
going on internally."
"We had never worked together, but we were really in sync with each
other," Taymor says of her relationship with Prieto. "I could see
the artist in him, and we talked a lot about trying to get the reality
of the time, and of the subjectivity, and the point-of-view of Frida."
"I had books on Julie Taymor's work. I was dying to work with her,"
Fernandez says. "I had worked with Salma before, and she's one of
my friends. And of course, as an artist, I have long known and loved
the work of Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera. When I heard that Salma
and Julie were doing a film about Frida and Diego, I put together
a whole presentation. I wanted to be part of it. It's really an honor
and a privilege to be on this film. That's why my department and I
work hard every day. We are all thrilled to be part of something so
special."
Using unfiltered sunlight and all of Mexico's vibrant colors, Taymor
and Prieto painted Frida's world in bright, bold strokes. "We talked
about using the rich, vital colors from Frida's paintings," Taymor
explains. "We actually had to find locations which weren't as polluted
because color was much more clear in the 20's than it probably is
now."
Prieto says this stylistic choice was also informed by insights in
her letters and diaries. "Although in her paintings she doesn't use
a lot of light and shadow, Frida was very aware of it in her life,"
he says. "She talked a lot about how the colors changed after her
accident. We used that in our film."
"Frida talked about it in interviews later and wrote it in a letter
to Alejandro Gomez Arias, her boyfriend at the time, that after the
accident everything went white," Prieto says. "Suddenly life lost
its mystery and everything became white like ice and very transparent.
She said she could see everything. The mystery was gone."
To that end, Prieto's crew intensified the glow of the whites in the
hospital and in scenes that followed. Taymor played with shadows,
which Prieto says "reproduces the mystery of interiors, in which you
have dark areas where you don't really know what's there, so you see
what you want to see." "The Two Fridas"
"We were visiting with some of Frida's students, who are still living,
and they had things that belonged to Frida," actress Mia Maestro,
who plays Frida's sister Cristina, remembers about a visit she and
Hayek made. "They had clothes that belonged to Frida and gave Salma
a dress to try it on. It was a perfect fit. We couldn't believe it."
"I felt a little bit like Cinderella and I thought to myself: 'This
really is mine,'" Hayek adds. "It fit perfectly. That felt good."
Transforming Salma Hayek into Frida Kahlo - one of the world's best
known faces - required a team effort. The actress and artist shared
the same petite frame, big dark eyes and long black hair, but costume
and make-up enhanced their on-screen similarities.
To re-create Frida's braids and elaborate hair designs, stylist Beatrice
DeAlba used a combination of Hayek's real hair and pieces she braided
and attached. To mimic Frida's decidedly unaltered eyebrows, make-up
artist Judy Chin individually attached tiny hairs to fill out Hayek's
naturally thick arch. To create Frida's striking wardrobe, costume
designer Julie Weiss scoured wardrobe houses, Mexican markets and
history books for the clothes and jewelry reminiscent of those worn
by the artist.
"Her sketches were wild and wonderful. Her attention to detail is
impeccable," Taymor says. "She did an amazing job because she went
out and gathered antiques and really great clothing from the period."
Weiss found their location essential to every aspect of her work.
"I think that here in Mexico, people would like the story of Frida
Kahlo and Diego Rivera to be told in a way that shows the pride of
who they were as individuals and the pride they took in the Mexican
community," Weiss says. "As a visitor here I'm very dependent on that
spirit. I need that spirit to be shared with me, and fortunately,
the people here have shared and opened their hearts, re-creating these
costumes without limit."
Weiss drew upon the stories and descriptions shared by many people
connected to Frida. "I worked with a tailor who met Frida in church
when he was a little boy," Weiss says. "There was this tiny little
poke, and he said 'I met her, I can help you.' Another person brought
in something wrapped in tissue paper. I opened it and found an antique
rebozo [shawl] from a woman saying, 'It's an honor to be part of this.'
Those are the things the camera dances with that make the story come
to life."
"Fruits of the Earth"
"This is a huge, passionate love story - not just a story about Frida
- told against the canvas of Mexico during an exciting, largely unknown
time in that country's history," Taymor says. "It was a vital, volatile
time, with a strong sense of intellectual and political commitment.
There was also a lot of humor and whimsy. We had to look for the key
events and aspects of each character and make sure these things were
seen within the context of the time."
The many personalities in Frida's life were as colorful and vibrant
as her paintings. Diego Rivera, Leon Trotsky and Tina Modotti were
all larger-than-life characters who were passionately committed to
a political and artistic revolution. These extraordinary individuals
necessitated an exceptional, international, mulit-cultural cast.
"They were so courageous and outrageous then," says Taymor. "People
think today we push the envelope, but not when compared to this circle
of artists and political figures. These were real individualists trying
to live out their beliefs."
"It was a group of very inspired creative people who were also profoundly
concerned with the human condition," says Judd. "I was fascinated
by the time and people in this circle of activists, intellectuals
and artists."
"I love the fact that in this Mexican environment you had Breton,
who is French; Frida and Diego who were Mexican, and Trotsky who was
Russian and they all found common ground in broken English," Rush
says. "I like the way people have to struggle to express themselves
in a mutual language none of whom are working in their own. It was
an amazing cross-section of minds and artists who gathered together
with a need to explain and share."
The cast was also thankful that Taymor had such a respect and careful
understanding for their characters. "It's fantastic to have a director
who has a very specific vision of what he or she wants to shoot and
comes well prepared," Molina says. "She creates a real sense of safety
and comfort because you know exactly where you're going with it."
"She's incredibly precise, knows what she wants and has very strong
taste and very good taste," agrees Saffron Burrows, who plays a lover
of both Frida and Diego. "She has a strong overview from art direction
to make-up to props, which pulls everything together into a singular
stunning image."
"There's an added responsibility on the actor with playing a real
person not to misrepresent that person to be kind and truthful, whether
one likes that truth or not," explains Molina, who gained more than
thirty pounds and wore body padding to fill out Diego's huge girth.
Perhaps the greatest challenge for Molina was finding the balance
between Diego's negative and positive attributes. "Diego was a very
difficult man. He was unfaithful, capricious and hugely selfish with
an enormous ego," Molina says. "But he was also a great artist and
storyteller, a man committed to his political ideals and deeply in
love with his wife. You show the good and bad sides. You don't judge."
For Hayek, Molina fit the role because "he's a tremendous actor and
a big man in many ways," she says. "I'm not just talking about his
physical size, but his spiritual size as well. He's generous and kind
and wonderful to have around."
Another challenge for Molina was perfecting the artist's distinctive
brush stroke. "I was talking to one of the artists in the art department
who's been working on the murals and I was telling him 'I can't draw,
I can't paint, so I better work out a way to fake it in a way that's
realistic and believable.' And he said, 'Yeah, that's right. That's
what filming is, it's mastering the lie,'" Molina says. "And I thought
that was brilliant. That's what we are: 'masters of the lie.'"
Valeria Golino describes her character, Lupe Marin, as " eccentric,
strong, extreme, loud, and jealous of Diego. She had two kids with
Diego and remained close to him and Frida." "Some in Mexico called
her 'mad," she says. "She's a great character. There are all kinds
of stories that I heard about her that we don't see in the movie,
but things [that] definitely helped me to understand a little bit
what kind of a person she was."
"I looked specifically at what kind of impact Trotsky made on the
emotional thread of the story," Rush says of his character. "It seems
as though I come in at a very low point in Frida's life and marriage
and provide some tonic and inspiration. Although he's a major political
figure, I tend to see him as an artist, almost too idealistic for
his own good."
"Geoffrey is a terrific actor who can play just about anything and
get into anything," Hayek says. "Trotsky had to be somebody who had
the seriousness and intelligence of a political icon and the humility
of a broken man in the worst time of his life."
Golino was struck by Rush's ability to "do a little shift to his personality
with his accent and voice, the way he moves, the way he looks. He's
so completely different but at the same time himself - like all great
actors - manage to do. He's not imitating anybody, but he gets it
'real.'"
"His presence was a huge, huge boost for us almost half-way through
shooting," Molina recalls of Rush's arrival. "He takes his work seriously
and takes himself not seriously at all. That's a very disarming, beguiling
quality in anybody. He's great, great fun."
"The thing I love best about Tina Modotti is that she was banned from
several countries for insurrection activities and a lot of people
were glad to have her in Mexico because she was so outspoken," Judd
says of her character. "She ended up being kind of a citizen of the
world without a country, committed to human rights, workers rights
and became a photographer to document what she saw."
Judd saw her participation in FRIDA not only as an opportunity to
play a great character, but also as a way to help Hayek realize her
dream.
"You know she thinks I'm doing her this huge favor by juggling my
schedule," Judd says. "But the truth of the matter is it's a privilege
to have a friend that you care about and admire who'd do this sort
of thing. I don't think I'm going to make movies unless I am equally
as mobilized as she is about this. She's bringing such a personal
vitality and love to it. We should all make movies with that kind
of passion and vigor."
Joining Judd in other roles in the film were Edward Norton, who plays
Nelson Rockefeller, and Antonio Banderas, who plays famed painter
David Siqueiros. Both are long-time friends of Hayek and fans of Frida
and Diego. Diego Luna portrays Frida's first boyfriend, Alejandro
Gomez Arias. Luna, who stole the hearts of millions in this spring's
independent smash Y TU MAMA TAMBIEN jumped at the chance to work with
Hayek.
"Frida and Salma are both huge in Mexico," says Luna, who is enormously
popular in his native country as well. "To work on a movie about Frida
with Salma is a great honor. I think it is an important story and
it is time to be told."
Roger Rees, who portrays Frida's beloved father, Guillermo, sees his
character's immigrant roots as the reason for his lifelong sense of
isolation. "Guillermo was a German Jew who came to Mexico when he
was 19, knowing no one and became a photographer working for the government
documenting Mexico's architecture," says Rees. "Despite such success,
he was known as a quiet, solitary man with a very stern wife. He adored
Frida and they were very close, but it was often her making the effort,
not him."
For Patricia Reyes Spindola, who plays Frida's mother Matilde Kahlo,
FRIDA marks her second performance as Hayek's mother. She first co-starred
with Hayek on a Mexican soap opera.
"Matilde was a very hard woman," Spindola says of her character. "Frida
called her mother 'cruel' and 'cold,' which she may have been. She
did not show a lot of affection, but I think she cared for Frida.
She showed it in other ways, like caring for her during her illnesses
and selling practically everything they had to pay for the endless
operations and medical bills."
Finally, for Hayek, seeing the story of Frida realized is a "tremendous
accomplishment in my life because I tried so hard for so long. It
was difficult to get off the ground and finally get it going," she
says. "There's a wonderful sense of accomplishment besides the honor
and joy of getting to play this fantastic character. She's an actor's
dream."
"She's intelligent, she's passionate, she's wanted to do this movie
for more than eight years," Taymor says of Hayek. "When this woman
was twelve years old she knew about Frida. She was destined to play
Frida. She plays sixteen years old to a very ill forty seven. She
does the whole thing as Frida, and I think that's pretty extraordinary."
"I had a superbly fun time with the cast, all of whom were there for
the sheer delight of doing it," Taymor says. "They all wanted to be
part of the film, part of Salma's dream. And Salma, who was in all
but two scenes, was incredibly committed and hard working. She reached
down and tapped into this range of emotion and pain and was quite
fearless and tireless." She also notes that "bringing Frida's story
to the screen is a testament to (Salma's) vision, tencity and faith
that she could make it happen. I am proud to have joined her for the
ride."
"The Love Embrace of the Universe, the Earth (Mexico), Me, and Senor
Xolotl" FRIDA was shot entirely on location in Mexico from April to
June, 2001. Taymor utilized many of the original historic locations
known to the film's subjects. Mexico's rich, diverse architecture
also enabled Taymor to find suitable locales to double for Paris and
New York in the '30s and '40s. For Taymor, shooting on location was
central to FRIDA's authenticity.
"You can feel it in the details," Taymor notes. "You can see it in
the faces, the buildings, landscape, in things you cannot duplicate.
To film at the real locations was extraordinary. The [Mexican] government
was very supportive in helping us with that. The Mexican crew, led
by Rodrigo, Felipe, Bernardo and Julie [Weiss], had such enthusiasm
and passion that they went beyond the norm, never taking short-cuts
or saying something could not be done. They were overwhelmingly vested
in their work and you can see that on the screen."
An avid traveler who lived five years in Indonesia forming her own
company and studied mime in France, Taymor gratefully welcomed her
newest cultural immersion. "Scouting various locations, casting and
working on the script in Mexico made everything come together," Taymor
says. "To have access to the real locations, to be surrounded by the
sounds and music, food and feeling of the culture makes everything
come to life."
The production offices and stages for FRIDA were located at Estudios
Churubusco Azteca in Mexico City, the world's largest metropolis (25
million). The studios, built in 1945, have been home to many film
productions, including numerous English-language Westerns. Mexico
City also provided numerous historic shooting locations, including
the National Preparatory School, the Majestic Hotel and the Ministry
of Education, home of nearly 60 murals by Diego.
To re-create Coyoacan in the 1920s, cast and crew traveled to Puebla,
about 80 miles east of Mexico City for the first week of filming.
Nestled in the Sierra Madre foothills, this 400-year-old city boasts
stunning Colonial, Renaissance and Neo-Classical architecture in its
historic center. Since the real Frida Kahlo house (Casa Azul) is now
a busy museum, filmmakers re-created a replica of the house and its
courtyard on Stage 4 at Churubusco.
Other locations in Puebla included the Protocol and Presno buildings
for the New York and Paris interiors, Puebla's municipal cemetery
for the film's Dia de los Muertos scene; and La Guadalupana Restaurant
for the pulqueria sequence.
Hayek received special permission to film at Teotihuacan, the ruins
of an ancient abandoned city, discovered by the Aztecs, which is located
31 miles northeast of the capital. Teotihuacan, which means "Place
Where Gods Are Made," boasts numerous pyramids along a stretch known
as Avenue of the Dead. When government officials initially refused,
Hayek went to Mexico's President, Vicente Fox, and explained the production's
respect for Frida and their need to shoot the Teotihuacan scene on
location. Fox listened to the impassioned Hayek and granted her access
to the pyramids.
Taymor and Hayek were also granted special permission to film outside
and inside Diego Rivera's studios at San Angel, a suburb of Mexico
City near Coyoacan. Built in 1933, this home-studio is considered
an architectural treasure.
"I've been going to the Diego Rivera Museum for seventeen years and
there are areas you cannot go beyond, that are closed," says Hayek.
"With FRIDA, I find myself in this house that for so many years I
would only wonder and imagine what was behind this or that. I got
chills when I walked in there and I was dressed like Frida and there
was Diego and the dog that they had, a hairless breed called Xolotzcuincle.
The dog that we have in the film is a descendant of one of Frida's
dogs. It was amazing to get to re-create what happened in the actual
place it happened."
To further the authenticity of the project, Mexican director and journalist
Diego Lopez Rivera, the grandson of Lupe Marin and Diego Rivera, served
as a historical consultant on the film. He shared some family history,
as well as photos, with the filmmakers. Lopez Rivera also brought
his mother, brother and children to the set (as well as nieces and
nephews) to meet the actors. The Riveras were struck by how much the
actors resembled the people they portrayed.
"To see this film being made with Salma and a cast of this caliber
is very exciting," Lopez Rivera says. "I know, especially for Salma,
what a personal and important film this is. It's a time in Mexico
most people know nothing about." Similarly, Esteban Volkov, the grandson
of Leon Trotsky, also visited the set and thought Rush and Sanz resembled
their real-life counterparts well. Volkov remembers Frida, describing
her as having "a strong personality." "She was a very interesting
and complex person with a difficult life,"
Volkov recalls. "She was lots of fun. You had a real nice time staying
with her."
*****
Archival photos show the second honeymoon of Frida and Diego at Xochimilco,
Mexico City's floating gardens, which date from Aztec times.
Taymor re-created the colorful trajineras (Mexican-style gondolas)
for a particularly romantic scene with Hayek and Molina gliding through
the exotic garden. They had just ended that day's shoot and Taymor
yelled "cut" when golf ball-size hail suddenly rained down on them
- along with lighting and thunder and winds to 30 miles-per-hour.
While all arrived on shore unhurt, the unexpected downpour even trapped
the landed crew members in trucks, trailers and under tents.
"That was the closest call we had with the weather," said Taymor,
"With all the exterior locations and locked-in dates, that was it.
The nature Gods were with us on this film."
One final, crucial element in the production of FRIDA was constructing
the film's score. Taymor worked closely with composer Elliot Goldenthal
to construct a mix of powerful acoustic guitar solos, romantically
reflective arrangements, and up-tempo folkloric-influenced tracks.
The soundtrack also features Goldenthal's haunting vocal duet sung
by Brazilian music giant Caetano Velosa and Lila Downs, known for
blending Latin, Native American and African sounds. "In FRIDA, the
approach I took scoring the music is that of melodic intimacy, scoring
with melodies or tunes as opposed to motific fragments." Goldenthal
says. "To achieve additional intimacy I choose a small ensemble of
acoustic instruments: the small Mexican guitar (Vihuela), standard
classical guitar, Mexican bass guitar (guitarron), accordion, Mexican
harp, marimba, and glass armonica, a Benjamin Franklin invention.
I found that the guitars provided the full range of lyricism and percussion
I needed." "Many indigenous songs in the soundtrack correspond with
things that Frida loved and probably would have listened to." He continues.
"'La Bruja,' for example, was one of Diego's favorites and it was
exuberantly sung in the bar room by Salma Hayek."
"Chavela Vargas, the Costa Rican born legend, was sought out by Frida
and Diego because of the intense honesty, eroticism and authenticity
she brought to the music of Mexico and of that region." Goldenthal
says. "We were indeed blessed that she sang La Llorona live on screen."
"Working with Chavela Vargas was amazing," Hayek remembers. "She told
me she felt like she got one more chance to sing to Frida. It was
very, very moving, very touching. She said it was her last performance.
It's a very special part of the film."
"For the end-credits I tried to integrate thematic material woven
throughout the film, as well as drawing on the motific material in
the scene prior to the end-titles," Goldenthal says. "'Burn it Blue,'
with lyrics by Julie Taymor, continues the thread of the movie and
reflects upon the immolation as well as the romance that was ever-present
between Frida and Diego.We were honored that the great Caetano Veloso
of Brazil, and indeed of the rest of the world, sang this duet with
Lila. This song is also a handshake of thanks to our neighbors in
Southern Americas and it's sung in both English and Spanish."
Julie Taymor discusses the many choices she had to make on what to
include in this epic tale of love, art and politics in the companion
book to the film, Frida: Bringing Frida Kahlo's Life and Art to Film.
The full-color illustrated coffee table book features 160 illustrations,
including movie stills and reproductions of Frida Kahlo and Diego
Rivera paintings, excerpts from Frida's journal, production notes,
details on cinematography, set and costume design, music and visual
effects, and the film's complete screenplay, with introductions by
Taymor, Salma Hayek and biographer Hayden Herrera. |
CONTINUE:
Frida
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Frida
-- About Frida Kahlo -click
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Frida
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Frida
-- About the Cast and Crew -click
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Frida
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