Becoming Frida Kahlo

[ Wind rushing ] [ Baby crying ] -Let me tell you about a little girl born in Mexico.

She would grow up to be one of the most famous artists in the world.

We all recognize her face and that look.

But who was she really?

And why is she more loved now than ever before?

This daughter of the revolution lived no ordinary life, and hers is no easy tale to tell.

-Frida Kahlo was a rule breaker.

-The way she broke taboos, the way she broke the norm was completely revolutionary and transgressive.

-She doesn't respect things that should be respected, like birth... blood, miscarriages.

-She made no concessions about her art.

-She was strong and ambitious and answered to no one.

But she was also driven and tormented by love.

She said, "I love Diego more than I love my own life."

-She would always come back to Diego Rivera, like an obsession.

An obsession that was painful.

-So why do we still idolize her, this mixed-up mess of contradictions?

And why can't we take our eyes off her?

-What people see in her is all that power of rebellion, irreverence.

-For people who are queer, for people who are brown, for people who are creative in different ways.

She teaches us about identity.

Art was her superpower.

-In the end, I don't need her perfect.

She was genius.

[ Ship horn blaring, sea birds crying ] -Mexico is about the only land that will have him.

He's dodged about from country to country.

So here he is -- Trotsky landing at Tampico with his wife.

-Leon Trotsky arrives to Mexico in 1937, and Frida actually goes to meet him.

-Leon Trotsky was a Russian revolutionary, second only to Vladimir Lenin, and in the post-Lenin rivalry with Stalin, he ultimately lost out.

-Stalin had Trotsky expelled from the country, so Trotsky went from country to country to country without a home for many years.

-He really has no place to go, and there's a sort of desperate attempt by his followers throughout the world to find a safe place for him.

Security is an essential issue.

This is a man who is clearly been hunted by Stalinists throughout the world.

And Diego Rivera is the most famous Trotskyist in Mexico.

And so because of the stature of Diego Rivera, bringing him home to Frida's house makes a lot of sense.

[ Dog barking ] Trotsky arrived at a very interesting moment in Frida Kahlo's life.

-She came back to Mexico by late '33, and then suddenly she discovered the affair between Rivera and Cristina, her sister.

-You know, it seems that the affair went on for years, too.

Like, it wasn't just a short fling.

What's amazing, though, to me, about Frida, ultimately, is that she comes around and embraces her sister and forgives her.

And she also forgives Diego.

-"Deep down, you and I love each other very much.

And even if we go through countless affairs, we shall always love each other.

All these things that have happened and happened again for the seven years we've lived together... and all the rages that I've gone into have only led me to understand better that I love you more than my own skin."

-She always seemed to forgive Rivera, but I think what Frida did was began to have love affairs of her own.

-Trotsky is somebody she admired because he was a survivor.

He was a revolutionary.

So because she's attracted to his level of intelligence, why not become closer to Trotsky?

-If Diego Rivera crosses a line, it's with her sister, right?

Nothing hurts her more than that.

And if she crosses a line in return, it is sleeping with his political mentor.

There's sort of a wonderful leverage in it.

-"From 1936 to 1938, I did nothing but paint.

This way, I am going to be able to be free.

I'll be able to do what I want without asking Diego for money."

-The arrival of Trotsky and, soon after, Andr Breton, the founder of the surrealist movement in France, amplifies the stage for her art at a time when she is taking herself seriously as an artist for the first time.

-Andr Breton was the founder, basically, of surrealism, in terms of an artistic movement.

So this guy is the big deal.

And, of course, when she finds out that he's coming to Mexico to meet Trotsky, she prepares herself through her work.

She did a self-portrait of her, which she gave away to Trotsky to make sure this was hanging at his office at the Blue House, knowing that would be the first painting Breton himself saw.

And Breton falls enchanted.

-I have, for long, admired the self-portraits by Frida Kahlo de Rivera that hangs on the wall of Trotsky's study.

But my surprise and joy was unbounded when I discovered that her work has blossomed forth into pure surreality.

-She's sort of calculating in terms of her art, right, because she is a voracious reader of other people's styles.

An absolute original, but she is aware of the things that are going on internationally, and, you know, incorporates them and makes them her own.

-She excelled to make an impact on Breton.

The paintings are totally surrealist in their proposal, in their language.

And one of these paintings is the most surrealist work Frida did, which is "What Water Gave Me" from 1938.

Which is not only a very interesting painting from the perspective of Frida's own position as a woman artist, but the way she perceives unconsciousness and portrays it in the painting.

And, of course, "What Water Gave Me" is a self-portrait, but it is a self-portrait seen through the eyes and the ideas of surrealism... which, of course, had a huge impact on Andr Breton.

He was convinced that Frida was the most surrealist artist that he had ever encountered.

[ Jet engine idling ] -"I have never had an exhibition before.

I was always shy and afraid to show my things.

The first time in my life I sold a work was a few weeks ago."

-She, in 1938, returns on her own to New York.

Not as Diego Rivera's wife, but she comes to have her first solo exhibition at the Julien Levy Gallery.

-Julien Levy was the most outspoken representative of surrealist artists in New York.

And, of course, Andr Breton decides he wants to write the presentation for Frida's show.

-Frida Kahlo goes to New York to have the show at the Julien Levy Gallery, and this is Frida's opportunity to really break into an international stage.

And, of course, having the patronage of Andr Breton is a big deal.

-Who else could you think of a woman artist being able to do this?

Meeting Trotsky and Breton in Mexico, having a single exhibition in New York?

As an artist, the world is in your hands.

And, for Rivera, this is what Rivera wanted -- somebody equal, another artist.

-If he had gone with her, all the attention would be on Diego Rivera.

Diego Rivera was proud of her.

He was proud of her.

-Flutter of the week in Manhattan was caused by the first exhibition of paintings by famed muralist Diego Rivera's German Mexican wife, Frida Kahlo.

In a note on her exhibition, surrealist Breton ended by describing her painting as "a ribbon around a bomb."

-She was totally unknown in New York.

I mean, she was nobody.

She was the wife of Diego Rivera.

And here she comes along.

"I'm a Mexican, modern woman artist, showing her work in New York."

So it's a huge moment for Frida Kahlo.

She's there, yes, of course, because of all these connections she and Rivera had, but it's her own work.

And the quality of her painting, it talks for her.

-Her first solo exhibition -- November 1st to the 15th, so just two weeks.

She shows 25 paintings.

And it includes some of the most shocking.

-This was way ahead of what any other woman artist was capable of wanting to show to the public.

-She loved having a show, and I think a lot of things sold, and she got a nice write-up in Time magazine, which is every artist's dream at that point.

-Frida has a great success in New York.

She's commented in magazines like Time, like Vogue magazine.

She's very well-received.

Some of her paintings are purchased.

-She met all kinds of people, and everybody loved her.

And at that point, she was having a love affair with Nick Muray, the photographer who took such great photographs of her.

-Nickolas Muray was a very famous photographer, and he was one of the first who started doing color photographs with the very special personalities.

Frida and Nickolas were lovers, and it lasted for a long while.

-I think she found in Nickolas Muray a friend who supported her, a lover, intelligent, prominent, well-connected.

I also think he fell in love with her.

-You know, it's not a coincidence that Nickolas Muray becomes her lover.

He is a pioneer of color photography, and that was something she was good at -- posing for photographs, striking a pose, performing identities in front of the camera.

So when you see this series, they're doing it together, right?

They're collaborating, and it's magic.

I love this one, the red rebozo one, because she writes to him, "You will always be under my magenta rebozo, on the left side near my heart."

-You can see by the photos that Nickolas Muray took of Kahlo how devoted he was to her image.

But even these photos, if you look at them in a more critical perspective, they were kind of Hollywood style.

You can't see the real Kahlo through Nickolas Muray's photographs.

Frida was a woman, more complex, more complicated.

The way Muray portrayed Kahlo was just a fraction of her personality.

For the opening of Frida's exhibition, Rivera and Kahlo had prepared a very careful list of who should be invited and why.

Rivera had considered that she should invite Clare Boothe Luce, who was editor of Vanity Fair, a woman with huge connections worldwide.

So you see again that the two accomplices, Rivera and Kahlo, are preparing the scenario.

Now, Clare Boothe Luce specifically requests from Kahlo to make a painting, a portrait of Dorothy Hale.

Dorothy Hale was a dear friend of Clare Boothe Luce, who had recently passed away.

-Dorothy Hale was a not-that-successful actress, but she was a very good actress.

She died by jumping out of the Hampshire House on Central Park South.

-Frida Kahlo writes a letter to Diego in which she explains what she's going to do in terms of composition.

"I want this to look almost like a film."

"I want to portray Dorothy falling... and then I want to portray her dead on the street."

-"I think about death very often.

I do not know what I would do if I were told I had one hour to live.

I imagine that if I were dying I would be thinking of Diego."

-When Clare Boothe Luce got it, she couldn't stand it.

She was sort of angry that Frida had made that kind of an image.

It wasn't what was intended.

And she was appalled.

-She can't make a conventional portrait.

She has to do something convincing, in terms of her own needs as an artist.

Frida Kahlo cared about what she had painted there.

She made no concessions about her art.

-"The only thing I know is I paint always what passes through my head without any other consideration."

"Dieguito, I need you so much, my darling."

"There are moments when I feel like going back to Mexico more than anything else.

I need you as I need air to breathe."

-In Mexico, things were not so good for Diego Rivera.

-Diego is an unemployed artist at this time.

In fact, in most of the government, muralist projects have been abandoned.

-And his relation with Trotsky starts to deteriorate very quickly.

-Trotsky says to Diego Rivera, "You're a great painter.

You're one of the world's best.

But you're a child when it comes to politics."

This happened over and over again, evidently, and Diego Rivera finally had enough of it and said, "I'm done.

I'm out.

I want nothing to do with you."

So this causes quite an uproar, and Leon Trotsky then moves out of the Blue House.

-This change eventually would put Trotsky into a very dangerous situation.

And it was just a matter of time to suffer the consequences.

[ Scraping ] [ Indistinct conversations ] -Frida Kahlo is aware of the things that are going on at home, but she gets an invitation to go to Paris.

[ Ship horn blares ] -Andr Breton invites her to Paris to have an exhibition.

I think Paris, for her, is like, "Okay, I'm gonna make it."

And she takes a boat -- encouraged by Rivera, by the way, because I think he really wanted her to succeed.

-"...chiquitita, don't be silly.

I do not want you, for my sake, to lose the opportunity to go to Paris.

That will be the culmination of your success in New York.

Spit on your little hands and make something that will put in shade everything around it... for you, my chiquita, deserve everything.

Your number-one toad-frog, Diego."

-For the second time within a few months, France is faced with the possibility of war, this time to defend its own territory.

-She comes to Paris.

It's in the spring of 1939.

And she feels that the war is imminent.

She can't stand the fact that the surrealists sit in cafs and just gossip while the world is falling to pieces.

Her letters, especially to Nickolas Muray, are, like, scathing.

-"You have no idea the kind of bitches these people are.

They make me vomit.

They sit for hours and talk without stopping, thinking themselves the gods of the world.

They are so damn intellectual and rotten that I can't stand them anymore."

-So, eventually, Andr Breton organizes a show.

But it's not a solo exhibition.

It's an exhibition called "Mexique."

-It was not a show about Frida.

Breton wanted to make an exhibition about his encounter with Mexico and what he concluded about Mexico.

-It includes Breton's collection of eclectic Mexican folk art... ...a lot of what she calls in one of the letters "junk"... ...and 18 paintings by Frida Kahlo.

-Frida was extremely upset when she found out about this in Paris, that her work was going to be shown side-by-side market toys.

-There were a few reviews, but it's not a triumph in the way that she had hoped.

And she can't stand Breton.

But she loves Jacqueline Lamba, his wife... ...and apparently also has an affair with her and has a very long and beautiful relationship with her.

-Jacqueline Lamba was young.

She was beautiful.

And Frida was a woman very responsible of filling in her needs in terms of her sexual life.

But I think Jacqueline and Nickolas Muray and all these other people who were significant for Kahlo, at the end, they were fighting against a titan.

-She came back to Diego Rivera.

She would always come back to Diego Rivera.

She moved around the world in order to please Diego Rivera.

[ Rain falling ] [ Scraping ] [ Thunder crashes ] Rivera was very proud of Frida Kahlo having had a show in Paris.

But she got back... ...and things were really bad between them.

-"My situation with Diego was worse and worse till it came to an end.

He told me the worst things you can imagine and the dirtiest insults I never expected from him.

Two weeks ago, we began the divorce."

-The divorce is proposed to Frida.

It's not like a question.

It's not like, "Something we have to discuss."

She never expected that Rivera would terminate the kind of loyalty they had because they could have had huge differences, discussions, infidelities, but all that was part of the game they were playing.

So she just didn't understand where this came from.

It's a terrible time for Frida.

And, interesting enough, it's the climax of her career as an artist.

"The Two Fridas."

Apparently, it's the same woman, but when you look carefully, it's not the same woman.

One Frida is dressed in white with a European wardrobe.

And the Frida on the right is a Mexican woman.

What is she trying to tell us?

"I feel like I am one woman... and I am another woman after these events."

So, the first woman is the woman Rivera met.

Rivera was the first real man in her life.

And they had a marriage.

They had a union.

But this Frida is suddenly put aside.

And the Frida that is left there has to be strong.

-When you look at it, you see that both have, like, half hearts.

Both are bleeding.

And maybe at this point, after her miscarriage and after she's divorcing, after Rivera had not just multiple affairs, but one with her sister, as well... maybe she is showing that the roles of wife and mother are wounding experiences for her.

-The post-divorce Frida is carrying in her hands a little miniature portrait of Diego Rivera, when he was a child.

So the presence of Rivera... diminished in the painting up to a small little object in her hands.

Frida has played the role of the mother taking care of this little brat.

I believe the painting is a message for Rivera.

"You have left me like this.

Broken.

Divided.

This is what you have done.

You have torn me apart."

[ Birds chirping ] [ Lighter clicks ] -She said, "The minute you divorce me, I don't want you to give me one cent.

I'm going to support myself."

-It's a really interesting period for her because she decides she's going to professionalize, and she produces these incredible, incredible self-portraits.

-She said, "What they want is my self-portraits.

That's what they want.

I'm going to do self-portraits."

-She makes all these great self-portraits in the '40s because this is what collectors were asking.

She ends up painting herself once and over and with monkeys and two monkeys and four monkeys.

And parrots.

And you see in all these self-portraits that she's constructing an image.

They're beautifully done.

She was never a better painter, but at the same time, they become cryptic.

Almost like a closed door.

You can see, but you can't walk in.

"This is what you want to see.

Here I am.

But you don't have a clue what's going on inside me."

-In 1940, when she's really, really trying to be independent, she finds out that gallerist Alberto Misrachi sold one of her paintings.

And she's very excited.

-Misrachi said, "I have some money for you, Frida.

I sold one self-portrait."

"Great!"

-But then she finds out that Diego bought it.

So she writes to him in a letter.

-"All I've done is fail.

When I was a little girl, I wanted to be a doctor, and a bus squashed me."

"I lived with you for 10 years without doing anything but causing you problems, and my painting is useless to anyone but me... and you who buys it, knowing that no one else will."

-Kahlo begins to suffer again because of her illnesses.

And the reality, in terms of financial input, is that Rivera's taking care of her.

-It is my opinion that the reason that Diego Rivera started a divorce was Paulette Goddard, the ex-wife of Charlie Chaplin, who was here in Mexico while Frida was in Paris.

And when Frida came back from Paris, Paulette was living across the street from the studio, behaving like the new companion of Diego Rivera.

-"One night, I received a telephone call from the movie actress Paulette Goddard.

'Diego,' she said, her voice trembling with excitement.

'If you know anything about gangster movies, brother, you're on the spot.

The cops are swarming around your studio, and they look like they mean business.'"

-On May 24, 1940, someone attacked Leon Trotsky.

-They manage to get inside of Trotsky's house, and they shoot it up, unloading dozens and dozens of bullets in Trotsky's bedroom with Trotsky and his wife hidden underneath the bed.

-They didn't kill Trotsky.

He survived, almost miraculously.

-So, the police are looking for who could have carried out this attack, and they suspect that perhaps Diego Rivera has something to do with it, certainly considering his recent break with Trotsky.

-So now Rivera knows that the police want to interrogate him, so he escapes from Mexico.

He travels all the way to San Francisco with the help of Paulette Goddard.

And Frida is on her own, and she knows it's just a matter of time -- something's gonna happen to her.

-"It's not only the separation from Diego, which in itself would have been enough to make me sad, but there are many other which are more disgusting and exhausting.

The limit was when I was arrested by the police on account of the Trotsky affair."

-The police arrest her because they want to know from her where Diego Rivera is, but she has no idea.

After the arrest, she really hits rock bottom.

Not only has Diego divorced her, but she's now been arrested, embroiled in an extremely dangerous situation.

And at this point, she becomes sicker and sicker and sicker.

-"My situation was desperate.

I didn't know where Diego was, if he was dead or alive.

I was in such a state that I felt like dying."

-I strongly believe that Rivera decided to divorce Frida Kahlo as a way to keep her safe.

If, eventually, the Soviet police decided to go after him, at least Frida would be safe if they were separated.

-But then a few months later, a Soviet operative finally kills Trotsky with an ice-axe blow to his head.

It is gruesome.

It is gruesome.

[ Engine rumbling ] -Eventually Frida Kahlo's health... and Diego Rivera's concern for her leads to him insisting that she come to San Francisco.

-"When Frida arrived in San Francisco, she was suffering such severe pain that she could hardly move."

-"The stresses and strains of the past few months have borne on her heavily.

But they were gone now, except for one -- the fact of our separation."

-The doctor who treated Frida Kahlo in San Francisco said, "You both are connected so fully."

"So why don't you just accept what you both are?

What I see is that Diego Rivera loves you a lot and that you are decaying on your health."

He said that, for her health, it was much better to be with Diego Rivera.

-You can't have Frida Kahlo if you don't understand Diego comes first.

Art itself is not enough.

At the end, where is this woman without the person she loves?

[ Accordion playing ] -There was a co-dependency.

They decide to get married again.

And when they get married the second time, they get married in San Francisco, and it works.

- Siempre fuiste la razn de mi existir -"The remarriage is working well.

Few quarrels, greater mutual understanding, and, on my part, less bothersome enquiring into the question of other women.

I finally realize that life is like that... and the rest is just window dressing."

-I really believe when Frida said that she loved him more than her own life.

She must have hated him a lot of the time, but that doesn't mean she didn't love him.

-Both of them agreed that they were not gonna change.

Frida Kahlo would live in the Blue House and he would live in the studio, and Frida Kahlo would not accept a cent from Diego Rivera.

And then she started really blooming.

[ Birds chirping ] -Va entrando una maravilla de mujer... vestida... ...como un sol, como llena de flores.

Entonces, yo vi a una mujer como una aparicin.

Una mujer extraordinaria que nunca haba visto.

Nos dio un beso a cada uno y dijo: "Bienvenidos, chamacos".

- A mi vida cansada y marchita Llegaste una vez -Frida had many friends in different areas, and one of them was the director of La Esmeralda, the school, and she said, "Why don't you come as a teacher?"

-La maestra Frida ya era muy conocida en el medio artstico cuando yo fui su alumno.

Y por fortuna, pues me toc con ella.

Fuimos a su casa y ya no salimos de su casa.

El jardn era el taller.

"Maestra, qu est pintando?"

Entonces, yo me acuerdo del primero que vi de ella, que se queda uno sorprendido.

Con animales adems.

Entonces, era realmente fantstico.

-What she did wonderfully was giving the hope of being an artist.

Do what you know, paint what you know, really, your own background, your own spaces.

Be yourself and sing.

Sing while you're working.

- Malaguea -The mark that she made in the life of this young men was immense.

They were very young.

14, 15.

Poor people.

And they loved her.

- No me dejes de besar -Bueno, era muy amable, muy accesiva, muy entusiasta.

Siempre de buen humor.

Pero s, creo que estuvo muy dolorosa, y... ...claro, ya acostada.

S, aguant la fiesta.

[ Thunder crashes ] [ Rain falling ] [ Thunder crashes ] -Hay una suerte de irona en alguien que quiso estudiar Medicina pasar tanto tiempo a lo largo de su vida rodeada de mdicos y en hospitales.

Es alguien que fue como sobreviviendo a diferentes cosas, no?

La polio, despus el accidente.

Digo, a lo largo de su vida tuvo aproximadamente 32 operaciones.

Y obviamente, bueno, tu fsico est roto pero tambin tu independencia, tambin tu movilidad.

Es una cosa tremenda.

-By 1944, Frida was in constant pain and it's like if Frida is lying on a bed of broken glass.

-Digo, si nos ponemos en sus zapatos, no s cmo sigui pintando, sinceramente.

Yo creo que ya no tena la posibilidad de escaparse del dolor de la enfermedad y del miedo a la muerte.

Aunque no quiera, todos esos miedos van a aparecer en la pintura.

Y una de las personas que yo creo que Frida siente que no le permiten irse es su amor a Diego Rivera.

-She, during this time, painted one of her most tormented paintings.

Her hair is swirling around her neck, almost going to choke her.

She's got Diego Rivera in her forehead, and she's crying.

It's the one painting where she almost loses that mask of reserve.

-It's over.

But Diego is in her mind.

It's the last thing she knows she counts on.

She starts working on her diary.

Written words and drawings.

Concepts.

Poetics.

You can see pieces of her body.

You see blood.

Everything is falling apart.

-"I keep on wanting to kill myself.

Diego's what keeps me from it, through my vain idea that he would miss me."

-She is more poetic and stronger than ever.

But the irony of all this is, when she is in the climax of her intellectual capacities as an artist, her body turns off, and the pain takes over.

-"They amputated my leg six months ago.

They've given me centuries of torture, and at moments I almost lost my reason.

Feet.

What do I need them for... if I have wings to fly?"

-Pues el ltimo ao fue terrible por la amputacin de la pierna... ...que finalmente es un acontecimiento devastador para ella.

Y pierde todo absolutamente, toda esa vitalidad que tena, el sentido de humor, el sentido o el amor por el color, por -- Ah hay un -- Entristece totalmente.

-She start not liking her day-by-day.

And she start abusing drugs and alcohol.

She didn't want to be again picked open.

Uh... No.

Everybody will get tired of that, no?

Sooner or later.

[ Birds chirping ] And, uh... she start to... letting herself go.

For her, the future was really terrifying, and she decided not to go for that future.

-Diego Rivera was very much aware that, for Frida, living like that was almost impossible.

He didn't want her to suffer that much, and... we don't know whether Frida took the pills by herself.

-There are some versions that says that Diego help her, that, in the family, it's a taboo.

Nobody talks about that.

Probably.

And I don't feel like something wrong, no?

If your companion of life, of all your life, tell you, "I'm tired.

I really want to go.

Help me."

Well, maybe you try, no?

-"I await the exit with joy, and I hope never to return.

Frida."

[ Bell tolling ] -Tena mucha gente a su alrededor.

Mucha gente la conoca, tena muchos amigos.

Un funeral lleno de gente.

Llensimo de gente.

Increble.

-Cuando supimos que estaba -- que ya haba fallecido, fuimos all a ver a Frida, a acompaarla en su fretro.

Y al momento en que ella iba a entrar, a entrar al fuego, entonces dice: "Pues cmo cul quieres?".

Empieza una que le gustara a Frida.

Entonces, vino... Ya se va la embarcacin Ya se va por va ligera - Ya se va, ya se la llevan -At the funeral, Diego Rivera was described as "a soul cut in two."

And even in photographs, you can see his face becomes, like, gray and fallen.

It's just -- Everything fell in his face.

- Del corazn -When she passes away, his life falls apart, as well.

He's sick of cancer, but there's no attempt to continue.

He knows that, without Frida, his life is also over.

- Rock on, ancient queen Follow those who pale in your shadow Ooh, pale shadow -I'm gonna start the bidding here at $26 million.

At 26 million.

27 million.

28 million.

$29 million.

$30 million.

$31 million on this side.

-I love to see Frida claiming $34 million for a small painting.

I love to.

Because I know what it means for many others.

- Ooh, black widow -Whoever opens a door or a window opens it for everybody.

And Frida Kahlo opened windows.

- Ooh, pale shadow Of a woman Ooh, black widow