“I paint because I need to.” The revelation of this new documentary about Frida Kahlo (yes, another one) is the white-hot brilliance of her writing. On the voiceover, Kahlo tells her story in her own words, stitched together from letters, diaries and interviews (brought to life by Mexican stage actor Fernanda Echevarría del Rivero). The end result has a raw, thrilling intimacy.
Kahlo was rebellious by nature. As a little girl she tugged on the priest’s cassock: “Was the virgin Mary really a virgin?” At college, on course to become a doctor, she wore men’s suits; in old photos, she looks like a beautiful boy. Then came the life-changing accident that nearly killed her. Aged 18, Kahlo was travelling on a bus that collided with a tram. “The handrail went through me like a sword through a bull,” she remembers. In a hospital bed for months – “trapped alone with my soul” – she began painting. Kahlo’s intensely autobiographical canvases appear on screen as she describes the moods and events they depict.
