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BABY CRIES

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Let me tell you about a little girl
born in Mexico.

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She would grow up to be
one of the most famous artists

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in the world.

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We all recognise her face,
and that look.

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But who was she really?

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And why is she more loved now
than ever before?

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This daughter of the revolution
lived no ordinary life,

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and hers is no easy tale to tell.

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Frida Kahlo was a rule-breaker.

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The way she broke taboos,
the way she broke the norm

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was completely revolutionary
and transgressive.

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She doesn't respect things
that should be respected,

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like birth, blood, miscarriages.

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She made no concessions
about her art.

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She was strong and ambitious
and answered to no-one.

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But she was also driven
and tormented by love.

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She said, "I love Diego
more than I love my own life."

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She would always come back
to Diego Rivera, like an obsession.

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An obsession that was painful.

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So why do we still idolise her?

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This mixed-up mess
of contradictions.

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And why can't we take our eyes
off her?

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What people see in her is
all that power of rebellion,

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irreverence.

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For people who are queer,
for people who are brown,

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for people who are creative
in different ways.

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She teaches us about identity.

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Art was her superpower.

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In the end,
I don't need her perfect.

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She was genius.

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BELL RINGS

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THUNDER RUMBLES

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Frida Kahlo was born under the rain.

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July is a month of rain in Mexico.

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And I have a theory

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people that are born
in the rainy season are different.

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SHE SPEAKS SPANISH

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What doesn't kill you
make you stronger.

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At the age of six, I had polio
and my leg began to grow thin.

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At first, I assumed that
the children's taunts

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wouldn't affect me, but later, they
really did, and each time worse.

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As she grew up,

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she needed to be different,
and needed to be noticed.

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She was a rule-breaker!

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She drank too much.

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She smoked too much.

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She used foul language.

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And so what she's saying is,

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"Yes. I am something else.

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"What am I?"

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Frida Kahlo was a daughter
of the Mexican Revolution.

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Mexico's revolution is really
the first major social revolution

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in the 20th century.

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It was the first opportunity
a country had taken to say,

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"We want to change things."

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"We're going to improve society."

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Frida Kahlo claimed that 1910
was her date of birth,

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even though she was born in 1907.

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She wanted to align
her date of birth

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with the birth
of this new Mexico.

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She was making a statement
about her devotion to all the layers

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of Mexican culture.

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Frida came from the village
of Coyoacan,

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in the middle of nowhere.

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Surrounded by rivers, trees,

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animals, flowers, the church.

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There isn't really much going on.

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So the experience of going
to the National Preparatory School

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in Mexico City changed her life.

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In those days, it was very few women
who started the preparatory.

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You have to bear in mind
that from the generation of 2,000,

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there were only 35 women.

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Students from very different
backgrounds

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would join in a single place
and learned all together.

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This is a generation of change.

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Frida becomes part of this.

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The students were very much
involved into politics.

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The Communist Party was very
powerful at that time in Mexico.

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And they had meetings
and they had marches.

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And Frida joined the young section
of the Communist Party.

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Dear Mama,

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today I will stay at school
because Diego Rivera

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will deliver a lecture.

85
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I believe it's about Russia.

86
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And I would like to learn some
about Russia.

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If you would like to come,
let me know at noon.

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Send me five cents
for an ice-cream cone

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and five cents for quesadillas?

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Your daughter, Frida.

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If you were a student
in the National Preparatory School

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such as Frida was, there is no way
you didn't know who was Diego Rivera

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and what he was painting.

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For the very young Frida Kahlo,

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seeing Rivera talk,

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that must have been fascinating.

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Mexican muralist -

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but a movement that completely
changed the idea of art

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in the world.

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And my grandfather, Diego, promote
himself as he being the inventor.

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And he was the leading head.

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The Ministry of Education implements
the idea to produce public art

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in public buildings.

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We need to let the people,
the common people, know,

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through public walls,
what has happened,

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and what are we searching for?

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In the walls, viewers could see
a contemporary history.

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You didn't need to read,
but you could see the wall.

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You could follow these stories.

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Who was who.

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What kinds of battles took place.

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If you put yourself in front of
one of these murals,

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your life has been changed.

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BELL RINGS

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I fell in with a group called
Los Cachuchas.

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They were not communists,
but liberals.

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They were lazy and never studied.

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They were called the Cachuchas.

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According to their caps
were cachuchas.

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I've never heard of that word
for cap, but...

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She was very mischievous
and so were they.

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I was loafing around in class.

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I was with the boys
everywhere they went.

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Instead of going to my classes,
I went to theirs.

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I barely passed classes,
or I cheated to get good grades.

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They were terrible, all of them
terrible and very bad students,

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which is something very,
very incredible.

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Because they were so bright.
So bright.

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The Cachuchas had a lot
of admiration for

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Alejandro Gomez Arias.

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Gomez Arias was the speaker
in school.

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He always participated in all
the meetings and all the trouble.

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I fell in love with Gomez Arias
and he with me.

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He was handsome.

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He was pretty good-looking.

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I mean, when I saw him,
he was an old man, but...

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But I've seen photographs
of him when he was younger.

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And he was very gentle.

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They were an interesting pair
that way

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because she's kind of fierce
and he was not fierce at all.

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When Gomez Arias took me home,

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he would kiss me
and recite verses to me.

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I was in love with Gomez Arias,
but I was very flirtatious.

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He would become horribly jealous.

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I wanted him to ravish me.

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But he preferred to tell me nice
things, to kiss me and hug me.

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He had this passion for her
and she had a passion for him.

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He loved the vitality in Frida.

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She was beautiful.

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I think she was a beautiful girl.

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So... And she was more fun
than most people.

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Lots of fun.

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It was 16 of September,
one day after the grito,

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which is a very big festivity
in Mexico

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for the independence
of Mexico.

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In those days, there was sort of
a fair going around the Zocalo,

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in the main plaza.

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Frido went to the fair
with Alejandro Gomez Arias,

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and there were stands with candies
and with balloons

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and with little toys.

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And Frida was very fond
of the little toys.

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She bought a small umbrella,
this kind of Chinese umbrella

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that are used to decorate beverages.

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And she was fascinated with that.

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They were coming home from Mexico
City on a bus, and the buses

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at that point were pretty rickety.

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They were wooden.

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They were going to get on one bus,
but she'd lost some toy,

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therefore they got on the next bus.

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She has this quote where she says,

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"Most of my friends grow up slowly.
I grew up in an instant."

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She was about to be 20.

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ALEJANDRO: I was sitting
next to Frida.

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The electric train with two cars

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approached the bus slowly.

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It hit the bus in the middle.

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Slowly, the train pushed it.

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The bus got ploughed into
by a trolley car.

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It was almost as though
it was intentional.

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I mean, he just kept coming
and kept coming.

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The bus bent more and more.
For a time,

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it did not break, but then
it burst into 1,000 pieces.

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It ran over many people.

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There were dead people
and people screaming.

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Naturally, the first thing
that I did was to look for Frida.

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I picked her up
and then I noticed with horror

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Frida had a piece of iron
in her body.

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QUIET BEEPING

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Frida's condition was so grave
that the doctors did not think

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00:18:05,340 --> 00:18:07,740
they could save her.

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00:18:07,740 --> 00:18:10,660
They thought she would die
on the operating table.

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There was a metal handrail
that pierced Frida Kahlo's body.

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Everything - she was broken
in many different parts.

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In this hospital,

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death is dancing around my bed
at night.

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I lost my virginity, a kidney
was bruised, I couldn't urinate.

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00:19:19,580 --> 00:19:23,860
But the thing I complained about
the most was my backbone.

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00:19:23,860 --> 00:19:26,660
I do not fear death.

199
00:19:26,660 --> 00:19:28,940
It's pain I can't stand.

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00:21:44,140 --> 00:21:47,260
It's not that Frida Kahlo
starts to paint from zero.

201
00:21:50,300 --> 00:21:51,700
She liked to draw.

202
00:21:51,700 --> 00:21:53,700
She liked art history.

203
00:21:53,700 --> 00:21:56,020
We know that young Frida Kahlo,

204
00:21:56,020 --> 00:21:59,460
she would make these short trips
around Coyoacan,

205
00:21:59,460 --> 00:22:01,540
and she would make drawings.

206
00:22:08,300 --> 00:22:10,220
BELL RINGS

207
00:22:37,860 --> 00:22:43,460
Some people wanted their photos
to have colour, so you needed to

208
00:22:43,460 --> 00:22:46,220
paint over the photo
with a very thin brush.

209
00:22:50,900 --> 00:22:53,620
The father showed Frida
how to do this.

210
00:22:56,460 --> 00:22:58,740
All this is before the accident.

211
00:23:00,380 --> 00:23:04,660
So she's doing portraits of members
of her family, her sisters,

212
00:23:04,660 --> 00:23:06,780
one of her wealthy neighbours.

213
00:23:06,780 --> 00:23:09,620
And she's so pleased with the result

214
00:23:09,620 --> 00:23:12,820
that she writes in the back
of the painting,

215
00:23:12,820 --> 00:23:15,100
"This is my first work of art."

216
00:23:22,420 --> 00:23:26,980
Listen, my Alex, if you can't
come yet, write to me.

217
00:23:26,980 --> 00:23:28,620
You can't know...

218
00:23:28,620 --> 00:23:30,220
Alex, the last time you came,

219
00:23:30,220 --> 00:23:32,540
you told me that you would return
very soon.

220
00:23:32,540 --> 00:23:34,180
One of these days...

221
00:23:34,180 --> 00:23:36,340
The pen doesn't write well in tears.

222
00:23:36,340 --> 00:23:39,100
I have done nothing
but wait for that day

223
00:23:39,100 --> 00:23:40,980
that still hasn't come.

224
00:23:40,980 --> 00:23:43,300
Come to see me, Alex.

225
00:23:43,300 --> 00:23:46,620
I want you to come and tell me
that you love me,

226
00:23:46,620 --> 00:23:48,260
even if it isn't true.

227
00:23:49,740 --> 00:23:54,020
She pleads with him in other letters
to please come and see her.

228
00:23:54,020 --> 00:23:59,900
Oh, it's really horribly painful
because Alejandro began to pull away

229
00:23:59,900 --> 00:24:04,660
from Frida Kahlo while she was
recuperating from the accident.

230
00:24:04,660 --> 00:24:10,060
I think his parents probably thought
"She's not suitable for him,"

231
00:24:10,060 --> 00:24:12,380
and so they sent him off to Europe.

232
00:24:12,380 --> 00:24:15,380
Frida was not an asset.

233
00:24:15,380 --> 00:24:18,780
She had gone out of school,
so it was...

234
00:24:18,780 --> 00:24:21,780
She was not going to be
improving herself.

235
00:24:37,300 --> 00:24:40,260
What is Alejandro Gomez Arias
going to do

236
00:24:40,260 --> 00:24:42,820
with a crippled girlfriend?

237
00:24:42,820 --> 00:24:47,780
So he steps aside, he abandons her.

238
00:24:56,580 --> 00:24:59,340
"He has left me.

239
00:24:59,340 --> 00:25:03,420
"This man who was to be the love
of my life has disappeared."

240
00:25:05,620 --> 00:25:10,020
So she has to rebuild herself
from zero.

241
00:25:15,380 --> 00:25:17,420
Her first self-portrait,

242
00:25:17,420 --> 00:25:21,580
she did it as a gift
for Alejandro Gomez Arias,

243
00:25:21,580 --> 00:25:24,940
at the moment that
he was trying to be...

244
00:25:24,940 --> 00:25:27,700
not be her boyfriend any more.

245
00:25:27,700 --> 00:25:31,980
And she sent it to him
and she sent a note with it saying,

246
00:25:31,980 --> 00:25:36,260
"Please hang it in a low place,
where you can look at it

247
00:25:36,260 --> 00:25:38,780
"as if you were looking at me."

248
00:25:38,780 --> 00:25:41,460
MUSIC: Wish
by Anna Calvi

249
00:25:41,460 --> 00:25:44,020

before I die

250
00:25:49,260 --> 00:25:51,260


251
00:25:51,260 --> 00:25:53,820


252
00:25:53,820 --> 00:25:56,860
It's funny, because if you think
in terms of today,

253
00:25:56,860 --> 00:26:00,100
that would be almost like
an act of harassment, no?

254
00:26:09,060 --> 00:26:12,580


255
00:26:16,300 --> 00:26:18,460


256
00:26:18,460 --> 00:26:20,380


257
00:26:20,380 --> 00:26:22,980


258
00:26:22,980 --> 00:26:26,300
So the message of Frida
in the painting is,

259
00:26:26,300 --> 00:26:28,660
no matter what happened
to my body...

260
00:26:30,220 --> 00:26:32,340
...I am still here.

261
00:26:32,340 --> 00:26:34,260
And don't you forget that.

262
00:26:36,780 --> 00:26:39,380
It's a very special
painting for her.

263
00:27:31,740 --> 00:27:34,100
VIBRANT LATIN MUSIC

264
00:27:44,780 --> 00:27:49,140
If you want to become an artist
between 1920 and 1940,

265
00:27:49,140 --> 00:27:51,380
you have to be in Mexico.

266
00:27:54,060 --> 00:27:56,340
It was like a procession.

267
00:27:56,340 --> 00:27:58,060
At this time, in the 1920s,

268
00:27:58,060 --> 00:27:59,780
Mexico was fun.

269
00:27:59,780 --> 00:28:02,620
So it was a real flowering
of culture.

270
00:28:05,740 --> 00:28:10,300
After the Mexican Revolution,
people went crazy about Mexico.

271
00:28:10,300 --> 00:28:12,340
They all came.

272
00:28:14,620 --> 00:28:18,260
A huge amount of artists,
they wrote,

273
00:28:18,260 --> 00:28:22,740
they painted,
people from the cinema.

274
00:28:22,740 --> 00:28:26,340
Orson Welles came with
Rita Hayworth, who was really

275
00:28:26,340 --> 00:28:29,060
very extraordinary, very beautiful.

276
00:28:29,060 --> 00:28:32,500
And they were quite taken by,
by Mexico.

277
00:28:32,500 --> 00:28:35,700
They thought it was like
coming to paradise.

278
00:28:40,980 --> 00:28:46,700
By 1927, Frida Kahlo has recovered
sufficiently from her accident

279
00:28:46,700 --> 00:28:48,740
that she wanted to be an artist.

280
00:28:48,740 --> 00:28:50,620
She had ambitions
of being an artist.

281
00:28:50,620 --> 00:28:52,340
She wants to meet them.

282
00:28:54,260 --> 00:28:56,940
Her spirit was back.

283
00:28:56,940 --> 00:28:59,980
And she decided
that she had to paint.

284
00:28:59,980 --> 00:29:02,780
And obviously, she loved doing it.

285
00:29:02,780 --> 00:29:05,060
And I think she must have realised

286
00:29:05,060 --> 00:29:08,220
that she wasn't bad,
she was pretty good.

287
00:29:15,500 --> 00:29:19,900
The reality must have been -
"What is going to be of me

288
00:29:19,900 --> 00:29:22,740
"if I'm not going to be able
to go back to school

289
00:29:22,740 --> 00:29:25,340
"and I'm not going to be able to

290
00:29:25,340 --> 00:29:28,580
"become a doctor,"
as she wished to.

291
00:29:28,580 --> 00:29:30,140
"What is going to happen to me?

292
00:29:30,140 --> 00:29:33,180
"I'm not sure about it.

293
00:29:33,180 --> 00:29:35,940
"I don't know
if I have what it takes."

294
00:29:38,380 --> 00:29:41,220
So she goes to see Rivera,
when he was painting at

295
00:29:41,220 --> 00:29:43,700
the Ministry of Education.

296
00:29:43,700 --> 00:29:46,420
Her approach to Rivera
based on the fact

297
00:29:46,420 --> 00:29:48,140
that he was very important,

298
00:29:48,140 --> 00:29:49,620
he was very well-known.

299
00:29:49,620 --> 00:29:52,620
He had painted murals,
he was a celebrity.

300
00:29:52,620 --> 00:29:56,300
And she had already listened
to him at different lectures

301
00:29:56,300 --> 00:29:58,500
at the National Preparatory School.

302
00:29:58,500 --> 00:30:01,500
Well, that's a strong reason
to approach him, no?

303
00:30:03,740 --> 00:30:09,900
She went to the scaffold
where Rivera was painting.

304
00:30:09,900 --> 00:30:14,660
She wasn't fazed by one of the most
famous artists in the world.

305
00:30:17,100 --> 00:30:22,340
She ordered him to come down
from the scaffold and said,

306
00:30:22,340 --> 00:30:27,380
"Listen, Diego,
I need to make a living.

307
00:30:27,380 --> 00:30:31,180
"Please look at these
and tell me if I'm good enough."

308
00:30:32,820 --> 00:30:35,980
She didn't have many,
but she'd painted a few portraits,

309
00:30:35,980 --> 00:30:37,940
some of them quite good.

310
00:30:48,700 --> 00:30:52,020
And he says, "Yes, there is
definitely something there.

311
00:30:52,020 --> 00:30:53,660
"Interesting.

312
00:30:53,660 --> 00:30:57,540
"You should pursue your idea
of becoming an artist."

313
00:31:00,300 --> 00:31:03,580
He told me that I should try
to paint whatever I wanted,

314
00:31:03,580 --> 00:31:06,380
without being influenced
by anyone else.

315
00:31:07,540 --> 00:31:12,060
That impressed me a lot, and I began
to paint what I believe in.

316
00:31:15,220 --> 00:31:21,580
"I may not be a formal artist
like all you guys, but I am myself

317
00:31:21,580 --> 00:31:25,380
"and I'm going to find my own way."
Which is exactly what she did.

318
00:31:32,860 --> 00:31:34,340
Post-revolutionary Mexico -

319
00:31:34,340 --> 00:31:38,460
it was an opportunity for women,
you know, to stand up and say,

320
00:31:38,460 --> 00:31:40,660
"I'm not going to stay home.

321
00:31:40,660 --> 00:31:42,540
"I'm not just going to be a mother.

322
00:31:42,540 --> 00:31:44,660
"I want to try by my own."

323
00:31:46,500 --> 00:31:49,500
This is the world
that surrounds Frida.

324
00:31:49,500 --> 00:31:50,980
This is the world

325
00:31:50,980 --> 00:31:54,900
she has to find her own path,
her own answers.

326
00:32:01,500 --> 00:32:04,820
For someone as curious as
Frida Kahlo, she would naturally

327
00:32:04,820 --> 00:32:07,180
want to be a part of
what's happening.

328
00:32:07,180 --> 00:32:10,340
She really did - she wanted
to belong with these women.

329
00:32:34,220 --> 00:32:36,220
MELODRAMATIC MUSIC

330
00:32:42,100 --> 00:32:45,020
Tina Modotti is originally
from Italy.

331
00:32:45,020 --> 00:32:47,380
She moved to Hollywood
when she was young

332
00:32:47,380 --> 00:32:49,740
and she was in the silent movies.

333
00:32:49,740 --> 00:32:53,260
And she's quite, you know,
adventurous -

334
00:32:53,260 --> 00:32:58,540
says, "All right," she gets on
a train and moves to Mexico City.

335
00:32:58,540 --> 00:33:03,820
Tina Modotti becomes a photographer
and she's also a political activist.

336
00:33:03,820 --> 00:33:06,020
She was working
for the Communist Party

337
00:33:06,020 --> 00:33:09,260
and she has very strong
leftist views.

338
00:33:09,260 --> 00:33:14,500
And this, I actually think,
is where Tina Modotti becomes...

339
00:33:14,500 --> 00:33:16,020
..quite interesting.

340
00:33:16,020 --> 00:33:17,860
She was a rebel.

341
00:33:17,860 --> 00:33:19,340
There's no question about it.

342
00:33:27,340 --> 00:33:29,140
She's outspoken.

343
00:33:30,420 --> 00:33:33,140
She didn't really believe
in marriage.

344
00:33:34,980 --> 00:33:40,460
She's willing to pose without
her clothes on, without shame.

345
00:33:43,220 --> 00:33:47,220
Frida was fascinated with
this type of woman

346
00:33:47,220 --> 00:33:50,020
that she had never met before.

347
00:33:50,020 --> 00:33:52,380
A young woman, a beautiful one,

348
00:33:52,380 --> 00:33:54,300
a sexy one.

349
00:34:33,300 --> 00:34:37,620
All of us at some point in our lives
have looked up to an older woman

350
00:34:37,620 --> 00:34:40,020
and wanted to be like them.

351
00:34:40,980 --> 00:34:43,900
She's a role model for Frida Kahlo.

352
00:34:46,620 --> 00:34:51,140
Tina Modotti, for example, joins
Mexico's Communist Party in 1927,

353
00:34:51,140 --> 00:34:54,620
and Frida Kahlo joins in 1928.

354
00:34:59,900 --> 00:35:02,420
Frida was seduced by everything -

355
00:35:02,420 --> 00:35:06,780
by Tina, by the Communist
Party, who took her in,

356
00:35:06,780 --> 00:35:09,980
by the group that was there.

357
00:35:09,980 --> 00:35:12,140
There was Julio Antonio Mella,

358
00:35:12,140 --> 00:35:16,700
a Cuban, who was a leader
of students.

359
00:35:18,060 --> 00:35:22,500
Che Guevara was not in
at that time,

360
00:35:22,500 --> 00:35:26,300
but Julio Antonio Mella
was very much in that line

361
00:35:26,300 --> 00:35:28,940
of being the, the perfect hero.

362
00:35:32,820 --> 00:35:35,500
He was totally handsome!
He's very handsome.

363
00:35:35,500 --> 00:35:37,940
And Tina Modotti loves to take
photographs of him.

364
00:35:39,740 --> 00:35:41,780
And they fall madly in love.

365
00:35:44,180 --> 00:35:47,580
At that time, the Communist Party
was very powerful.

366
00:35:47,580 --> 00:35:50,740
It was, it was in fashion in Mexico.

367
00:35:52,420 --> 00:35:56,860
It was Julio Antonio Mella,
it was Diego Rivera.

368
00:35:56,860 --> 00:36:00,380
They were all the elite
of the Communist Party,

369
00:36:00,380 --> 00:36:02,940
and Diego Rivera,

370
00:36:02,940 --> 00:36:05,300
he was quite a monument in Mexico.

371
00:36:14,740 --> 00:36:16,860
CORK POPS

372
00:36:23,140 --> 00:36:26,780
Tina Modotti
threw fantastic parties.

373
00:36:26,780 --> 00:36:28,620
These parties were wild.

374
00:36:28,620 --> 00:36:34,580
And not surprisingly, Diego Rivera
was one of the frequent participants

375
00:36:34,580 --> 00:36:36,700
in this, in these happenings.

376
00:36:36,700 --> 00:36:39,500
And I mean, his reputation
preceded him.

377
00:36:40,980 --> 00:36:46,100
The meeting with Diego was in the
period when people carried pistols.

378
00:36:46,100 --> 00:36:48,620
At a party given by Tina,

379
00:36:48,620 --> 00:36:53,940
Diego shot a phonograph, and I began
to be very interested in him.

380
00:36:55,780 --> 00:36:58,980
In the context of the
post-revolution era in Mexico,

381
00:36:58,980 --> 00:37:03,340
it was common to carry a gun, just,
you know, to keep things straight.

382
00:37:03,340 --> 00:37:06,900
You know?
And Rivera was that kind of man.

383
00:37:08,940 --> 00:37:11,020
And it was then that Frida,

384
00:37:11,020 --> 00:37:14,820
she started to see him
in a different context,

385
00:37:14,820 --> 00:37:18,540
not in terms of the master
who makes murals -

386
00:37:18,540 --> 00:37:22,300
"The man whose opinion
is important to me."

387
00:37:26,060 --> 00:37:27,660
Rivera was impressive.

388
00:37:28,700 --> 00:37:30,020
He was huge.

389
00:37:31,580 --> 00:37:34,380
He had this great personality.

390
00:37:36,860 --> 00:37:38,700
He could be very funny.

391
00:37:38,700 --> 00:37:40,860
He was very outspoken.

392
00:37:40,860 --> 00:37:46,500
You know, everybody listened
when Rivera talked, and I think

393
00:37:46,500 --> 00:37:50,180
this is part of what Frida
starts to see in Rivera.

394
00:37:54,940 --> 00:37:58,540
I think he was the most
famous painter in the world.

395
00:37:58,540 --> 00:38:01,580
Possibly Picasso was more famous
at that time.

396
00:38:01,580 --> 00:38:06,020
So what's not to love about
that for Frida?!

397
00:38:07,300 --> 00:38:10,140
He was,
he was sort of adorable.

398
00:38:10,140 --> 00:38:12,100
I could see it - very easily.

399
00:38:25,380 --> 00:38:31,900
Diego was a macho, but I think...
he was not a womaniser.

400
00:38:33,900 --> 00:38:41,100
You know, a Latin macho
is somebody that denigrates women.

401
00:38:41,100 --> 00:38:42,860
And Diego would never do that.

402
00:38:42,860 --> 00:38:44,820
Never. Never.

403
00:38:44,820 --> 00:38:46,140
He really likes them.

404
00:38:46,140 --> 00:38:48,020
No? He...

405
00:38:48,020 --> 00:38:51,340
But he wasn't able to be with one.

406
00:38:51,340 --> 00:38:53,020
That was a problem.

407
00:38:55,740 --> 00:38:57,620
He always said that
he was good in bed

408
00:38:57,620 --> 00:39:00,180
because he made love
like a woman.

409
00:39:01,660 --> 00:39:04,060
That is something difficult
to understand,

410
00:39:04,060 --> 00:39:06,460
but that's what he said!

411
00:39:11,420 --> 00:39:15,460
There is a very funny story
that when Diego Rivera arrived

412
00:39:15,460 --> 00:39:17,380
to visit Frida,

413
00:39:17,380 --> 00:39:20,260
Guillermo Kahlo asked him,

414
00:39:20,260 --> 00:39:23,460
"I notice that you are
very frequently coming

415
00:39:23,460 --> 00:39:26,020
"to visit my daughter.

416
00:39:26,020 --> 00:39:30,820
"I suppose you are interested
in Frida?"

417
00:39:30,820 --> 00:39:33,220
And Diego says, "Of course,

418
00:39:33,220 --> 00:39:37,940
"otherwise, I didn't come to
Coyoacan, like,

419
00:39:37,940 --> 00:39:39,860
"so far, to see her."

420
00:39:39,860 --> 00:39:44,420
And then Guillermo Kahlo said,
"Ah, but you know she is a demon."

421
00:39:48,140 --> 00:39:50,940
And Diego Rivera said,
"Yes, I know."

422
00:39:50,940 --> 00:39:53,660
"OK, I warn you, like,
it's your problem."

423
00:40:29,940 --> 00:40:35,460
Imagine - there's this, world-famous
artist that is telling you,

424
00:40:35,460 --> 00:40:39,020
"I want to make you a portrait
in the most important mural

425
00:40:39,020 --> 00:40:40,540
"I ever done."

426
00:40:40,540 --> 00:40:42,740
Well, Frida fall immediately.

427
00:40:42,740 --> 00:40:44,340
Absolutely.

428
00:40:44,340 --> 00:40:46,620
Because also,
it's a beautiful portrait.

429
00:41:00,700 --> 00:41:04,220
This must have been
extremely seductive for her.

430
00:41:04,220 --> 00:41:07,220
You know, "This is the way
he sees me.

431
00:41:07,220 --> 00:41:09,660
"This is the way he wants me.

432
00:41:09,660 --> 00:41:11,700
"He wants me to fight.

433
00:41:11,700 --> 00:41:13,900
"He wants me to be a comrade."

434
00:41:13,900 --> 00:41:16,060
No? "I have a voice.

435
00:41:16,060 --> 00:41:17,900
"I'm not just a nice girl

436
00:41:17,900 --> 00:41:20,300
"he likes and wants to go
to bed with."

437
00:41:21,980 --> 00:41:27,260
Once, once Diego
could seduce Frida,

438
00:41:27,260 --> 00:41:31,100
then she became devoted
to Diego Rivera.

439
00:41:44,940 --> 00:41:47,180
I believe they fell in love.

440
00:42:29,140 --> 00:42:34,180
On January 10th, 1929, Tina Modotti
and Julio Mella had attended

441
00:42:34,180 --> 00:42:35,820
a political meeting.

442
00:42:39,340 --> 00:42:42,060
The Mexican government think
he's a troublemaker.

443
00:42:44,180 --> 00:42:48,020
They think he's dangerous,
partly because he is charismatic

444
00:42:48,020 --> 00:42:52,180
and that he can maybe sway
people more... So...

445
00:43:00,860 --> 00:43:02,300
At this point,

446
00:43:02,300 --> 00:43:05,420
Julio Mella has moved in with Tina
Modotti and they could see

447
00:43:05,420 --> 00:43:07,980
the building ahead of them.

448
00:43:07,980 --> 00:43:09,340
But...

449
00:43:09,340 --> 00:43:10,980
GUNSHOTS

450
00:43:10,980 --> 00:43:13,820
..shots rang out and Julio Mella
falls to the ground.

451
00:43:17,860 --> 00:43:19,580
He's 26 years old.

452
00:43:19,580 --> 00:43:21,780
He's quite young when he dies.

453
00:43:31,020 --> 00:43:34,020
Tina Modotti is questioned.

454
00:43:34,020 --> 00:43:37,100
The police suspect her.

455
00:43:37,100 --> 00:43:41,060
What they argue is that, of course,
this is a crime of passion,

456
00:43:41,060 --> 00:43:44,900
that she's in love with somebody
else, and has orchestrated the death

457
00:43:44,900 --> 00:43:46,900
of Julio Mella.

458
00:43:49,300 --> 00:43:51,540
So the police arrest her.

459
00:43:57,900 --> 00:44:00,100
People know that she didn't kill...

460
00:44:00,100 --> 00:44:02,100
She had nothing to do with
Julio Mella.

461
00:44:02,100 --> 00:44:03,740
It's like...

462
00:44:05,180 --> 00:44:07,620
At the same time this is happening
to Tina Modotti

463
00:44:07,620 --> 00:44:10,100
in the police station,

464
00:44:10,100 --> 00:44:12,460
she's being tried in the newspapers.

465
00:44:20,460 --> 00:44:23,140
They're saying, well, basically,

466
00:44:23,140 --> 00:44:27,300
if you're a member of the
Communist Party, if you pose nude,

467
00:44:27,300 --> 00:44:30,180
if you take on numerous lovers,

468
00:44:30,180 --> 00:44:33,500
this is what's going to happen
to you.

469
00:44:33,500 --> 00:44:38,980
They did humiliate her at a time
when she was obviously destroyed.

470
00:44:45,980 --> 00:44:49,500
It's almost like a public shaming
of Tina Modotti.

471
00:44:55,580 --> 00:44:58,540
It's a way, in a sense,
to punish women

472
00:44:58,540 --> 00:45:02,900
who don't live by the morality
of the time.

473
00:45:04,740 --> 00:45:05,940
It's a lesson.

474
00:45:07,940 --> 00:45:12,300
I think all women, including
Frida Kahlo, understand that women

475
00:45:12,300 --> 00:45:14,980
are supposed to live
a certain kind of life.

476
00:45:14,980 --> 00:45:17,060
They're supposed to be married.

477
00:45:17,060 --> 00:45:20,340
They're supposed to be in the house,
cooking, cleaning...

478
00:45:23,420 --> 00:45:25,820
Remember, at this time,

479
00:45:25,820 --> 00:45:28,500
in Mexico, women still don't
have the vote.

480
00:45:33,620 --> 00:45:36,180
During the revolution, there
were a lot of promises made

481
00:45:36,180 --> 00:45:39,700
towards women that they would
have much more equality and in fact,

482
00:45:39,700 --> 00:45:41,980
that, that never happened.

483
00:45:46,220 --> 00:45:50,300
Mexican journalism destroying
the woman in in less than five,

484
00:45:50,300 --> 00:45:51,900
six, seven days.

485
00:45:55,860 --> 00:46:00,020
Diego Rivera was really -
he behaved very well because he...

486
00:46:00,020 --> 00:46:02,060
..he accompanied Tina.

487
00:46:02,060 --> 00:46:03,660
He took care of her.

488
00:46:03,660 --> 00:46:06,020
He defended her from journalists.

489
00:46:07,140 --> 00:46:08,740
He was very good at that time.

490
00:46:08,740 --> 00:46:10,460
Very extraordinary.

491
00:46:13,820 --> 00:46:17,220
Diego Rivera says that he came
to Tina Modotti's rescue,

492
00:46:17,220 --> 00:46:19,420
in his autobiography.

493
00:46:19,420 --> 00:46:21,780
He was called to testify.

494
00:46:28,420 --> 00:46:32,620
I'm sure Frida would have been
impressed by Diego's actions,

495
00:46:32,620 --> 00:46:36,260
standing up for their comrade
and their close friend.

496
00:46:36,260 --> 00:46:41,020
She knows that her friend is,
um, crushed.

497
00:46:41,020 --> 00:46:44,020
So that, I think,
would have a huge effect on her.

498
00:47:04,380 --> 00:47:07,340
Frida Kahlo understands
what was happening.

499
00:47:07,340 --> 00:47:11,780
She knows, of course, being with
Diego Rivera, in a way, provides

500
00:47:11,780 --> 00:47:13,620
a safe haven for her.

501
00:47:15,060 --> 00:47:17,220
He was her way out.

502
00:47:18,820 --> 00:47:22,420
And although she wanted
to be independent,

503
00:47:22,420 --> 00:47:25,540
as a woman on her own,

504
00:47:25,540 --> 00:47:27,220
it was impossible to do.

505
00:47:46,540 --> 00:47:49,300
I don't know if she convinced
Diego Rivera

506
00:47:49,300 --> 00:47:52,460
or Diego Rivera
ask her to be married,

507
00:47:52,460 --> 00:47:55,860
but what they did
was something very small.

508
00:47:55,860 --> 00:47:59,820
They went to a civil ceremony -
only Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo,

509
00:47:59,820 --> 00:48:01,380
and her father.

510
00:48:01,380 --> 00:48:03,660
The mother didn't go.

511
00:48:03,660 --> 00:48:08,620
Remember, a person 20 years older,
and a communist -

512
00:48:08,620 --> 00:48:11,900
impossible for the mother
to accept it.

513
00:48:20,740 --> 00:48:22,740
Isn't she...
She's smoking, isn't she?

514
00:48:22,740 --> 00:48:24,340
She's smoking.

515
00:48:24,340 --> 00:48:26,980
So she's incredibly irreverent
about this situation

516
00:48:26,980 --> 00:48:28,860
of getting married.

517
00:48:28,860 --> 00:48:30,500
It's hilarious.

518
00:48:32,660 --> 00:48:36,140
She looks - Frida Kahlo!

519
00:48:36,140 --> 00:48:39,500
She doesn't pretend anything
that she's not. Mm?

520
00:48:51,020 --> 00:48:54,100
So it was kind of crazy,

521
00:48:54,100 --> 00:48:55,740
crazy wedding.

522
00:48:57,260 --> 00:49:01,300
The photo came out in the press,
of course.

523
00:49:01,300 --> 00:49:03,540
There was a huge scandal
because of the ages.

524
00:49:03,540 --> 00:49:06,420
You know, Frida was 22
and Diego was 44,

525
00:49:06,420 --> 00:49:08,700
or something like that.

526
00:49:08,700 --> 00:49:13,660
Diego was like, "Finally,
I can construct a life."

527
00:49:13,660 --> 00:49:15,380
The face of him was like,

528
00:49:15,380 --> 00:49:17,780
"Finally, I can construct
something."

529
00:49:25,060 --> 00:49:29,220
I think Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera
fell in love very quickly.

530
00:49:29,220 --> 00:49:34,220
I think they... There was a mutual
attraction they had for each other.

531
00:49:34,220 --> 00:49:35,860
He was not a guy...

532
00:49:35,860 --> 00:49:37,500
He just didn't want to get married.

533
00:49:37,500 --> 00:49:40,140
I mean, he didn't really believe
in marriage.

534
00:49:40,140 --> 00:49:43,740
And he'd been with women for a long,
long time, you know,

535
00:49:43,740 --> 00:49:47,780
women who he had a serious
relationship and had children with,

536
00:49:47,780 --> 00:49:50,700
and yet he didn't want to marry
them, but he almost immediately

537
00:49:50,700 --> 00:49:54,940
wanted to marry Frida Kahlo.
So I think that does say something.

538
00:49:57,580 --> 00:50:02,740
When Frida and Diego married
her father, Guillermo,

539
00:50:02,740 --> 00:50:04,900
was in terrible problems of...

540
00:50:04,900 --> 00:50:09,540
He has a loan on their house
that he was almost going to lose

541
00:50:09,540 --> 00:50:12,340
the Blue House,
and Diego paid for everything,

542
00:50:12,340 --> 00:50:15,220
he paid for the house and he
put it through Frida's name.

543
00:50:16,780 --> 00:50:20,140
And I think her father saw
that this man could take care

544
00:50:20,140 --> 00:50:24,580
of Frida, and probably her father
realised that he wasn't going

545
00:50:24,580 --> 00:50:28,980
to be able to pay all the medical
bills that she was likely to have.

546
00:50:28,980 --> 00:50:34,500
He was one of the five most
well-paid painters in the world,

547
00:50:34,500 --> 00:50:36,260
with Picasso, Matisse...

548
00:50:36,260 --> 00:50:38,740
He was one of the most
well-paid painters.

549
00:50:58,020 --> 00:51:02,900
Immediately, they went to Cuernavaca
to live in the house

550
00:51:02,900 --> 00:51:06,100
of the Ambassador
of the United States in Mexico,

551
00:51:06,100 --> 00:51:08,300
to paint a mural for him.

552
00:51:18,020 --> 00:51:21,100
He accepts that commission
from the US Ambassador.

553
00:51:21,100 --> 00:51:25,500
But this goes against everything
that the Communists stand for.

554
00:51:25,500 --> 00:51:27,700
That's really being a traitor.

555
00:51:29,580 --> 00:51:33,500
All of the other communist artists
say, "We are not accepting money

556
00:51:33,500 --> 00:51:37,220
"from capitalists
for any mural commissions."

557
00:51:37,220 --> 00:51:40,380
Diego Rivera continues to accept.

558
00:51:40,380 --> 00:51:42,780
He actually wanted to just paint.

559
00:51:44,540 --> 00:51:47,940
Remember, this is a time of big
divisions in the Communist Party,

560
00:51:47,940 --> 00:51:51,900
and Diego has been seen as not
supporting the Communist Party line.

561
00:51:51,900 --> 00:51:54,740
Taking work from capitalist
Americans to paint a mural

562
00:51:54,740 --> 00:51:57,020
is the final straw.

563
00:51:57,020 --> 00:51:59,940
The instruction is,
get rid of Rivera,

564
00:51:59,940 --> 00:52:04,340
get him out of the Communist Party,
and that's what happens.

565
00:52:04,340 --> 00:52:08,580
So he says goodbye, but he still
is an artist from the left.

566
00:52:10,820 --> 00:52:12,700
He knew what was going to happen.

567
00:52:12,700 --> 00:52:17,620
There's no way that Diego Rivera
did not know he would be expelled.

568
00:52:17,620 --> 00:52:20,820
And even though it was
a very contentious relationship

569
00:52:20,820 --> 00:52:24,940
with Mexico's Communist Party,
this, this was his life

570
00:52:24,940 --> 00:52:26,300
and these were his friends.

571
00:52:26,300 --> 00:52:28,660
And they were no longer his friends.

572
00:52:28,660 --> 00:52:30,340
They were his enemies.

573
00:52:31,740 --> 00:52:34,860
I always wondered, like,
how must that, must that feel

574
00:52:34,860 --> 00:52:38,940
for Frida Kahlo, losing her friends
as well?

575
00:52:40,540 --> 00:52:42,100
She had no choice, really.

576
00:52:42,100 --> 00:52:44,820
She could not have stayed
with Diego Rivera and remained

577
00:52:44,820 --> 00:52:47,300
in the party when he is expelled.

578
00:52:47,300 --> 00:52:49,540
So...

579
00:52:49,540 --> 00:52:51,540
..what's, what is she going to do?

580
00:52:51,540 --> 00:52:53,660
I mean, she leaves the party.

581
00:53:05,660 --> 00:53:09,100
She describes the first year
of marriage, and she said

582
00:53:09,100 --> 00:53:10,980
that she took care of her house.

583
00:53:10,980 --> 00:53:12,740
She dusted the house.

584
00:53:12,740 --> 00:53:16,580
She spent her time taking
Diego his midday meal,

585
00:53:16,580 --> 00:53:19,100
with sort of flowers and a basket.

586
00:53:21,100 --> 00:53:24,140
I think she did a lot
to please Rivera.

587
00:53:28,540 --> 00:53:32,820
I think she was just playing
the role of his exotic little wife.

588
00:53:32,820 --> 00:53:34,940
And she was...

589
00:53:34,940 --> 00:53:39,100
It wasn't perfect for her because
she had too much,

590
00:53:39,100 --> 00:53:43,820
too much going on inside
to play that role forever.

591
00:53:53,260 --> 00:53:56,980
I think in the first year,
she was, she was happy.

592
00:53:58,420 --> 00:54:03,460
Then half as happy
because Diego Rivera was starting to

593
00:54:03,460 --> 00:54:07,820
get affairs with other women.

594
00:55:10,980 --> 00:55:16,420
I don't... I'm not very sure
that she wanted so...

595
00:55:16,420 --> 00:55:17,980
..erm...

596
00:55:17,980 --> 00:55:21,900
..so...to be a mother.

597
00:55:21,900 --> 00:55:24,500
You know? I'm not sure.

598
00:55:24,500 --> 00:55:29,700
I think that for her,
the most important thing,

599
00:55:29,700 --> 00:55:34,220
apart from her paintings,
was Diego Rivera.

600
00:55:34,220 --> 00:55:39,660
And she says Diego Rivera
is such an important person

601
00:55:39,660 --> 00:55:43,420
that has to be travelling
all the time and working,

602
00:55:43,420 --> 00:55:48,380
and with more important
subjects than being a father.

603
00:55:54,780 --> 00:55:57,420
The first year of marriage,
she lost a child, and Rivera

604
00:55:57,420 --> 00:55:58,980
was having an affair.

605
00:56:00,580 --> 00:56:02,860
She was terribly unhappy.

606
00:56:11,420 --> 00:56:12,700
In 1929,

607
00:56:12,700 --> 00:56:14,500
she paints this portrait.

608
00:56:14,500 --> 00:56:16,660
Time Flies By, as it's known.

609
00:56:18,020 --> 00:56:20,020
What is she saying?

610
00:56:20,020 --> 00:56:22,940
She's searching for her identity
as an artist.

611
00:56:25,900 --> 00:56:31,300
"I may be just married to this great
artist who's larger than me,

612
00:56:31,300 --> 00:56:36,580
"who's more important than me,
he's in the control of everything,

613
00:56:36,580 --> 00:56:41,780
"Everybody thinks I'm Rivera's
wife only. But where am I?"

614
00:56:43,260 --> 00:56:45,340
"I have to find my own place."

615
00:56:48,460 --> 00:56:50,700
"This is my time."

616
00:56:50,700 --> 00:56:54,540
That's what she's saying
with the plane and the clock.

617
00:56:56,500 --> 00:56:57,980
It's not about the past.

618
00:56:57,980 --> 00:56:59,460
It's about now.

619
00:57:06,780 --> 00:57:10,020
So then what's the next step
for the revolutionary artist?

620
00:57:14,340 --> 00:57:16,140
She's 23.

621
00:57:16,140 --> 00:57:18,060
She's in a foreign country.

622
00:57:18,060 --> 00:57:19,820
She had no friends.

623
00:57:19,820 --> 00:57:23,340
In that point,
they only have each other.

624
00:57:23,340 --> 00:57:24,780
It's Diego's world.

625
00:57:24,780 --> 00:57:26,780
He's the famous artist.

626
00:57:26,780 --> 00:57:28,780
She's just starting out.

627
00:57:28,780 --> 00:57:31,740
She was mostly known as
the little wife

628
00:57:31,740 --> 00:57:34,420
to the great, you know, maestro!

629
00:57:38,020 --> 00:57:41,060
You will always be in the shadow.
Always.

630
00:57:44,300 --> 00:57:46,300
"They came at six with the ambulance

631
00:57:46,300 --> 00:57:48,780
"and got her in the agonies
of birth pain,

632
00:57:48,780 --> 00:57:51,100
"out of the pools of blood
she had made.

633
00:57:51,100 --> 00:57:54,420
"She looked so tiny,
her tresses wet with tears."

634
00:57:56,700 --> 00:58:02,420
She's it's as though, with Frida
Kahlo, pain drove her to paint.

635
00:58:05,420 --> 00:58:09,580
She said, "I had to paint it
because I felt murdered by life."

636
00:58:11,740 --> 00:58:14,860
I think she made no concessions
about her art.

637
00:58:14,860 --> 00:58:18,860
She can't make
a conventional portrait.

638
00:58:18,860 --> 00:58:22,460
She was not willing to fulfil
what they expected to see.

639
00:59:36,700 --> 00:59:38,340
BABY CRIES

640
00:59:38,340 --> 00:59:41,880
Let me tell you about a little girl
born in Mexico.

641
00:59:46,500 --> 00:59:49,160
She would grow up to be one
of the most famous artists

642
00:59:49,160 --> 00:59:50,640
in the world.

643
00:59:52,240 --> 00:59:55,400
We all recognise her face,
and that look.

644
00:59:58,200 --> 01:00:00,320
But who was she really?

645
01:00:00,320 --> 01:00:03,920
And why is she more loved now
than ever before?

646
01:00:07,000 --> 01:00:10,520
This daughter of the revolution
lived no ordinary life,

647
01:00:10,520 --> 01:00:13,600
and hers is no easy tale to tell.

648
01:00:15,160 --> 01:00:17,200
Frida Kahlo was a rule breaker.

649
01:00:18,480 --> 01:00:23,280
The way she broke taboos,
the way she broke the norm

650
01:00:23,280 --> 01:00:26,440
was completely revolutionary
and transgressive.

651
01:00:27,960 --> 01:00:31,640
She doesn't respect things
that should be respected,

652
01:00:31,640 --> 01:00:35,040
like birth, blood, miscarriages.

653
01:00:36,160 --> 01:00:38,640
She made no concessions
about her art.

654
01:00:38,640 --> 01:00:42,800
She was strong and ambitious
and answered to no-one,

655
01:00:42,800 --> 01:00:48,000
but she was also driven
and tormented by love.

656
01:00:48,000 --> 01:00:51,240
She said, "I love Diego more
than I love my own life."

657
01:00:51,240 --> 01:00:55,400
She would always come back to
Diego Rivera - like an obsession.

658
01:00:57,200 --> 01:00:59,640
An obsession that was painful.

659
01:01:00,680 --> 01:01:03,720
So why do we still idolise her -

660
01:01:03,720 --> 01:01:06,640
this mixed up mess
of contradictions?

661
01:01:07,760 --> 01:01:10,920
And why can't we take
our eyes off her?

662
01:01:10,920 --> 01:01:13,160
What people see in her

663
01:01:13,160 --> 01:01:17,320
is all that power of rebellion,
irreverence.

664
01:01:18,920 --> 01:01:23,200
For people who are queer,
for people who are brown,

665
01:01:23,200 --> 01:01:26,760
for people who are creative
in different ways.

666
01:01:29,400 --> 01:01:33,200
She teaches us about identity.

667
01:01:33,200 --> 01:01:35,440
Art was her superpower.

668
01:01:38,960 --> 01:01:42,000
In the end,
I don't need her perfect.

669
01:01:42,000 --> 01:01:43,760
She was genius.

670
01:01:45,400 --> 01:01:47,000
TRAIN TOOTS

671
01:01:49,520 --> 01:01:53,560
I think Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera
fell in love very quickly.

672
01:01:53,560 --> 01:01:56,960
She'd become pregnant,
but then lost the child.

673
01:01:58,920 --> 01:02:00,680
She creates a drawing.

674
01:02:00,680 --> 01:02:04,720
On Frida's belly is an image
of a foetus

675
01:02:04,720 --> 01:02:08,320
that looks like she erased
but is still visible.

676
01:02:08,320 --> 01:02:11,440
Diego may have also been
cheating on her.

677
01:02:12,440 --> 01:02:14,960
It wasn't easy, of course,

678
01:02:14,960 --> 01:02:18,640
but Rivera still signified
many things for Frida.

679
01:02:28,200 --> 01:02:30,320
BELL RINGS

680
01:02:30,320 --> 01:02:32,360
TRAIN TOOTS

681
01:02:37,200 --> 01:02:42,880
Mamacita Linda, the route to
San Francisco is just spectacular.

682
01:02:42,880 --> 01:02:45,920
The train travels all along
the coast.

683
01:02:45,920 --> 01:02:49,160
I was delighted to see the sea
for the first time.

684
01:02:56,200 --> 01:03:02,000
When Frida first arrived in the US,
she's 23 and Diego is 43.

685
01:03:02,000 --> 01:03:04,240
She's been married
a little over a year.

686
01:03:09,240 --> 01:03:12,320
So when they arrive, yeah,
they're newlyweds on one level,

687
01:03:12,320 --> 01:03:17,200
but it's not, you know, like,
"Oh, everything is so blissful."

688
01:03:17,200 --> 01:03:19,480
They've already gone through a lot.

689
01:03:19,480 --> 01:03:22,640
But, you know, she had been
wanting to come to San Francisco

690
01:03:22,640 --> 01:03:24,440
since she was a teenager,

691
01:03:24,440 --> 01:03:27,920
and so this was a dream for her,
you know, come true.

692
01:03:29,440 --> 01:03:32,400
MUSIC: Tu Vuo Fa L'Americano
by Renato Carosone

693
01:03:38,480 --> 01:03:41,040


694
01:03:41,040 --> 01:03:43,800


695
01:03:44,760 --> 01:03:46,840


696
01:03:49,480 --> 01:03:53,080
I mean, arriving in San Francisco,
even today,

697
01:03:53,080 --> 01:03:55,680
it's considered the New York
of the west coast.

698
01:03:55,680 --> 01:03:58,400
Very upscale, very cosmopolitan,

699
01:03:58,400 --> 01:04:01,520
with theatres and, erm, promenades.

700
01:04:03,240 --> 01:04:05,960
This city is in
a marvellous location.

701
01:04:05,960 --> 01:04:08,200
There are neighbourhoods
for foreigners

702
01:04:08,200 --> 01:04:10,080
from every part of the world.

703
01:04:10,080 --> 01:04:12,040
We live near Chinatown.

704
01:04:12,040 --> 01:04:16,280
Imagine, there are 10,000
Chinese residents here.

705
01:04:16,280 --> 01:04:18,880
They sell beautiful things
in the stores.

706
01:04:18,880 --> 01:04:22,920
Handmade clothing and textiles
made of the finest silks.

707
01:04:23,960 --> 01:04:28,200
She had to be dazzled
by this glistening city.

708
01:04:31,880 --> 01:04:34,200
Frida just loved seeing the bay,

709
01:04:34,200 --> 01:04:36,440
Fisherman's Wharf.

710
01:04:38,440 --> 01:04:42,240
She really was fascinated
with the Italian fishermen,

711
01:04:42,240 --> 01:04:44,880
as she writes to her mother
on a postcard.

712
01:04:46,280 --> 01:04:50,800
You know, at that time,
it was fish and coffee smells.

713
01:04:53,000 --> 01:04:56,240
Diego hasn't started work yet
painting the mural,

714
01:04:56,240 --> 01:04:59,280
so I'm going here and there
with him all day

715
01:04:59,280 --> 01:05:01,160
and we're very happy.

716
01:05:01,160 --> 01:05:04,160
He's good to me and he loves me,

717
01:05:04,160 --> 01:05:07,160
at least up to now, very much.

718
01:05:08,280 --> 01:05:11,760
It's Diego's world.
He's the famous artist.

719
01:05:11,760 --> 01:05:16,000
He is kind of at the height
of his career.

720
01:05:16,000 --> 01:05:17,880
She's just starting out.

721
01:05:17,880 --> 01:05:23,880
She was mostly known as the
little wife to the great maestro.

722
01:05:25,520 --> 01:05:28,160
She's got a lot of heart,
a lot of chutzpah,

723
01:05:28,160 --> 01:05:30,880
but she's 23.

724
01:05:30,880 --> 01:05:34,120
She had no friends,
she's in a foreign country.

725
01:05:35,160 --> 01:05:38,920
Segregationist signage
that one would see -

726
01:05:38,920 --> 01:05:43,400
no Mexicans, no dogs, no negroes -

727
01:05:43,400 --> 01:05:46,480
this was a common occurrence.

728
01:05:46,480 --> 01:05:49,680
Frida must have felt a little bit...

729
01:05:49,680 --> 01:05:52,640
Felt a little bit as if she
were a second-class citizen.

730
01:06:00,480 --> 01:06:04,160
Diego gave a talk yesterday
at the ladies club.

731
01:06:04,160 --> 01:06:06,960
The gringos are so dull here

732
01:06:06,960 --> 01:06:09,720
that any foolishness
attracts their attention.

733
01:06:09,720 --> 01:06:12,680
They just stand there
with their mouths gaping

734
01:06:12,680 --> 01:06:14,720
when they see my jade necklaces.

735
01:06:15,720 --> 01:06:19,880
They size me up as if I were
some kind of rare beast.

736
01:06:21,200 --> 01:06:24,080
Never is Frida more Mexican...

737
01:06:24,080 --> 01:06:26,720
..than when she's in the US.

738
01:06:32,200 --> 01:06:37,440
She brought this trunk, actually,
full of Mexican clothes

739
01:06:37,440 --> 01:06:39,600
and the jewellery and everything.

740
01:06:41,480 --> 01:06:44,440
She wants to distinguish herself
from the Americans,

741
01:06:44,440 --> 01:06:46,080
from the gringas.

742
01:06:46,080 --> 01:06:49,920
She hates their style. She says that
they're dull and they're scarecrows.

743
01:06:51,000 --> 01:06:55,160
She develops her persona
and her style.

744
01:06:58,160 --> 01:06:59,800
She transforms herself.

745
01:07:03,720 --> 01:07:07,720
People are really taken with her
because there's really nobody

746
01:07:07,720 --> 01:07:09,880
in San Francisco
who's dressed like this,

747
01:07:09,880 --> 01:07:13,200
and so there are stories, you know,
about them walking down the street

748
01:07:13,200 --> 01:07:16,480
in North Beach and people stopping
and kind of commenting

749
01:07:16,480 --> 01:07:19,400
on what she's wearing,
and she loves it.

750
01:07:28,640 --> 01:07:32,280
All the photographers
come to see Diego Rivera

751
01:07:32,280 --> 01:07:37,280
and they find this beautiful,
beautiful, flamboyant woman.

752
01:07:38,840 --> 01:07:43,440
The photographers,
they're going wild over her.

753
01:07:59,080 --> 01:08:01,840
It was a collaboration,
and you can see it.

754
01:08:01,840 --> 01:08:05,160
She knows how to compose herself
and strike a pose

755
01:08:05,160 --> 01:08:08,200
and craft the way she was looking.

756
01:08:10,440 --> 01:08:13,840
She was never an object.
She always had agency.

757
01:08:29,200 --> 01:08:32,640
Diego...loved the United States,

758
01:08:32,640 --> 01:08:36,720
so I think that the idea of Diego
to go into the United States

759
01:08:36,720 --> 01:08:39,480
with his mural says,
"I'm going to be the king

760
01:08:39,480 --> 01:08:42,320
"of the most important country
of the world."

761
01:08:43,720 --> 01:08:45,880
Diego is happy to be painting here.

762
01:08:45,880 --> 01:08:49,280
He has a lot of subject matter
to sketch and draw.

763
01:08:49,280 --> 01:08:53,440
You know how he loves machines,
factories and everything like that.

764
01:08:54,480 --> 01:08:58,280
Rivera is invited to paint
at the stock exchange,

765
01:08:58,280 --> 01:09:02,240
and he made plans
to have this marvellous mural.

766
01:09:05,480 --> 01:09:09,400
As you know, in his heart,
Diego was a communist,

767
01:09:09,400 --> 01:09:12,120
he believed in equality,

768
01:09:12,120 --> 01:09:14,960
yet he paints this mural

769
01:09:14,960 --> 01:09:17,920
in a building that is
a monument to capitalism.

770
01:09:20,200 --> 01:09:24,200
Yes, he's kind of mild
in his criticism

771
01:09:24,200 --> 01:09:26,200
in the stock exchange.

772
01:09:26,200 --> 01:09:27,760
Why?

773
01:09:27,760 --> 01:09:30,200
Because he was amazed
at what he saw.

774
01:09:33,200 --> 01:09:36,720
You're standing in this mine
of gold.

775
01:09:36,720 --> 01:09:40,880
You have oil, you have minerals,
you have industry.

776
01:09:43,160 --> 01:09:46,120
So he becomes seduced by the US, no?

777
01:09:50,640 --> 01:09:53,280
Yesterday, Diego gave a conference.

778
01:09:53,280 --> 01:09:58,400
A large crowd of people attended
and everybody congratulated him.

779
01:09:58,400 --> 01:10:01,680
He's "el gran caca"
here in San Francisco.

780
01:10:01,680 --> 01:10:05,520
They don't even let the poor fellow
go to the bathroom in peace.

781
01:10:06,640 --> 01:10:11,400
Frida sees that Diego was treated
as a cultural hero.

782
01:10:13,000 --> 01:10:16,160
This must have been
very impressive for Frida.

783
01:10:16,160 --> 01:10:19,680
This thing about becoming
an artist is a serious issue.

784
01:10:19,680 --> 01:10:23,280
You can make a living,
you can be respected,

785
01:10:23,280 --> 01:10:25,040
you can be heard.

786
01:10:27,920 --> 01:10:31,280
I've been painting quite a lot -
almost all day.

787
01:10:31,280 --> 01:10:35,160
I've made six pictures and everyone
has liked them very much.

788
01:10:36,200 --> 01:10:39,600
I think this might be the only
opportunity I have to meet people

789
01:10:39,600 --> 01:10:43,560
who perhaps in the future might be
interested in buying my paintings.

790
01:10:44,920 --> 01:10:47,680
She clearly had ambitions.

791
01:10:49,200 --> 01:10:51,320
She's really, I think, flourishing.

792
01:10:52,280 --> 01:10:55,800
Diego, he was proud of her work.

793
01:10:57,120 --> 01:10:59,160
He was there to support Frida.

794
01:11:01,720 --> 01:11:05,280
Diego wants me to have
an exhibition here.

795
01:11:05,280 --> 01:11:09,760
It's an opportunity for me
because I can sell something.

796
01:11:09,760 --> 01:11:12,880
It will be more than silly for me
to pass up this chance,

797
01:11:12,880 --> 01:11:14,600
don't you agree?

798
01:11:21,120 --> 01:11:24,680
So, Diego wanted to find a woman

799
01:11:24,680 --> 01:11:27,280
to represent California.

800
01:11:27,280 --> 01:11:32,200
This woman, she becomes
the earth mother of the mural.

801
01:11:32,200 --> 01:11:34,040
She's the focus of it.

802
01:11:35,120 --> 01:11:39,120
He meets the tennis star
Helen Wills Moody.

803
01:11:39,120 --> 01:11:41,200
She's a star.

804
01:11:41,200 --> 01:11:44,480
She was just on the cover
of famous magazines.

805
01:11:44,480 --> 01:11:46,240
She'd won Wimbledon.

806
01:11:46,240 --> 01:11:51,440
She was really riding this wave
and he really is taken with her.

807
01:11:52,920 --> 01:11:57,200
He refers to her as having
the fine, chiselled features

808
01:11:57,200 --> 01:11:58,920
of a Greek statue.

809
01:12:02,000 --> 01:12:04,480
She's spending all this time
with Diego.

810
01:12:06,160 --> 01:12:07,960
She's posing nude.

811
01:12:10,920 --> 01:12:14,480
Helen had a convertible,
and they would be seen driving

812
01:12:14,480 --> 01:12:19,000
in the hills of San Francisco,
and Diego wouldn't come home.

813
01:12:19,000 --> 01:12:21,600
I think Frida knew
what was going on.

814
01:12:23,480 --> 01:12:26,880
Diego wasn't just unfaithful,
he could be quite cruel.

815
01:12:26,880 --> 01:12:31,640
You know, he could really throw
these affairs in her face.

816
01:12:31,640 --> 01:12:36,240
He's creating this huge image
of her on this wall,

817
01:12:36,240 --> 01:12:39,160
and she's exactly
the opposite of Frida.

818
01:12:43,280 --> 01:12:47,280
Mamacita Linda, I just want to
leave this place.

819
01:12:47,280 --> 01:12:50,200
These dumb gringos
really annoy me now.

820
01:12:53,480 --> 01:12:56,840
I am painting and I hope
I can do the exhibition.

821
01:13:02,320 --> 01:13:05,720
Frida was not happy in the US,
but this doesn't mean

822
01:13:05,720 --> 01:13:08,760
she didn't realise
what you could achieve.

823
01:13:11,480 --> 01:13:13,720
A lot of people look at
this painting

824
01:13:13,720 --> 01:13:16,480
and they think that Frida
is showing herself

825
01:13:16,480 --> 01:13:20,880
as the little wife to
the great, you know, maestro,

826
01:13:20,880 --> 01:13:24,160
but she is making herself stand out.

827
01:13:24,160 --> 01:13:27,720
What is she wearing?
This beautiful red rebozo.

828
01:13:27,720 --> 01:13:29,880
I mean, it just ignites
this painting.

829
01:13:32,480 --> 01:13:36,240
At the top of the painting,
she has included a ribbon

830
01:13:36,240 --> 01:13:39,760
and it says she's painted it
for Albert Bender.

831
01:13:39,760 --> 01:13:43,120
Albert Bender, who's one of
the most important art patrons

832
01:13:43,120 --> 01:13:45,200
of the San Francisco Bay area.

833
01:13:45,200 --> 01:13:48,760
His business was insurance,
but he loved art.

834
01:13:49,760 --> 01:13:52,240
Frida knew exactly
what she was doing.

835
01:13:52,240 --> 01:13:55,280
If she had just done
a self portrait,

836
01:13:55,280 --> 01:14:00,720
I don't think at that time
it would have had the same interest

837
01:14:00,720 --> 01:14:03,680
for people wanting to show it
throughout the US,

838
01:14:03,680 --> 01:14:06,480
because they didn't know
who Frida Kahlo was.

839
01:14:06,480 --> 01:14:10,320
But if they say, "Oh, yeah,
here's this famous Diego Rivera,

840
01:14:10,320 --> 01:14:13,040
"we know him.
Oh, and there's his wife, Frida.

841
01:14:13,040 --> 01:14:16,080
"Oh, and she made the painting.
Oh, how interesting."

842
01:14:17,360 --> 01:14:19,320
She's very canny.

843
01:14:20,320 --> 01:14:22,160
And you know what? It worked.

844
01:14:22,160 --> 01:14:25,640
Because Albert Bender
did loan it to this exhibition

845
01:14:25,640 --> 01:14:27,960
at the Palace of the Legion
of Honor.

846
01:14:27,960 --> 01:14:32,480
It ended up getting discussed
in the Oakland Tribune

847
01:14:32,480 --> 01:14:36,400
and it was actually featured
as the image for this article.

848
01:14:37,440 --> 01:14:41,240
It is in San Francisco,
where Frida Kahlo shows

849
01:14:41,240 --> 01:14:44,120
professionally as an artist
the first time,

850
01:14:44,120 --> 01:14:47,440
so the year and a half
she's in San Francisco,

851
01:14:47,440 --> 01:14:51,240
she does achieve something
important for her.

852
01:14:51,240 --> 01:14:54,800
"I'm becoming an artist,
a professional artist,

853
01:14:54,800 --> 01:14:57,480
"an artist with my own voice.

854
01:14:57,480 --> 01:15:00,800
"All my hard work will take me
somewhere."

855
01:15:04,160 --> 01:15:06,080
FERRY TOOTS

856
01:15:19,440 --> 01:15:23,680
Diego Rivera is a very ambitious
artist,

857
01:15:23,680 --> 01:15:27,160
so if he is going to be painting
large-scale murals,

858
01:15:27,160 --> 01:15:31,600
he needs power-player patrons.

859
01:15:31,600 --> 01:15:38,080
Rockefeller was the richest man
ever existed on Earth.

860
01:15:38,080 --> 01:15:44,160
Nobody else ever has put so
many money in one hand, ever.

861
01:15:45,280 --> 01:15:49,960
How it was possible that he was
doing murals to Rockefeller?

862
01:15:49,960 --> 01:15:52,760
Being a communist
and work for Rockefeller?

863
01:15:52,760 --> 01:15:56,920
If you can think of the worst thing
in life, it was Rockefeller.

864
01:16:00,280 --> 01:16:04,080
The Rockefeller family were one
of the largest art patrons

865
01:16:04,080 --> 01:16:06,840
and they were the force behind
the Museum of Modern Art

866
01:16:06,840 --> 01:16:08,520
in New York City.

867
01:16:08,520 --> 01:16:12,080
Abby Rockefeller,
she commissioned Diego,

868
01:16:12,080 --> 01:16:17,000
and was comfortable with the
communist element in his persona,

869
01:16:17,000 --> 01:16:20,040
in his history, in his politics
and in his art.

870
01:16:21,240 --> 01:16:24,680
So she seemed to be
rather radical...

871
01:16:24,680 --> 01:16:27,200
..for her position in life,

872
01:16:27,200 --> 01:16:29,640
and Frida really liked
Abby Rockefeller.

873
01:16:29,640 --> 01:16:31,480
They seemed to get along well.

874
01:16:40,240 --> 01:16:43,960
Modern art was brand-new
in the United States,

875
01:16:43,960 --> 01:16:49,440
so for him to be included
in a group of modern artists

876
01:16:49,440 --> 01:16:52,680
like Picasso and Matisse,

877
01:16:52,680 --> 01:16:56,640
his career is about to, erm...

878
01:16:57,640 --> 01:16:59,680
..go viral.

879
01:16:59,680 --> 01:17:01,440
SHE LAUGHS

880
01:17:04,440 --> 01:17:08,000
Diego is painting
at the Museum of Modern Art.

881
01:17:08,000 --> 01:17:11,800
After working all day, he has
to get dressed up in a tuxedo

882
01:17:11,800 --> 01:17:13,480
and go out to dine.

883
01:17:13,480 --> 01:17:16,040
Everyone has received us very well

884
01:17:16,040 --> 01:17:21,040
but, no matter what, one just can't
enter into this class of society.

885
01:17:21,040 --> 01:17:25,080
Although the gringas
I've met here are good people,

886
01:17:25,080 --> 01:17:27,520
I don't feel that comfortable
with them.

887
01:17:27,520 --> 01:17:31,880
And besides, I don't really
enjoy friendships that much.

888
01:17:33,480 --> 01:17:36,280
"November 16th, 1931,"

889
01:17:36,280 --> 01:17:37,960
"New York City.

890
01:17:37,960 --> 01:17:42,160
"Met Frida and Diego at this banquet
that was held in his honour.

891
01:17:42,160 --> 01:17:46,360
"I got so excited about Rivera,
I spoke for the entire evening.

892
01:17:46,360 --> 01:17:50,480
"I asked Rivera if I could help him
with his huge frescoes

893
01:17:50,480 --> 01:17:53,320
"and, to my surprise,
he said, 'Sure'."

894
01:17:53,320 --> 01:17:56,560
These are just a few diaries
of my grandmother.

895
01:17:56,560 --> 01:17:59,480
My grandmother, Lucienne Bloch,
was a single woman,

896
01:17:59,480 --> 01:18:02,000
22 years old, aspiring artist.

897
01:18:02,000 --> 01:18:08,360
After discussing fresco for hours
at this banquet, erm...

898
01:18:08,360 --> 01:18:11,960
..Frida walked up to my grandmother
and she said, "I hate you."

899
01:18:11,960 --> 01:18:15,520
She thought she was flirting
with her husband Diego.

900
01:18:15,520 --> 01:18:20,200
Then my grandmother explained,
"I have no signs at all

901
01:18:20,200 --> 01:18:22,320
"to ever make it for your husband,"

902
01:18:22,320 --> 01:18:25,480
and explained that she was
raised in a household

903
01:18:25,480 --> 01:18:28,440
where her father
always had girlfriends.

904
01:18:28,440 --> 01:18:32,320
My grandmother knew exactly
what Frida was going through

905
01:18:32,320 --> 01:18:35,960
but she said she would never,
ever do that to Frida.

906
01:18:35,960 --> 01:18:38,800
And that was the beginning
of their friendship.

907
01:18:44,560 --> 01:18:49,800
Mamacita Linda, we're living in a
very good hotel with every comfort.

908
01:18:49,800 --> 01:18:52,320
The Barbizon-Plaza Hotel.

909
01:18:52,320 --> 01:18:55,480
The hotel is good
but very expensive.

910
01:18:55,480 --> 01:18:59,400
It's a block away from Fifth Avenue,
where all the shameless,

911
01:18:59,400 --> 01:19:02,280
super-rich ricachones live.

912
01:19:02,280 --> 01:19:05,440
"Went to see Frida at her hotel,
Barbizon-Plaza,

913
01:19:05,440 --> 01:19:09,080
"which she can't stand
since the elevator boys snub her

914
01:19:09,080 --> 01:19:11,720
"because they can see
she is no rich person.

915
01:19:11,720 --> 01:19:14,400
"The other day she called one
of them a son of a bitch."

916
01:19:15,720 --> 01:19:19,760
They're snubbing her.
They think she's just a poor pauper.

917
01:19:19,760 --> 01:19:24,240
She's a Mexican, she's wearing
a long skirt, she's not fancy,

918
01:19:24,240 --> 01:19:27,400
so the elevator boys
are kind of like,

919
01:19:27,400 --> 01:19:29,200
"Get your own bag."

920
01:19:33,280 --> 01:19:37,360
The Barbizon Hotel was situated
at the heart

921
01:19:37,360 --> 01:19:41,160
of one of the most expensive
neighbourhoods in Manhattan.

922
01:19:42,440 --> 01:19:45,720
Saks Fifth Avenue, Bergdorf Goodman,

923
01:19:45,720 --> 01:19:48,080
is the place where nobody
can afford to shop.

924
01:19:49,200 --> 01:19:55,680
The Barbizon Hotel overlooks this
beautiful, relatively young park

925
01:19:55,680 --> 01:19:59,680
that is normally breathtaking...

926
01:19:59,680 --> 01:20:01,720
..but at that time...

927
01:20:27,200 --> 01:20:29,720
When they got to San Francisco,

928
01:20:29,720 --> 01:20:33,760
the Great Depression hadn't really
taken hold of the country yet.

929
01:20:34,920 --> 01:20:39,640
By the time they got to New York
in 1931, where wealth and poverty

930
01:20:39,640 --> 01:20:43,240
have routinely lived side-by-side,

931
01:20:43,240 --> 01:20:46,440
now they're literally
on top of each other.

932
01:20:46,440 --> 01:20:49,440
That had to be very disturbing
for both of them.

933
01:20:51,680 --> 01:20:53,920
New York is a Babylon.

934
01:20:53,920 --> 01:20:57,760
There is so much wealth
and such misery at the same time

935
01:20:57,760 --> 01:21:00,720
that it seems unbelievable
that people can bear

936
01:21:00,720 --> 01:21:02,800
such a difference in classes.

937
01:21:04,240 --> 01:21:09,280
There are millions of people
without work and without food

938
01:21:09,280 --> 01:21:13,160
and homeless, and they don't
have even a shimmer of hope.

939
01:21:15,960 --> 01:21:19,200
People were starving everywhere.

940
01:21:19,200 --> 01:21:22,360
Erm, there were protests,

941
01:21:22,360 --> 01:21:28,160
and the violence against
labour union was severe.

942
01:21:32,240 --> 01:21:37,200
What Frida realises when she's here
is that this idea

943
01:21:37,200 --> 01:21:41,200
that the United States is
kind of this land of the free,

944
01:21:41,200 --> 01:21:46,680
this place where no matter who you
are, you can rise up the ladder

945
01:21:46,680 --> 01:21:49,720
and you can make it
as long as you work hard,

946
01:21:49,720 --> 01:21:55,400
what she's discovering is that
a lot of those ideals are myths.

947
01:22:09,480 --> 01:22:12,520
What's interesting in
the MOMA exhibition is that,

948
01:22:12,520 --> 01:22:15,680
because the Depression
has gotten worse,

949
01:22:15,680 --> 01:22:19,400
that there is a lot more, erm...

950
01:22:19,400 --> 01:22:22,600
..room for critiques of capitalism.

951
01:22:25,480 --> 01:22:29,520
Diego Rivera, he essentially
does a series of frescoes.

952
01:22:29,520 --> 01:22:34,200
This central piece, where you have
these three different layers.

953
01:22:35,520 --> 01:22:39,400
You have the tremendous prosperity
of New York City,

954
01:22:39,400 --> 01:22:41,440
even in the middle of a Depression,

955
01:22:41,440 --> 01:22:44,480
and then underneath that
is a flophouse.

956
01:22:44,480 --> 01:22:48,200
You have lots of unemployed.
They're frozen assets.

957
01:22:48,200 --> 01:22:50,880
It's human capital
that's not being put to work.

958
01:22:52,200 --> 01:22:56,680
And then in the bottom level, you
have another set of frozen assets,

959
01:22:56,680 --> 01:22:59,520
and that is a very secure vault

960
01:22:59,520 --> 01:23:02,640
where rich capitalists
are keeping their money.

961
01:23:03,720 --> 01:23:07,160
It is a bold thing to do
and I think this was

962
01:23:07,160 --> 01:23:12,280
a pot-shot of sorts that the
Rockefellers were willing to take.

963
01:23:14,280 --> 01:23:19,160
This fresco is his most overt
critique of US capitalism

964
01:23:19,160 --> 01:23:20,920
up until that point.

965
01:23:21,960 --> 01:23:24,000
And he gets away with it, right?

966
01:23:24,000 --> 01:23:25,360
He's a star.

967
01:23:27,520 --> 01:23:30,360
One would give a right arm
to be invited

968
01:23:30,360 --> 01:23:32,920
to a Museum of Modern Art opening...

969
01:23:34,680 --> 01:23:37,560
..because of the people
you're rubbing elbows with -

970
01:23:37,560 --> 01:23:42,440
the elites of New York
like the Astors and the Whitneys.

971
01:23:43,680 --> 01:23:47,160
Frida was surrounded
by well-known people

972
01:23:47,160 --> 01:23:51,160
like actors Paul Robeson
and Edward G. Robinson.

973
01:23:51,160 --> 01:23:55,680
You also have Alfred Stieglitz,
the gallery owner and photographer,

974
01:23:55,680 --> 01:23:59,120
and his wife, Georgia O'Keeffe,
the painter.

975
01:23:59,120 --> 01:24:01,760
Frida meets Georgia O'Keeffe

976
01:24:01,760 --> 01:24:05,200
and, yeah, they seem to...
they seem to hit it off.

977
01:24:07,520 --> 01:24:10,960
You know, they're at really
different places in their careers.

978
01:24:10,960 --> 01:24:15,400
I mean, Georgia O'Keeffe
is very well known at this point.

979
01:24:19,960 --> 01:24:23,720
In terms of women artists,
she's one of the most well-known,

980
01:24:23,720 --> 01:24:26,880
which, for Frida, would have been
important. Here's a role model,

981
01:24:26,880 --> 01:24:31,160
somebody who made it
as a professional artist.

982
01:24:32,960 --> 01:24:36,080
She sees that it's possible
for a woman artist

983
01:24:36,080 --> 01:24:38,200
to become successful.

984
01:24:38,200 --> 01:24:42,920
She really likes Georgia
and there's this connection.

985
01:24:43,920 --> 01:24:48,080
They did have something more
than just a friendship.

986
01:24:48,080 --> 01:24:49,880
THUNDER

987
01:24:52,960 --> 01:24:57,240
Georgia, it was wonderful
to hear your voice again.

988
01:24:57,240 --> 01:25:01,720
Every day since I called you,
I wanted to write you a letter.

989
01:25:01,720 --> 01:25:07,160
I wrote many, but every one
seemed more stupid and empty

990
01:25:07,160 --> 01:25:08,880
and I tore them up.

991
01:25:08,880 --> 01:25:13,640
I can't write in English all I would
like to tell, especially to you.

992
01:25:13,640 --> 01:25:15,560
I thought of you a lot

993
01:25:15,560 --> 01:25:20,160
and never forget your wonderful
hands and the colour of your eyes.

994
01:25:21,200 --> 01:25:23,200
I will see you soon.

995
01:25:23,200 --> 01:25:25,280
I will bring you flowers.

996
01:25:25,280 --> 01:25:29,760
But it is so difficult to find
the ones I would like for you.

997
01:25:29,760 --> 01:25:32,920
I would be so happy
if you could write to me,

998
01:25:32,920 --> 01:25:34,920
even two words.

999
01:25:34,920 --> 01:25:37,840
I like you very much, Georgia.

1000
01:25:37,840 --> 01:25:39,400
Frida.

1001
01:25:44,640 --> 01:25:47,760
You know, with both Frida and Diego,

1002
01:25:47,760 --> 01:25:51,480
one of the misconceptions
about their relationship

1003
01:25:51,480 --> 01:25:56,680
is that Frida was this victim whose
husband was always cheating on her

1004
01:25:56,680 --> 01:26:00,280
and that she wanted
this monogamous relationship.

1005
01:26:00,280 --> 01:26:02,720
There's an element of that
that's true,

1006
01:26:02,720 --> 01:26:07,960
but she was very comfortable
with her sexuality as well.

1007
01:26:09,920 --> 01:26:14,640
An open relations are
wonderful in theory

1008
01:26:14,640 --> 01:26:17,040
but they're complicated
in execution.

1009
01:26:18,080 --> 01:26:21,440
Frida Kahlo and Georgia O'Keeffe
became friends.

1010
01:26:21,440 --> 01:26:23,240
They had...

1011
01:26:23,240 --> 01:26:25,160
..a small affair.

1012
01:26:25,160 --> 01:26:28,640
They had a connection
on a very personal level.

1013
01:26:30,240 --> 01:26:35,200
But nobody could have substituted
what Rivera meant for Kahlo.

1014
01:26:40,280 --> 01:26:42,560
I think she needed him
and he needed her

1015
01:26:42,560 --> 01:26:45,440
and I don't think either of them
could function very well

1016
01:26:45,440 --> 01:26:47,200
without the other one.

1017
01:26:50,720 --> 01:26:54,320
I mean, she said, "I love Diego
more than I love my own life."

1018
01:27:10,160 --> 01:27:13,160
Winter here is the saddest thing.

1019
01:27:13,160 --> 01:27:16,000
The sky is the colour
of a fly's wing

1020
01:27:16,000 --> 01:27:18,800
and the streets are full
of melting snow.

1021
01:27:20,520 --> 01:27:24,320
I'm completely disillusioned
with the famous United States.

1022
01:27:25,360 --> 01:27:27,720
Everything is just for appearances,

1023
01:27:27,720 --> 01:27:31,160
but underneath it all
is nothing but crap.

1024
01:27:31,160 --> 01:27:33,840
Diego feels more or less the same.

1025
01:27:33,840 --> 01:27:37,720
He has developed a distaste
for this country.

1026
01:27:37,720 --> 01:27:41,840
Unfortunately, he has to work,
so we're going to Detroit.

1027
01:27:42,840 --> 01:27:47,520
Diego has a crazy dream of painting
the steel industry there.

1028
01:27:47,520 --> 01:27:51,840
Diego Rivera, he is a man
of two minds,

1029
01:27:51,840 --> 01:27:53,640
as many of us are.

1030
01:27:53,640 --> 01:27:55,720
You know, we want to earn a living,

1031
01:27:55,720 --> 01:27:58,920
we want to improve
our station in life.

1032
01:27:58,920 --> 01:28:03,200
We also understand as workers
what that means.

1033
01:28:04,240 --> 01:28:07,760
So it's a tightrope to navigate.

1034
01:28:22,200 --> 01:28:25,480
The Fords, another wealthy
American family,

1035
01:28:25,480 --> 01:28:28,920
who made their millions
producing cars.

1036
01:28:32,960 --> 01:28:38,280
Ford, he's making his living
by overworking the workers.

1037
01:28:38,280 --> 01:28:41,200
And with the Depression,
nobody's buying cars,

1038
01:28:41,200 --> 01:28:44,320
so you have to lay people off.

1039
01:28:47,280 --> 01:28:50,640
These workers don't have
unemployment benefits.

1040
01:28:50,640 --> 01:28:53,000
They're just laid off and that's it.

1041
01:29:01,680 --> 01:29:03,440
GUNFIRE

1042
01:29:13,200 --> 01:29:14,880
GUNFIRE

1043
01:29:21,440 --> 01:29:25,440
Violence, confrontations,
four deaths, many people injured.

1044
01:29:28,200 --> 01:29:31,800
It's a very complex moment...

1045
01:29:31,800 --> 01:29:34,200
..that Diego and Frida arrive in.

1046
01:29:36,680 --> 01:29:40,440
The question is, will he
convey this in the mural?

1047
01:29:44,520 --> 01:29:49,480
Obviously, Frida, yeah, she was
quite disturbed that, OK, the...

1048
01:29:49,480 --> 01:29:52,360
Here's your patron,
this man who just, you know,

1049
01:29:52,360 --> 01:29:55,240
ordered these peaceful protesters
to be killed.

1050
01:30:01,760 --> 01:30:06,200
There is never the question
of refusing to paint this mural.

1051
01:30:10,680 --> 01:30:13,240
Rivera has leftist politics

1052
01:30:13,240 --> 01:30:16,440
but I think ultimately
they're secondary to...

1053
01:30:16,440 --> 01:30:19,240
..his desire to paint.

1054
01:30:19,240 --> 01:30:21,920
I mean, that's his real passion.

1055
01:30:29,960 --> 01:30:33,920
There is something very
uncomfortable about it.

1056
01:30:35,440 --> 01:30:38,560
And then there's something
extraordinary about what he paints.

1057
01:30:39,640 --> 01:30:43,480
He is deliberately creating a mural

1058
01:30:43,480 --> 01:30:49,280
that glorifies working men
in a modern factory setting.

1059
01:30:49,280 --> 01:30:53,880
That had to be a deliberate
slap in the face to Ford.

1060
01:30:57,240 --> 01:31:00,960
He thinks that the revolution
is going to occur

1061
01:31:00,960 --> 01:31:05,320
by marrying the technology
of the United States

1062
01:31:05,320 --> 01:31:08,160
with the sort of
communist philosophy

1063
01:31:08,160 --> 01:31:11,520
of emphasis on workers' rights.

1064
01:31:13,680 --> 01:31:16,440
These workers on the assembly line,

1065
01:31:16,440 --> 01:31:20,240
they're the real creators
of a utopian future.

1066
01:31:31,920 --> 01:31:36,040
This city seems to me
like a shabby old village.

1067
01:31:36,040 --> 01:31:37,640
I don't like it at all.

1068
01:31:38,680 --> 01:31:43,040
The industrial part of Detroit
is really the most interesting.

1069
01:31:43,040 --> 01:31:46,640
The rest is seen all over
the United States -

1070
01:31:46,640 --> 01:31:48,280
ugly and stupid.

1071
01:31:49,480 --> 01:31:52,440
But Diego is working
very happily here,

1072
01:31:52,440 --> 01:31:54,560
like a child with a new toy.

1073
01:31:59,920 --> 01:32:03,000
She starts actually
going to a studio

1074
01:32:03,000 --> 01:32:06,440
that was set up for her at
the Detroit Institute of Arts.

1075
01:32:07,960 --> 01:32:10,640
While Diego is creating
in the courtyard,

1076
01:32:10,640 --> 01:32:13,240
she's creating in her studio.

1077
01:32:17,480 --> 01:32:20,480
A little bit about what
she thought about Detroit

1078
01:32:20,480 --> 01:32:23,440
comes out in Self-Portrait
On The Borderline,

1079
01:32:23,440 --> 01:32:26,000
where she's standing
on a sort of pedestal

1080
01:32:26,000 --> 01:32:29,440
in a very pretty pink dress.
Very uncharacteristic.

1081
01:32:29,440 --> 01:32:32,240
Not a Tehuana dress, she's in a
little fluffy pink dress.

1082
01:32:34,680 --> 01:32:37,440
On one side in the background
is Mexico,

1083
01:32:37,440 --> 01:32:41,440
the United States on the right,
and the United States is awful.

1084
01:32:41,440 --> 01:32:45,200
It's got smokestacks
besmirching the sky.

1085
01:32:46,960 --> 01:32:50,720
For Frida, this is a little more
of a critique.

1086
01:32:50,720 --> 01:32:55,480
Do you see the American flag
in the smoke of Ford industry?

1087
01:32:55,480 --> 01:32:59,080
She's making a statement
about the United States

1088
01:32:59,080 --> 01:33:02,160
and the power of somebody
like Ford Industries.

1089
01:33:04,440 --> 01:33:09,160
You know, that somebody like Henry
Ford, this man who just, you know,

1090
01:33:09,160 --> 01:33:12,440
ordered these peaceful protesters
to be killed,

1091
01:33:12,440 --> 01:33:15,440
if he can be a hero
in the United States,

1092
01:33:15,440 --> 01:33:17,800
the land of the free,
what does that mean?

1093
01:33:29,520 --> 01:33:32,680
When Diego was working
full-time on the mural,

1094
01:33:32,680 --> 01:33:34,520
Frida is just homesick.

1095
01:33:34,520 --> 01:33:37,440
What am I doing all by myself
in this Detroit apartment...

1096
01:33:38,480 --> 01:33:40,760
..in a place I don't know,
without any friends?

1097
01:33:40,760 --> 01:33:44,200
And then my grandmother comes along
and Frida said, "Don't leave.

1098
01:33:44,200 --> 01:33:46,200
"Just stay with us for a while.

1099
01:33:47,480 --> 01:33:49,080
"Stay with me."

1100
01:33:51,440 --> 01:33:53,920
"June 11th, 1932,

1101
01:33:53,920 --> 01:33:55,760
"Detroit.

1102
01:33:55,760 --> 01:33:58,600
"My God, I never wrote
of Frida's, baby.

1103
01:33:58,600 --> 01:34:02,200
"It has been the biggest subject
in everyone's mind since I'm here."

1104
01:34:03,200 --> 01:34:05,640
I am two months pregnant.

1105
01:34:05,640 --> 01:34:08,680
I want to vomit all the time
and I am fed up.

1106
01:34:08,680 --> 01:34:12,280
I get tired from everything
since my spine hurts.

1107
01:34:12,280 --> 01:34:16,160
At this moment, the situation
for me is rather difficult,

1108
01:34:16,160 --> 01:34:18,040
since poor little Diego,

1109
01:34:18,040 --> 01:34:21,520
no matter how much he wants
to take care of me, he cannot,

1110
01:34:21,520 --> 01:34:24,600
so I will not count on him
for anything.

1111
01:34:24,600 --> 01:34:29,160
I do not know whether it would be
good or not to have a child.

1112
01:34:29,160 --> 01:34:31,480
He didn't want any kids.

1113
01:34:31,480 --> 01:34:37,240
He said, "If you had a baby and I
have a commission, wherever that is,

1114
01:34:37,240 --> 01:34:41,680
"way out of Mexico,
you remain here with the baby.

1115
01:34:41,680 --> 01:34:46,480
"There's no way we can take
the baby around wherever I go,

1116
01:34:46,480 --> 01:34:48,320
"so you decide.

1117
01:34:48,320 --> 01:34:49,920
"You decide.

1118
01:34:49,920 --> 01:34:54,200
"I cannot lead the type of life
that I want with babies.

1119
01:34:54,200 --> 01:34:58,200
"I can take you with me
whenever you want, but that's it."

1120
01:35:01,240 --> 01:35:04,240
I think what I would say is
she felt really conflicted.

1121
01:35:04,240 --> 01:35:08,160
I think, yes, a part of her
very much wanted to have a child.

1122
01:35:15,720 --> 01:35:18,600
"Tuesday, July 5th, 1932.

1123
01:35:18,600 --> 01:35:20,640
"Detroit.

1124
01:35:20,640 --> 01:35:24,520
"Sunday evening, Frida was so blue
and menstruating, so went to bed

1125
01:35:24,520 --> 01:35:27,960
"and doctor came and told her
as usual that it was nothing.

1126
01:35:27,960 --> 01:35:30,520
"In the night, I heard
the worst cries of despair,

1127
01:35:30,520 --> 01:35:33,240
"but thinking that Diego
would call me if I could help,

1128
01:35:33,240 --> 01:35:34,960
"I only dozed and had nightmares.

1129
01:35:34,960 --> 01:35:38,680
"At five, Diego rushes in the room,
all dishevelled and pale,

1130
01:35:38,680 --> 01:35:41,280
"and asks me to call the doctor up.

1131
01:35:41,280 --> 01:35:44,480
"They came at six with ambulance
and got her in the agonies

1132
01:35:44,480 --> 01:35:47,760
"of birth pain out of the pools
of blood she had made

1133
01:35:47,760 --> 01:35:50,720
"and over the huge clots
of blood she kept losing.

1134
01:35:52,200 --> 01:35:54,280
"She looked so tiny.

1135
01:35:54,280 --> 01:35:57,440
"12 years old,
her tresses wet with tears."

1136
01:36:07,440 --> 01:36:09,280
Bad news.

1137
01:36:09,280 --> 01:36:13,440
Yesterday I miscarried
without apparent reason.

1138
01:36:13,440 --> 01:36:15,160
It's all over.

1139
01:36:17,160 --> 01:36:19,080
"I went to visit Frida today.

1140
01:36:19,080 --> 01:36:22,120
"I brought her a fake telegram
from Henry Ford.

1141
01:36:22,120 --> 01:36:25,200
"She laughs and, at the same
instant, cried more and more

1142
01:36:25,200 --> 01:36:27,840
"at the idea of not being able
to have kids."

1143
01:36:32,680 --> 01:36:37,240
The foetus did not take form,
since he came out all disintegrated

1144
01:36:37,240 --> 01:36:41,400
in spite of my being already
three-and-a-half months pregnant.

1145
01:36:42,960 --> 01:36:46,120
Who knows what the devil
is going on inside of me?

1146
01:36:46,120 --> 01:36:49,160
I had such hope
to have a little Dieguito.

1147
01:36:51,880 --> 01:36:53,640
This is...

1148
01:36:54,640 --> 01:36:56,640
This is heartbreaking.

1149
01:37:02,360 --> 01:37:05,160
Small in size, but...

1150
01:37:05,160 --> 01:37:09,240
..just completely overwhelming.

1151
01:37:11,880 --> 01:37:13,640
She is broken.

1152
01:37:14,640 --> 01:37:16,800
She almost died here.

1153
01:37:19,160 --> 01:37:22,320
She calls it The Lost Desire.

1154
01:37:22,320 --> 01:37:24,680
She doesn't call it
Henry Ford Hospital

1155
01:37:24,680 --> 01:37:26,400
the first time she shows it.

1156
01:37:27,480 --> 01:37:31,440
Even if you're ambivalent
about having a child...

1157
01:37:32,440 --> 01:37:35,080
..if you lose a pregnancy...

1158
01:37:36,920 --> 01:37:38,680
..it's a loss.

1159
01:37:41,680 --> 01:37:46,240
Lying in her hospital bed,
floating in a vast empty plane,

1160
01:37:46,240 --> 01:37:50,640
and way in the distance is
the Rouge Plant, where Rivera was.

1161
01:37:51,640 --> 01:37:55,640
The sense of solitude is amplified.

1162
01:37:58,240 --> 01:38:01,160
She's... It's as though
with Frida Kahlo,

1163
01:38:01,160 --> 01:38:04,160
pain drove her to paint.

1164
01:38:07,480 --> 01:38:11,920
It's a woman not shown
from a man's perspective

1165
01:38:11,920 --> 01:38:15,200
but from the perspective
of her own self.

1166
01:38:17,160 --> 01:38:19,880
It is incredibly personal.

1167
01:38:46,160 --> 01:38:48,520
"August, 1932.

1168
01:38:48,520 --> 01:38:51,440
"We watched eclipse
from the museum roof.

1169
01:38:52,520 --> 01:38:55,680
"Frida was cross
and so I hardly spoke to her.

1170
01:38:57,000 --> 01:39:01,440
"Frida working hard,
but she was like the wildest animal

1171
01:39:01,440 --> 01:39:03,680
"when anyone came into the studio.

1172
01:39:03,680 --> 01:39:05,720
"She would be so cross,

1173
01:39:05,720 --> 01:39:09,440
"she would swear each time
a fly came settling on her arm."

1174
01:39:12,160 --> 01:39:14,720
"September, 1932.

1175
01:39:14,720 --> 01:39:18,000
"During lunch, there came
a telegram for Frida.

1176
01:39:18,000 --> 01:39:20,000
"I said how I hated the things,

1177
01:39:20,000 --> 01:39:22,400
"since they generally
always had bad news.

1178
01:39:22,400 --> 01:39:24,120
"This one did.

1179
01:39:24,120 --> 01:39:26,640
"Her ma is very sick in Mexico."

1180
01:39:27,720 --> 01:39:30,640
Frida knows that she's got
to rush to Mexico immediately

1181
01:39:30,640 --> 01:39:32,760
and Diego says,
"You need to go with her."

1182
01:39:33,760 --> 01:39:35,560
TRAIN TOOTS

1183
01:39:35,560 --> 01:39:39,160
My grandmother had her
little Brownie box camera.

1184
01:39:41,200 --> 01:39:44,240
You can tell
she's just so melancholy.

1185
01:39:45,480 --> 01:39:49,400
When you know what she's just
experienced within the last month.

1186
01:39:51,200 --> 01:39:53,480
Sadness - you can see sadness.

1187
01:40:02,160 --> 01:40:05,400
"Friday, September 16th, 1932,

1188
01:40:05,400 --> 01:40:06,960
"Mexico.

1189
01:40:06,960 --> 01:40:09,680
"Went to Coyoacan with Frida.

1190
01:40:09,680 --> 01:40:13,280
"Her ma is in awful shape
and looks deadly pale.

1191
01:40:13,280 --> 01:40:17,080
"Her pa is a dear.
Very fussy, deaf and shabby.

1192
01:40:18,160 --> 01:40:20,640
"Worry hangs on the whole house."

1193
01:40:21,960 --> 01:40:25,240
Her mother is sent to the hospital
to have gallstones removed

1194
01:40:25,240 --> 01:40:27,240
and then she can't withstand...

1195
01:40:27,240 --> 01:40:29,880
Like, 72 hours after,
she passes away.

1196
01:40:34,120 --> 01:40:36,480
Your mother is your roots.

1197
01:40:36,480 --> 01:40:40,360
No matter what kind of relationship
you have with her,

1198
01:40:40,360 --> 01:40:43,240
life changes
when your mother is gone.

1199
01:40:43,240 --> 01:40:46,480
And that is something
all of us have learned.

1200
01:40:46,480 --> 01:40:50,160
Because no matter
when your mother dies,

1201
01:40:50,160 --> 01:40:52,520
it's always premature.

1202
01:40:52,520 --> 01:40:54,400
You're never prepared.

1203
01:41:03,960 --> 01:41:07,640
If you can think about
the losses she's endured

1204
01:41:07,640 --> 01:41:10,360
in just a few months.

1205
01:41:15,920 --> 01:41:19,880
Loses her child
and then her mother dies.

1206
01:41:35,360 --> 01:41:38,400
Trauma is something that...

1207
01:41:39,480 --> 01:41:43,200
..can't be remembered
and can't be forgotten

1208
01:41:43,200 --> 01:41:45,160
because it's so painful.

1209
01:41:46,960 --> 01:41:49,840
You can't find the words
to express it.

1210
01:41:49,840 --> 01:41:51,640
It's unsayable.

1211
01:41:54,960 --> 01:42:01,000
Frida Kahlo is a woman
who can paint something

1212
01:42:01,000 --> 01:42:06,160
that has been almost impossible
to communicate in the past.

1213
01:42:11,240 --> 01:42:17,520
No-one ever, ever thought
that such experiences

1214
01:42:17,520 --> 01:42:19,880
were worthy of representation.

1215
01:42:28,920 --> 01:42:31,240
I adore you, my Diego.

1216
01:42:31,240 --> 01:42:35,720
I feel I have left my child alone
and that he needs me.

1217
01:42:35,720 --> 01:42:39,320
I can't live without you,
my darling little child.

1218
01:42:39,320 --> 01:42:42,640
Everything seems horrible
to me without you.

1219
01:42:42,640 --> 01:42:45,400
I'm more in love with you than ever

1220
01:42:45,400 --> 01:42:48,120
and every day more and more.

1221
01:42:48,120 --> 01:42:50,400
I send you all my love.

1222
01:42:50,400 --> 01:42:52,680
Your nina chiquitita.

1223
01:43:02,440 --> 01:43:05,400
I know that my grandmother talks
about, when they get back,

1224
01:43:05,400 --> 01:43:07,400
that he looked very thin.

1225
01:43:08,400 --> 01:43:10,480
She could barely recognise him.

1226
01:43:10,480 --> 01:43:13,440
But that the work that he had done
was incredible.

1227
01:43:17,880 --> 01:43:21,640
Diego adds a child to his mural.

1228
01:43:29,000 --> 01:43:32,840
I think that, you know,
he was affected by the trauma

1229
01:43:32,840 --> 01:43:35,160
of the miscarriage as well, yeah.

1230
01:43:38,920 --> 01:43:41,280
I think he did care.
I think he was really...

1231
01:43:41,280 --> 01:43:44,200
I think Diego was really afraid
that Frida was going to die.

1232
01:44:09,600 --> 01:44:11,440
"I went to see Frida today.

1233
01:44:11,440 --> 01:44:15,520
"She seemed so glad to see us and
said she's been sometimes so lonely

1234
01:44:15,520 --> 01:44:18,000
"in the afternoons
that she would just cry.

1235
01:44:20,680 --> 01:44:23,040
"We passed all afternoon in a movie

1236
01:44:23,040 --> 01:44:25,680
"to see the gruesome film
Frankenstein,

1237
01:44:25,680 --> 01:44:27,960
"which Frida wanted to see again.

1238
01:44:27,960 --> 01:44:31,280
"It was the kind of thing
to joke about..." It's alive!

1239
01:44:31,280 --> 01:44:33,960
"..so exaggerated
was the gloominess.

1240
01:44:33,960 --> 01:44:37,680
"Then went to a Spanish restaurant
and had a kind of strong stuff

1241
01:44:37,680 --> 01:44:40,480
"like vodka, which one drinks
with lemon and salt.

1242
01:44:40,480 --> 01:44:43,880
"We acted most crazy
and laughed a lot together."

1243
01:44:47,160 --> 01:44:50,240
I do think it's pretty nice, yeah.

1244
01:44:50,240 --> 01:44:53,160
That they got to hang out
and just be normal together.

1245
01:45:12,720 --> 01:45:15,720
The Rockefeller Center
is a moneymaking

1246
01:45:15,720 --> 01:45:18,240
capitalist dream come true.

1247
01:45:18,240 --> 01:45:22,680
Taller than almost any other
buildings in the country.

1248
01:45:22,680 --> 01:45:26,000
70 floors of offices,

1249
01:45:26,000 --> 01:45:30,680
you know, TV and film studios,
retail shops.

1250
01:45:30,680 --> 01:45:33,200
There is a skating rink.

1251
01:45:33,200 --> 01:45:35,680
It is impressive.

1252
01:45:44,160 --> 01:45:47,360
The mural shows a man at the centre

1253
01:45:47,360 --> 01:45:51,200
standing over kind of a glass orb

1254
01:45:51,200 --> 01:45:53,120
with options.

1255
01:45:53,120 --> 01:45:59,160
On his right, he can opt for
an orderly communist world.

1256
01:46:01,240 --> 01:46:04,640
On the other side of
the mural is the...

1257
01:46:04,640 --> 01:46:08,720
..decadent capitalist world,

1258
01:46:08,720 --> 01:46:12,440
where babies are crawling
around naked, unattended,

1259
01:46:12,440 --> 01:46:14,960
where people are drinking alcohol.

1260
01:46:16,160 --> 01:46:19,440
The repression of striking workers,

1261
01:46:19,440 --> 01:46:22,200
erm, the use of gas masks.

1262
01:46:23,240 --> 01:46:26,200
So far, you know, provocative,
but OK.

1263
01:46:26,200 --> 01:46:30,200
And then he decides...

1264
01:46:30,200 --> 01:46:34,160
..if he's gotten this far,
he can go one step further.

1265
01:46:39,480 --> 01:46:41,640
He inserts Lenin in the mural.

1266
01:46:43,960 --> 01:46:49,680
Lenin is the communist Russian
leader who ousts the tzars,

1267
01:46:49,680 --> 01:46:52,880
who were the Rockefellers of Russia,

1268
01:46:52,880 --> 01:46:55,960
in a very aggressive way,

1269
01:46:55,960 --> 01:47:00,640
and converts Russia into a country

1270
01:47:00,640 --> 01:47:05,720
where, theoretically, wealth
is going to be shared equally

1271
01:47:05,720 --> 01:47:10,280
and there will be no super rich
and no extremely poor.

1272
01:47:10,280 --> 01:47:15,160
So this man is the antichrist
to wealthy America.

1273
01:47:17,160 --> 01:47:19,520
I think he has something to prove.

1274
01:47:19,520 --> 01:47:23,240
I mean, in some ways,
he more than makes up for

1275
01:47:23,240 --> 01:47:25,880
not taking a stand in Detroit.

1276
01:47:33,720 --> 01:47:36,440
He was asked to remove
the portrait of Lenin.

1277
01:47:37,440 --> 01:47:40,720
But Diego Rivera,
a card carrying communist,

1278
01:47:40,720 --> 01:47:44,640
absolutely refuses
to alter his mural.

1279
01:47:46,160 --> 01:47:49,160
As a result, a disaster occurs.

1280
01:47:50,920 --> 01:47:54,440
"Frida told me not to lose a minute
and make photos of the fresco,

1281
01:47:54,440 --> 01:47:57,120
"since things rash might happen
any time now.

1282
01:47:59,240 --> 01:48:02,600
"I got up at seven and went to
Rockefeller Center to make photos,

1283
01:48:02,600 --> 01:48:04,600
"though it was absolutely forbidden.

1284
01:48:04,600 --> 01:48:06,640
"They couldn't possibly do anything

1285
01:48:06,640 --> 01:48:08,960
"to such a tremendous
piece of artwork."

1286
01:48:08,960 --> 01:48:12,200
And she slips her camera out
at one point.

1287
01:48:12,200 --> 01:48:15,000
She doesn't put it up to her face,
but she puts it right here

1288
01:48:15,000 --> 01:48:17,720
and she just snaps some photographs,
as much as she can.

1289
01:48:17,720 --> 01:48:21,040
And these are the only
existing photographs.

1290
01:48:23,280 --> 01:48:25,720
"Four armed guards
walked into the lobby.

1291
01:48:25,720 --> 01:48:29,280
"I saw them guarding the gates,
covering every glass space

1292
01:48:29,280 --> 01:48:33,200
"with tarpaulin so no-one would know
what was happening from outside.

1293
01:48:34,240 --> 01:48:37,200
"I was so furious,
my heart almost burst.

1294
01:48:37,200 --> 01:48:40,400
"We were the last out.
The rest is in the papers."

1295
01:48:42,880 --> 01:48:45,680
Workers for the Rockefellers

1296
01:48:45,680 --> 01:48:49,280
came in the wee hours with pickaxes

1297
01:48:49,280 --> 01:48:52,000
and hacked it off the wall.

1298
01:48:53,480 --> 01:48:56,720
Of course, it puts him
at the centre of a controversy

1299
01:48:56,720 --> 01:48:59,480
and on the front pages
of newspapers.

1300
01:49:01,440 --> 01:49:04,480
You cannot destroy
a 40 foot work of art

1301
01:49:04,480 --> 01:49:07,720
by one of the most
renowned artists in the world.

1302
01:49:07,720 --> 01:49:11,640
But what can you do? It's destroyed.
You can't fix it now.

1303
01:49:33,880 --> 01:49:36,280
Imagine all of this happening

1304
01:49:36,280 --> 01:49:39,640
for the young Frida Kahlo
in her early 20s.

1305
01:49:42,520 --> 01:49:45,040
I think she was fed up
of the situation.

1306
01:49:45,040 --> 01:49:47,680
She felt...powerless.

1307
01:49:49,920 --> 01:49:53,160
She realises how important he is.

1308
01:49:54,160 --> 01:49:56,640
But then when they're censored...

1309
01:49:56,640 --> 01:49:58,600
..this same system...

1310
01:49:59,720 --> 01:50:03,040
..can destroy you
if you don't follow the rules.

1311
01:50:03,040 --> 01:50:05,160
She said, "What are we doing here?

1312
01:50:07,000 --> 01:50:10,880
"If they don't appreciate
who you are, let's go back."

1313
01:50:19,240 --> 01:50:22,480
So when they get back to Mexico,
I think he's having

1314
01:50:22,480 --> 01:50:26,640
a kind of existential crisis because
it's like, "OK, what do I do now?"

1315
01:50:26,640 --> 01:50:30,400
He's on top of the world
and then everything falls apart.

1316
01:50:30,400 --> 01:50:33,760
He was grumpy and miserable.

1317
01:50:33,760 --> 01:50:37,240
He was furious at Frida
for making him go back to Mexico.

1318
01:50:38,720 --> 01:50:41,520
It wasn't her doing,
it was his own doing

1319
01:50:41,520 --> 01:50:44,000
that forced him to go back
to Mexico.

1320
01:50:45,160 --> 01:50:47,480
And they were not getting along
at all.

1321
01:50:55,960 --> 01:51:01,160
So he returns to the National Palace
and he paints the last wall.

1322
01:51:02,680 --> 01:51:06,880
It sort of completes the staircase
mural that he starts in 1929.

1323
01:51:12,120 --> 01:51:16,280
In that last wall, the present
and future of Mexico.

1324
01:51:16,280 --> 01:51:21,280
He paints this sort of
radical vision of Mexico,

1325
01:51:21,280 --> 01:51:24,040
sort of consumed in
class confrontation.

1326
01:51:29,720 --> 01:51:33,400
And he paints Frida and her sister
right next to each other.

1327
01:51:53,880 --> 01:51:56,000
Cristina has left her husband,

1328
01:51:56,000 --> 01:51:58,680
so she kind of becomes
a part of their world.

1329
01:51:58,680 --> 01:52:02,160
They take her in to help her out.

1330
01:52:03,880 --> 01:52:06,080
Frida is portrayed as a teacher.

1331
01:52:08,200 --> 01:52:10,880
Sitting right next to her
is Cristina,

1332
01:52:10,880 --> 01:52:13,160
presented in a much more
sensual way.

1333
01:52:30,240 --> 01:52:33,520
He's representing Frida
along with her sister

1334
01:52:33,520 --> 01:52:36,240
at the same time that
he's sleeping with her sister.

1335
01:52:38,840 --> 01:52:41,240
It was completely devastating.

1336
01:52:42,920 --> 01:52:45,640
This, for Frida, was a treason.

1337
01:52:48,840 --> 01:52:52,200
She cut her hair off,
she cut off her long hair,

1338
01:52:52,200 --> 01:52:54,160
and he loved her long hair.

1339
01:52:56,440 --> 01:52:58,280
She was mad as hell.

1340
01:53:01,480 --> 01:53:04,520
It was impossible for Frida
to prevent that

1341
01:53:04,520 --> 01:53:08,000
Rivera couldn't have affairs
with other women.

1342
01:53:08,000 --> 01:53:12,760
As long as this woman meant
nothing to him, she was safe.

1343
01:53:12,760 --> 01:53:15,640
She was the principal woman
in his life.

1344
01:53:15,640 --> 01:53:18,280
She was the partner,
she was the wife,

1345
01:53:18,280 --> 01:53:21,520
she was the friend and the lover.

1346
01:53:43,600 --> 01:53:46,480
Frida wrote, "I thought
this was nothing...

1347
01:53:47,520 --> 01:53:51,240
"..and now I realise
how wrong I am."

1348
01:53:51,240 --> 01:53:54,760
Rivera was not only playing
with Cristina,

1349
01:53:54,760 --> 01:53:58,040
he was thinking of having
something more stable.

1350
01:53:59,160 --> 01:54:02,400
He helped Cristina to find
a place where they can meet.

1351
01:54:03,680 --> 01:54:07,680
This was not something that was
over a couple of weeks later...

1352
01:54:08,920 --> 01:54:11,640
..so it becomes something different.

1353
01:54:11,640 --> 01:54:15,680
What does he want?
To have them both at the same time?

1354
01:54:18,720 --> 01:54:24,680
For the first time in her life,
Cristina dreamt of being the wife

1355
01:54:24,680 --> 01:54:29,680
of Diego Rivera and enjoying
the place that her sister had.

1356
01:54:29,680 --> 01:54:32,960
Like being introduced
to wonderful people

1357
01:54:32,960 --> 01:54:36,680
and receiving all kinds
of attentions.

1358
01:54:37,880 --> 01:54:41,040
The treason, it's both ways.

1359
01:54:41,040 --> 01:54:43,440
Your husband and your...

1360
01:54:43,440 --> 01:54:47,240
Not only your sister,
your best friend,

1361
01:54:47,240 --> 01:54:49,920
your companion, your all.

1362
01:54:51,200 --> 01:54:53,040
It was terrible.

1363
01:54:53,040 --> 01:54:58,200
That is the reason of painting
Unos Cuantos Piquetitos.

1364
01:55:05,480 --> 01:55:10,200
It just shows her absolute rage
and misery at that time.

1365
01:55:11,920 --> 01:55:17,040
She said, "I had to paint it
because I felt murdered by life."

1366
01:55:18,760 --> 01:55:23,440
Her body torn apart through stabbing
and full of blood.

1367
01:55:23,440 --> 01:55:26,200
Woman as a sexual object...

1368
01:55:26,200 --> 01:55:28,960
..used and thrown away.

1369
01:55:28,960 --> 01:55:32,760
Just imagine this in the 1930s
in Mexico.

1370
01:55:34,160 --> 01:55:36,000
It's about her pain,

1371
01:55:36,000 --> 01:55:38,920
but I think it's about the pain
that women endure.

1372
01:55:38,920 --> 01:55:41,680
You know, violence committed
against women.

1373
01:55:44,640 --> 01:55:48,200
She doesn't know where she's
standing any more with Diego.

1374
01:55:50,240 --> 01:55:55,200
The affair made her rethink,
what was Rivera capable of?

1375
01:55:57,960 --> 01:56:02,640
Was he selfish enough
to destroy everything they had?

1376
01:56:11,000 --> 01:56:13,760
REPORTER: Mexico is about
the only land that will have him.

1377
01:56:13,760 --> 01:56:16,080
He's dodged about from country
to country,

1378
01:56:16,080 --> 01:56:19,200
so here he is, Trotsky,
landing at Tampico with his wife.

1379
01:56:19,200 --> 01:56:23,200
All the world was following
what was happening

1380
01:56:23,200 --> 01:56:27,480
and Frida was there, right in
the middle of this turmoil.

1381
01:56:27,480 --> 01:56:30,680
If Diego Rivera crosses a line,
it's with her sister, right?

1382
01:56:30,680 --> 01:56:33,080
Nothing hurts her more than that.

1383
01:56:33,080 --> 01:56:35,760
And if she crosses a line
in return,

1384
01:56:35,760 --> 01:56:39,920
it is sleeping with
his political mentor.

1385
01:56:46,200 --> 01:56:48,200
It's a terrible time for Frida.

1386
01:56:49,280 --> 01:56:52,200
The painting is a message
for Rivera.

1387
01:56:53,280 --> 01:56:57,000
This is what you have done.
You have torn me apart.

1388
01:57:02,200 --> 01:57:06,280
The irony of all this is,
when she is in the climax

1389
01:57:06,280 --> 01:57:09,440
of her intellectual capacities
as an artist,

1390
01:57:09,440 --> 01:57:12,880
her body turns off...

1391
01:57:13,920 --> 01:57:16,440
..and the pain takes over.

1392
01:58:34,700 --> 01:58:36,340
BABY CRIES

1393
01:58:36,340 --> 01:58:39,580
Let me tell you about
a little girl born in Mexico.

1394
01:58:44,500 --> 01:58:48,620
She would grow up to be one of the
most famous artists in the world.

1395
01:58:50,340 --> 01:58:53,220
We all recognise her face,
and that look.

1396
01:58:56,380 --> 01:58:58,460
But who was she really?

1397
01:58:58,460 --> 01:59:01,740
And why is she more loved now
than ever before?

1398
01:59:05,020 --> 01:59:08,540
This daughter of the revolution
lived no ordinary life.

1399
01:59:08,540 --> 01:59:11,660
And hers is no easy tale to tell.

1400
01:59:13,100 --> 01:59:15,340
Frida Kahlo was a rule-breaker.

1401
01:59:16,580 --> 01:59:18,980
The way she broke taboos,

1402
01:59:18,980 --> 01:59:21,100
the way she broke the norm,

1403
01:59:21,100 --> 01:59:24,420
was completely revolutionary
and transgressive.

1404
01:59:26,060 --> 01:59:29,620
She doesn't respect things
that should be respected.

1405
01:59:29,620 --> 01:59:34,100
Like birth, blood, miscarriages.

1406
01:59:34,100 --> 01:59:37,220
She made no concessions
about her art.

1407
01:59:37,220 --> 01:59:39,420
She was strong and ambitious

1408
01:59:39,420 --> 01:59:41,340
and answered to no-one,

1409
01:59:41,340 --> 01:59:46,060
but she was also driven
and tormented by love.

1410
01:59:46,060 --> 01:59:49,260
She said, "I love Diego
more than I love my own life."

1411
01:59:49,260 --> 01:59:53,420
She would always come back
to Diego Rivera, like an obsession.

1412
01:59:55,340 --> 01:59:57,180
An obsession that was painful.

1413
01:59:58,860 --> 02:00:01,940
So, why do we still idolise her?

1414
02:00:01,940 --> 02:00:04,340
This mixed-up mess
of contradictions.

1415
02:00:05,620 --> 02:00:09,020
And why can't we take
our eyes off her?

1416
02:00:09,020 --> 02:00:15,260
What people see in her is all that
power of rebellion, irreverence.

1417
02:00:16,940 --> 02:00:21,220
For people who are queer,
for people who are brown,

1418
02:00:21,220 --> 02:00:24,780
for people who are creative
in different ways.

1419
02:00:27,500 --> 02:00:31,140
She teaches us about identity.

1420
02:00:31,140 --> 02:00:33,340
Art was her superpower.

1421
02:00:36,900 --> 02:00:40,100
In the end,
I don't need her perfect.

1422
02:00:40,100 --> 02:00:41,660
She was genius.

1423
02:00:46,020 --> 02:00:48,980
June 11th, 1932. Detroit.

1424
02:00:48,980 --> 02:00:51,700
My God, I never wrote
of Frida's baby.

1425
02:00:51,700 --> 02:00:55,460
It has been the biggest subject
in everyone's mind since I'm here.

1426
02:00:58,820 --> 02:01:01,260
If you lose a pregnancy,

1427
02:01:01,260 --> 02:01:03,780
it's a heartbreaking loss.

1428
02:01:08,420 --> 02:01:13,180
No matter when your mother dies,
it's always premature.

1429
02:01:13,180 --> 02:01:14,860
You're never prepared.

1430
02:01:18,460 --> 02:01:22,940
Diego Rivera paints Frida and her
sister right next to each other,

1431
02:01:22,940 --> 02:01:25,300
at the same time
that he's sleeping with her sister.

1432
02:01:38,140 --> 02:01:39,580
FOGHORN

1433
02:01:39,580 --> 02:01:41,300
GULLS CRY

1434
02:01:53,740 --> 02:01:56,300
REPORTER: Mexico is about
the only land that will have him.

1435
02:01:56,300 --> 02:01:58,140
He's dodged about from country
to country.

1436
02:01:58,140 --> 02:02:01,220
So here he is, Trotsky,
landing at Tampico with his wife.

1437
02:02:03,140 --> 02:02:06,180
Leon Trotsky arrives to Mexico
in 1937,

1438
02:02:06,180 --> 02:02:07,980
and Frida actually goes to meet him.

1439
02:02:09,340 --> 02:02:12,260
Leon Trotsky
was a Russian revolutionary,

1440
02:02:12,260 --> 02:02:14,900
second only to Vladimir Lenin.

1441
02:02:14,900 --> 02:02:18,380
And in the post-Lenin rivalry
with Stalin,

1442
02:02:18,380 --> 02:02:20,540
he ultimately lost out.

1443
02:02:20,540 --> 02:02:25,060
Stalin had Trotsky
expelled from the country.

1444
02:02:25,060 --> 02:02:28,140
So Trotsky went from country
to country to country

1445
02:02:28,140 --> 02:02:30,740
without a home for many years.

1446
02:02:32,060 --> 02:02:33,980
He really has no place to go,

1447
02:02:33,980 --> 02:02:36,780
and there's a sort of desperate
attempt by his followers

1448
02:02:36,780 --> 02:02:39,780
throughout the world to find
a safe place for him.

1449
02:02:42,060 --> 02:02:44,300
Security is an essential issue.

1450
02:02:44,300 --> 02:02:46,900
This is a man who is clearly
being hunted

1451
02:02:46,900 --> 02:02:49,700
by Stalinists throughout the world.

1452
02:02:49,700 --> 02:02:55,140
And Diego Rivera is the most
famous Trotskyist in Mexico.

1453
02:02:56,340 --> 02:02:59,500
And, so, because of
the stature of Diego Rivera,

1454
02:02:59,500 --> 02:03:02,740
bringing him home to Frida's house
makes a lot of sense.

1455
02:03:10,620 --> 02:03:13,180
Trotsky arrived at
a very interesting moment

1456
02:03:13,180 --> 02:03:14,580
in Frida Kahlo's life.

1457
02:03:17,540 --> 02:03:21,100
She came back to Mexico by late '33,

1458
02:03:21,100 --> 02:03:24,380
and then, suddenly,
she discovered the affair

1459
02:03:24,380 --> 02:03:28,740
between Rivera and Cristina,
her sister.

1460
02:03:28,740 --> 02:03:31,300
You know, it seems that the affair
went on for years, too.

1461
02:03:31,300 --> 02:03:33,340
Like, it wasn't just a short fling.

1462
02:03:35,060 --> 02:03:37,860
What's amazing, though,
to me, about Frida, ultimately,

1463
02:03:37,860 --> 02:03:41,380
is that she comes around
and embraces her sister

1464
02:03:41,380 --> 02:03:43,580
and forgives her.

1465
02:03:43,580 --> 02:03:46,820
And she also forgives Diego.

1466
02:03:49,220 --> 02:03:53,060
Deep down, you and I love
each other very much.

1467
02:03:53,060 --> 02:03:55,380
And even if we go through
countless affairs,

1468
02:03:55,380 --> 02:03:58,260
we shall always love each other.

1469
02:03:58,260 --> 02:04:01,260
All these things that have happened
and happened again

1470
02:04:01,260 --> 02:04:04,100
for the seven years
we've lived together,

1471
02:04:04,100 --> 02:04:06,820
and all the rages
that I've gone into,

1472
02:04:06,820 --> 02:04:09,140
have only led me
to understand better

1473
02:04:09,140 --> 02:04:12,900
that I love you more
than my own skin.

1474
02:04:12,900 --> 02:04:15,420
She always seemed to forgive Rivera.

1475
02:04:15,420 --> 02:04:18,020
But I think what Frida did

1476
02:04:18,020 --> 02:04:20,620
was began to have love affairs
of her own.

1477
02:04:22,780 --> 02:04:26,340
Trotsky is somebody she admired,

1478
02:04:26,340 --> 02:04:27,980
because he was a survivor.

1479
02:04:27,980 --> 02:04:29,820
He was a revolutionary.

1480
02:04:30,940 --> 02:04:37,300
So because she's attracted to
his level of intelligence,

1481
02:04:37,300 --> 02:04:39,780
why not become closer to Trotsky?

1482
02:04:42,220 --> 02:04:45,140
If Diego Rivera crosses a line,
it's with her sister.

1483
02:04:45,140 --> 02:04:47,220
Nothing hurts her more than that.

1484
02:04:47,220 --> 02:04:50,780
And if she crosses a line in return,

1485
02:04:50,780 --> 02:04:55,300
it is sleeping with his
political mentor.

1486
02:04:59,060 --> 02:05:02,500
There's sort of a wonderful leverage
in it.

1487
02:05:12,460 --> 02:05:16,780
From 1936 to 1938,

1488
02:05:16,780 --> 02:05:18,780
I did nothing but paint.

1489
02:05:18,780 --> 02:05:22,100
This way, I am going to be able
to be free.

1490
02:05:22,100 --> 02:05:26,860
I'll be able to do what I want
without asking Diego for money.

1491
02:05:26,860 --> 02:05:31,100
The arrival of Trotsky,
and soon after, Andre Breton,

1492
02:05:31,100 --> 02:05:34,180
the founder of the
Surrealist movement in France,

1493
02:05:34,180 --> 02:05:37,340
amplifies the stage for her art

1494
02:05:37,340 --> 02:05:40,340
at a time when she
is taking herself seriously

1495
02:05:40,340 --> 02:05:41,940
as an artist for the first time.

1496
02:05:45,740 --> 02:05:47,940
Andre Breton was the founder,

1497
02:05:47,940 --> 02:05:49,300
basically, of surrealism,

1498
02:05:49,300 --> 02:05:52,220
in terms of artistic movement.

1499
02:05:58,380 --> 02:06:01,380
So this guy is the big deal.

1500
02:06:01,380 --> 02:06:04,220
And, of course, when she finds out

1501
02:06:04,220 --> 02:06:06,940
that he's coming to Mexico
to meet Trotsky,

1502
02:06:06,940 --> 02:06:10,460
she prepares herself
through her work.

1503
02:06:16,260 --> 02:06:18,260
She did a self-portrait of her,

1504
02:06:18,260 --> 02:06:20,500
which she gave away to Trotsky,

1505
02:06:20,500 --> 02:06:24,860
to make sure this was hanging
at his office at the Blue House.

1506
02:06:24,860 --> 02:06:30,020
Knowing that would be the
first painting Breton himself saw.

1507
02:06:31,300 --> 02:06:34,420
And Breton falls enchanted.

1508
02:06:37,860 --> 02:06:40,660
I have, for long, admired

1509
02:06:40,660 --> 02:06:44,260
the self-portrait
by Frida Kahlo de Rivera,

1510
02:06:44,260 --> 02:06:47,220
that hangs on the wall
of Trotsky's study.

1511
02:06:50,260 --> 02:06:54,580
But my surprise and joy
was unbounded

1512
02:06:54,580 --> 02:06:56,860
when I discovered

1513
02:06:56,860 --> 02:07:02,820
that her work has blossomed forth
into pure surreality.

1514
02:07:06,740 --> 02:07:09,780
She's sort of calculating in terms
of her art,

1515
02:07:09,780 --> 02:07:13,940
because she is a voracious reader
of other people's styles.

1516
02:07:15,940 --> 02:07:18,820
An absolute original,
but she is aware of the things

1517
02:07:18,820 --> 02:07:20,460
that are going on internationally,

1518
02:07:20,460 --> 02:07:22,980
and incorporates them
and makes them her own.

1519
02:07:25,100 --> 02:07:28,740
She excelled to make an impact
on Breton.

1520
02:07:29,820 --> 02:07:32,780
The paintings are totally surrealist

1521
02:07:32,780 --> 02:07:35,620
in their proposal,
in their language.

1522
02:07:35,620 --> 02:07:39,060
And one of these paintings is
the most surrealist work Frida did,

1523
02:07:39,060 --> 02:07:41,940
which is What Water Gave Me,
from 1938.

1524
02:07:44,220 --> 02:07:47,900
Which is not only a very interesting
painting from the perspective

1525
02:07:47,900 --> 02:07:50,540
of Frida's own position
as a woman artist,

1526
02:07:50,540 --> 02:07:53,660
but the way she perceives
unconsciousness

1527
02:07:53,660 --> 02:07:56,260
and portrays it in the painting.

1528
02:07:56,260 --> 02:08:00,020
And, of course, What Water Gave Me
is a self-portrait,

1529
02:08:00,020 --> 02:08:03,540
but it is a self-portrait
seen through the eyes

1530
02:08:03,540 --> 02:08:06,740
and the ideas of surrealism.

1531
02:08:06,740 --> 02:08:10,540
Which, of course, had a huge impact
on Andre Breton.

1532
02:08:12,140 --> 02:08:17,220
He was convinced that Frida
was the most surrealist artist

1533
02:08:17,220 --> 02:08:19,060
that he had ever encountered.

1534
02:08:32,180 --> 02:08:35,060
I have never had an exhibition
before.

1535
02:08:35,060 --> 02:08:38,340
I was always shy and afraid
to show my things.

1536
02:08:38,340 --> 02:08:42,020
The first time in my life I sold
a work was a few weeks ago.

1537
02:08:43,460 --> 02:08:49,420
She, in 1938, returns on her own
to New York.

1538
02:08:49,420 --> 02:08:52,340
Not as Diego Rivera's wife,

1539
02:08:52,340 --> 02:08:56,220
but she comes to have
her first solo exhibition

1540
02:08:56,220 --> 02:08:57,900
at the Julien Levy Gallery.

1541
02:09:00,980 --> 02:09:05,260
Julien Levy was the most
outspoken representative

1542
02:09:05,260 --> 02:09:07,260
of surrealist artists in New York.

1543
02:09:08,460 --> 02:09:11,420
And, of course, Andre Breton decides

1544
02:09:11,420 --> 02:09:14,580
he wants to write the presentation
for Frida's show.

1545
02:09:15,860 --> 02:09:17,940
Frida Kahlo goes to New York

1546
02:09:17,940 --> 02:09:20,300
to have the show
at the Julien Levy Gallery.

1547
02:09:20,300 --> 02:09:23,100
And this is Frida's opportunity

1548
02:09:23,100 --> 02:09:26,140
to really break into
an international stage.

1549
02:09:26,140 --> 02:09:30,660
And, of course, having the patronage
of Andre Breton is a big deal.

1550
02:09:32,620 --> 02:09:36,540
Who else could you think of a woman
artist being able to do this?

1551
02:09:36,540 --> 02:09:38,980
Meeting Trotsky and Breton
in Mexico,

1552
02:09:38,980 --> 02:09:41,060
having a single exhibition
in New York,

1553
02:09:41,060 --> 02:09:44,740
as an artist,
the world is in your hands.

1554
02:09:46,740 --> 02:09:49,940
And for Rivera,
this is what Rivera wanted.

1555
02:09:49,940 --> 02:09:52,100
Somebody equal.

1556
02:09:52,100 --> 02:09:53,380
Another artist.

1557
02:09:56,300 --> 02:09:58,220
If he had come with her,

1558
02:09:58,220 --> 02:10:00,460
all the attention would be on
Diego Rivera.

1559
02:10:01,860 --> 02:10:04,380
Diego Rivera was proud of her.

1560
02:10:04,380 --> 02:10:05,940
He was proud of her.

1561
02:10:16,340 --> 02:10:18,580
REPORTER: Flutter of the week
in Manhattan

1562
02:10:18,580 --> 02:10:21,300
was caused by the first exhibition
of paintings

1563
02:10:21,300 --> 02:10:25,820
by famed muralist Diego Rivera's
German-Mexican wife, Frida Kahlo.

1564
02:10:27,340 --> 02:10:29,140
In a note on her exhibition,

1565
02:10:29,140 --> 02:10:32,700
Surrealist Breton ended
by describing her painting as,

1566
02:10:32,700 --> 02:10:34,860
"A ribbon around a bomb."

1567
02:10:37,780 --> 02:10:39,580
She was totally unknown.

1568
02:10:39,580 --> 02:10:42,300
In New York, I mean, she was nobody.

1569
02:10:42,300 --> 02:10:44,140
She was the wife of Diego Rivera.

1570
02:10:44,140 --> 02:10:46,620
I mean, here she comes along.

1571
02:10:46,620 --> 02:10:51,700
"I'm a Mexican, modern woman artist
showing her work in New York".

1572
02:10:57,420 --> 02:11:00,460
So it's a huge moment
for Frida Kahlo.

1573
02:11:00,460 --> 02:11:03,380
She's there, yes, of course,

1574
02:11:03,380 --> 02:11:07,020
because of all these connections
she and Rivera had...

1575
02:11:08,460 --> 02:11:10,980
..but it's her own work

1576
02:11:10,980 --> 02:11:14,180
and the quality of her painting

1577
02:11:14,180 --> 02:11:15,900
that talks for her.

1578
02:11:22,500 --> 02:11:25,460
Her first solo exhibition,

1579
02:11:25,460 --> 02:11:28,980
November 1st to the 15th,
so just two weeks.

1580
02:11:38,660 --> 02:11:41,340
She shows 25 paintings.

1581
02:11:48,300 --> 02:11:52,420
And it includes
some of the most shocking.

1582
02:12:00,580 --> 02:12:03,940
This was way ahead of what
any other woman artist

1583
02:12:03,940 --> 02:12:06,980
was capable of wanting to show
to the public.

1584
02:12:13,740 --> 02:12:17,540
Her body is the principal role
in these paintings.

1585
02:12:19,820 --> 02:12:22,100
As a woman who gives life,

1586
02:12:22,100 --> 02:12:24,780
or death, in the case of birth.

1587
02:12:25,980 --> 02:12:28,220
A woman who has lost a child.

1588
02:12:34,860 --> 02:12:37,060
A woman who's assassinated.

1589
02:12:42,420 --> 02:12:46,900
To make this the topic of her single
first exhibition in New York,

1590
02:12:46,900 --> 02:12:50,420
among the surrealists
and this sophisticated crowd,

1591
02:12:50,420 --> 02:12:54,660
it was quite daring for Kahlo
to achieve something like this.

1592
02:13:14,340 --> 02:13:16,500
She loved having a show,

1593
02:13:16,500 --> 02:13:18,420
and I think a lot of things sold,

1594
02:13:18,420 --> 02:13:21,460
and she got a nice writeup
in Time magazine,

1595
02:13:21,460 --> 02:13:24,300
which was every artist's dream
at that point.

1596
02:13:25,660 --> 02:13:28,500
Frida has a great success
in New York.

1597
02:13:28,500 --> 02:13:33,420
She's commented in magazines
like Time, like Vogue magazine.

1598
02:13:34,980 --> 02:13:36,540
She's very well received.

1599
02:13:36,540 --> 02:13:39,180
Some of her paintings are purchased.

1600
02:13:39,180 --> 02:13:42,020
She met all kinds of people,
and everybody loved her.

1601
02:13:42,020 --> 02:13:45,340
And at that point, she was having
a love affair with Nick Muray,

1602
02:13:45,340 --> 02:13:48,100
the photographer who took
such great photographs of her.

1603
02:13:53,220 --> 02:13:56,540
Nickolas Muray was a very famous
photographer,

1604
02:13:56,540 --> 02:14:01,660
and he was one of the first who
started doing colour photographs

1605
02:14:01,660 --> 02:14:05,220
with the very special personalities.

1606
02:14:07,700 --> 02:14:11,820
Frida and Nickolas were lovers,
and it lasted for a long while.

1607
02:14:13,340 --> 02:14:16,260
I think she found in Nickolas Muray

1608
02:14:16,260 --> 02:14:18,860
a friend who supported her,

1609
02:14:18,860 --> 02:14:20,580
a lover,

1610
02:14:20,580 --> 02:14:24,860
intelligent, prominent,
well connected.

1611
02:14:24,860 --> 02:14:26,860
I also think he fell in love
with her.

1612
02:14:32,580 --> 02:14:37,100
There's something that you have
to see through the years.

1613
02:14:37,100 --> 02:14:41,780
She was excellent in letting
you know

1614
02:14:41,780 --> 02:14:44,300
as a probable companion

1615
02:14:44,300 --> 02:14:45,940
that you were wonderful,

1616
02:14:45,940 --> 02:14:47,860
that you were the best,

1617
02:14:47,860 --> 02:14:50,780
and that she loved you
more than any one.

1618
02:14:55,380 --> 02:14:58,260
You know, it's not a coincidence

1619
02:14:58,260 --> 02:15:02,420
that Nickolas Muray
becomes her lover.

1620
02:15:02,420 --> 02:15:05,460
He's a pioneer of
colour photography.

1621
02:15:05,460 --> 02:15:08,660
And that was something
she was good at.

1622
02:15:08,660 --> 02:15:11,220
Posing for photographs,
striking a pose,

1623
02:15:11,220 --> 02:15:14,380
performing identities
in front of the camera.

1624
02:15:14,380 --> 02:15:18,460
So when you see this series,

1625
02:15:18,460 --> 02:15:21,260
they're doing it together, right?

1626
02:15:21,260 --> 02:15:24,780
They're collaborating.
And it's magic.

1627
02:15:26,700 --> 02:15:29,740
I love this one, the red rebozo one.

1628
02:15:29,740 --> 02:15:32,020
Because she writes to him,

1629
02:15:32,020 --> 02:15:37,340
"You will always be under
my magenta rebozo

1630
02:15:37,340 --> 02:15:39,220
"on the left side, near my heart".

1631
02:15:40,380 --> 02:15:44,700
And when she writes about this,
she calls it, "FW",

1632
02:15:44,700 --> 02:15:47,780
Fucking Wonder,
with the double entendre.

1633
02:15:51,220 --> 02:15:55,020
You can see by the photos
that Nickolas Muray took of Kahlo,

1634
02:15:55,020 --> 02:15:57,580
how devoted he was to her image.

1635
02:16:01,020 --> 02:16:02,780
But even these photos,

1636
02:16:02,780 --> 02:16:06,420
if you look at them
in a more critical perspective...

1637
02:16:08,100 --> 02:16:10,500
..they were kind of Hollywood style.

1638
02:16:10,500 --> 02:16:15,260
You can't see the real Kahlo through
Nickolas Moray's photographs.

1639
02:16:17,820 --> 02:16:22,300
Frida was a woman more complex,
more complicated.

1640
02:16:23,820 --> 02:16:26,620
The way Muray portrayed Kahlo

1641
02:16:26,620 --> 02:16:29,940
was just a fraction
of her personality.

1642
02:16:43,580 --> 02:16:46,100
For the opening of
Frida's exhibition,

1643
02:16:46,100 --> 02:16:51,380
Rivera and Kahlo
had prepared a very careful list

1644
02:16:51,380 --> 02:16:53,780
of who should be invited and why.

1645
02:16:55,140 --> 02:16:59,620
Rivera had considered that
she should invite Clare Boothe Luce,

1646
02:16:59,620 --> 02:17:02,380
who was editor of Vanity Fair.

1647
02:17:02,380 --> 02:17:05,460
A woman with huge connections
worldwide.

1648
02:17:06,580 --> 02:17:11,300
So you see again
that the two accomplices,

1649
02:17:11,300 --> 02:17:15,420
Rivera and Kahlo,
are preparing the scenario.

1650
02:17:16,340 --> 02:17:18,740
Now, Clare Boothe Luce

1651
02:17:18,740 --> 02:17:21,100
specifically requests from Kahlo

1652
02:17:21,100 --> 02:17:24,340
to make a painting, a portrait,
of Dorothy Hale.

1653
02:17:25,660 --> 02:17:28,900
Dorothy Hale was a dear friend
of Clare Boothe Luce

1654
02:17:28,900 --> 02:17:31,060
who had recently passed away.

1655
02:17:34,020 --> 02:17:37,860
Dorothy Hale was
a not-that-successful actress,

1656
02:17:37,860 --> 02:17:39,740
but she was a very good actress.

1657
02:17:41,020 --> 02:17:43,300
Tonight?

1658
02:17:43,300 --> 02:17:44,940
You wouldn't dare!

1659
02:17:50,540 --> 02:17:52,740
She died by jumping out of
the Hampshire House

1660
02:17:52,740 --> 02:17:54,380
on Central Park South.

1661
02:17:58,580 --> 02:18:03,100
Frida Kahlo writes a letter
to Diego, in which she explains

1662
02:18:03,100 --> 02:18:05,700
what she's going to do
in terms of composition.

1663
02:18:09,420 --> 02:18:11,820
I want this to look
almost like a film.

1664
02:18:14,820 --> 02:18:17,940
I want to portray Dorothy falling.

1665
02:18:20,660 --> 02:18:23,180
And then I want to portray her dead
on the street.

1666
02:18:30,660 --> 02:18:32,940
I think about death very often.

1667
02:18:35,380 --> 02:18:39,660
I do not know what I would do if
I were told I had one hour to live.

1668
02:18:41,660 --> 02:18:44,540
I imagine that if I were dying,

1669
02:18:44,540 --> 02:18:46,380
I would be thinking of Diego.

1670
02:18:57,340 --> 02:19:00,820
When Clare Booth Luce got it,
she couldn't stand it.

1671
02:19:09,100 --> 02:19:13,100
She was sort of angry that Frida
had made that kind of an image.

1672
02:19:13,100 --> 02:19:16,420
It wasn't what was intended,
and she was appalled.

1673
02:19:19,940 --> 02:19:22,500
She can't make
a conventional portrait.

1674
02:19:22,500 --> 02:19:24,540
She has to do something convincing

1675
02:19:24,540 --> 02:19:27,660
in terms of her own needs
as an artist.

1676
02:19:30,900 --> 02:19:34,700
Frida Kahlo cared about
what she had painted there.

1677
02:19:38,140 --> 02:19:40,780
She made no concessions
about her art.

1678
02:19:44,140 --> 02:19:47,860
The only thing I know is I paint
always what passes through my head

1679
02:19:47,860 --> 02:19:50,180
without any other consideration.

1680
02:19:52,700 --> 02:19:56,340
Diegito, I miss you so much,
my darling.

1681
02:19:59,540 --> 02:20:02,540
There are moments when I feel like
going back to Mexico

1682
02:20:02,540 --> 02:20:04,260
more than anything else.

1683
02:20:05,980 --> 02:20:08,740
I need you as I need air to breathe.

1684
02:20:17,460 --> 02:20:22,540
In Mexico, things were not so good
for Diego Rivera.

1685
02:20:25,460 --> 02:20:27,740
Diego is an unemployed artist
at this time.

1686
02:20:27,740 --> 02:20:30,420
In fact, most of the
government muralist projects

1687
02:20:30,420 --> 02:20:32,900
have been abandoned.

1688
02:20:32,900 --> 02:20:39,540
And his relation with Trotsky
starts to deteriorate very quickly.

1689
02:20:42,100 --> 02:20:44,540
Trotsky says to Diego Rivera,

1690
02:20:44,540 --> 02:20:47,380
"You're a great painter,
you're one of the world's best,

1691
02:20:47,380 --> 02:20:50,020
"but you're a child
when it comes to politics".

1692
02:20:50,020 --> 02:20:52,500
This happened over and over again,
evidently.

1693
02:20:52,500 --> 02:20:55,180
And Diego Rivera finally had enough
of it and said,

1694
02:20:55,180 --> 02:20:58,180
"I'm done. I'm out.
I want nothing to do with you."

1695
02:20:59,460 --> 02:21:02,220
So this causes quite an uproar.

1696
02:21:02,220 --> 02:21:06,100
And Leon Trotsky then moves out
of the Blue House.

1697
02:21:09,220 --> 02:21:12,260
This change eventually
would put Trotsky

1698
02:21:12,260 --> 02:21:15,100
into a very dangerous situation.

1699
02:21:17,340 --> 02:21:21,340
And it was just a matter of time
to suffer the consequences.

1700
02:21:32,140 --> 02:21:34,660
MUFFLED CHATTER

1701
02:21:41,140 --> 02:21:45,220
Frida Kahlo is aware of the things
that are going on at home,

1702
02:21:45,220 --> 02:21:48,340
but she gets an invitation
to go to Paris.

1703
02:21:48,340 --> 02:21:50,300
FOGHORN

1704
02:21:50,300 --> 02:21:54,380
Andre Breton invites her to Paris
to have an exhibition.

1705
02:21:56,300 --> 02:22:00,540
I think Paris, for her, is like,
"OK, I'm going to make it."

1706
02:22:02,580 --> 02:22:04,580
And she takes a boat.

1707
02:22:04,580 --> 02:22:07,300
Encouraged by Rivera, by the way,

1708
02:22:07,300 --> 02:22:11,060
because I think he really wanted her
to succeed.

1709
02:22:12,820 --> 02:22:16,780
Mi ninita chiquita, don't be silly.

1710
02:22:16,780 --> 02:22:19,540
I do not want you, for my sake,

1711
02:22:19,540 --> 02:22:22,980
to lose the opportunity
to go to Paris.

1712
02:22:22,980 --> 02:22:26,860
That will be the culmination
of your success in New York.

1713
02:22:26,860 --> 02:22:29,700
Spit on your little hands

1714
02:22:29,700 --> 02:22:32,260
and make something that will
put in shade

1715
02:22:32,260 --> 02:22:33,780
everything around it.

1716
02:22:35,020 --> 02:22:39,620
For you, my chiquita,
deserve everything.

1717
02:22:39,620 --> 02:22:42,420
Your number one toad-frog, Diego.

1718
02:22:48,140 --> 02:22:50,660
REPORTER: For the second time
within a few months,

1719
02:22:50,660 --> 02:22:53,380
France is faced with
the possibility of war.

1720
02:22:53,380 --> 02:22:55,980
This time,
to defend its own territory.

1721
02:22:57,100 --> 02:22:59,700
She comes to Paris.

1722
02:22:59,700 --> 02:23:02,820
It's in the spring of 1939.

1723
02:23:02,820 --> 02:23:06,820
And she feels
that the war is imminent.

1724
02:23:11,180 --> 02:23:15,180
She can't stand the fact
that the surrealists

1725
02:23:15,180 --> 02:23:18,220
sit in cafes and just gossip

1726
02:23:18,220 --> 02:23:20,740
while the world
is falling to pieces.

1727
02:23:24,100 --> 02:23:27,020
Her letters,
especially to Nickolas Muray,

1728
02:23:27,020 --> 02:23:29,580
are, like, scathing.

1729
02:23:30,860 --> 02:23:34,900
You have no idea the kind
of bitches these people are.

1730
02:23:34,900 --> 02:23:37,140
They make me vomit.

1731
02:23:37,140 --> 02:23:40,820
They sit for hours and talk
without stopping,

1732
02:23:40,820 --> 02:23:43,540
thinking themselves
the gods of the world.

1733
02:23:43,540 --> 02:23:46,660
They are so damn intellectual
and rotten

1734
02:23:46,660 --> 02:23:48,660
that I can't stand them any more.

1735
02:23:53,220 --> 02:23:57,940
So, eventually, Andre Breton
organises a show.

1736
02:23:57,940 --> 02:24:00,820
But it's not a solo exhibition,

1737
02:24:00,820 --> 02:24:03,340
it's an exhibition called Mexique.

1738
02:24:04,980 --> 02:24:07,220
It was not a show about Frida.

1739
02:24:07,220 --> 02:24:11,500
Breton wanted to make an exhibition
about his encounter with Mexico

1740
02:24:11,500 --> 02:24:14,180
and what he concluded about Mexico.

1741
02:24:15,900 --> 02:24:19,500
It includes Breton's collection

1742
02:24:19,500 --> 02:24:22,140
of eclectic Mexican folk art.

1743
02:24:23,780 --> 02:24:26,420
A lot of what she calls

1744
02:24:26,420 --> 02:24:28,700
in one of the letters, "junk".

1745
02:24:30,820 --> 02:24:35,380
And 18 paintings by Frida Kahlo.

1746
02:24:38,140 --> 02:24:42,020
Frida was extremely upset when
she found out about this in Paris,

1747
02:24:42,020 --> 02:24:45,860
that her work was going to be shown
side by side market toys!

1748
02:24:48,820 --> 02:24:51,220
There were a few reviews,

1749
02:24:51,220 --> 02:24:54,940
but it's not a triumph
in the way that she had hoped.

1750
02:24:56,700 --> 02:24:59,460
And she can't stand Breton.

1751
02:25:04,100 --> 02:25:08,420
But she loves Jacqueline Lamba,
his wife.

1752
02:25:12,460 --> 02:25:16,260
And apparently,
also has an affair with her

1753
02:25:16,260 --> 02:25:20,140
and has a very long
and beautiful relationship with her.

1754
02:25:23,020 --> 02:25:26,260
Jacqueline Lamba was young,
she was beautiful,

1755
02:25:26,260 --> 02:25:30,900
and Frida was a woman very
responsible of filling in her needs

1756
02:25:30,900 --> 02:25:32,580
in terms of her sexual life.

1757
02:25:40,940 --> 02:25:43,980
But I think Jacqueline
and Nickolas Muray,

1758
02:25:43,980 --> 02:25:47,140
and all these other people
who were significant for Kahlo,

1759
02:25:47,140 --> 02:25:51,500
at the end, they were
fighting against a titan.

1760
02:25:54,420 --> 02:25:55,860
"Dear Jacqueline,

1761
02:25:55,860 --> 02:25:58,580
"the nights are long and difficult.

1762
02:25:58,580 --> 02:26:01,260
"The water, the ship in the dock

1763
02:26:01,260 --> 02:26:05,140
"and the parting that made you
appear so small to my eyes,

1764
02:26:05,140 --> 02:26:07,660
"framed in that round porthole.

1765
02:26:07,660 --> 02:26:09,660
"Everything is untouched,

1766
02:26:09,660 --> 02:26:12,460
"but you know that all my eyes see,

1767
02:26:12,460 --> 02:26:16,660
"all I touch with myself
from any distance, is Diego."

1768
02:26:20,180 --> 02:26:21,900
She came back to Diego Rivera.

1769
02:26:21,900 --> 02:26:24,260
She would always come back
to Diego Rivera.

1770
02:26:27,420 --> 02:26:31,140
She painted for Diego Rivera
to see the paintings.

1771
02:26:31,140 --> 02:26:35,100
She lived and moved and talked

1772
02:26:35,100 --> 02:26:39,220
the way that Diego Rivera
would have liked her.

1773
02:26:39,220 --> 02:26:41,860
She moved around the world

1774
02:26:41,860 --> 02:26:44,220
in order to please Diego Rivera.

1775
02:26:57,940 --> 02:26:59,580
THUNDERCLAP

1776
02:27:05,260 --> 02:27:08,660
Rivera was very proud of Frida Kahlo
having had a show in Paris.

1777
02:27:11,260 --> 02:27:12,980
But she got back...

1778
02:27:15,100 --> 02:27:17,900
..and things were really bad
between them.

1779
02:27:26,620 --> 02:27:30,460
My situation with Diego
was worse and worse,

1780
02:27:30,460 --> 02:27:32,940
till it came to an end.

1781
02:27:32,940 --> 02:27:36,100
He told me the worst things
you can imagine

1782
02:27:36,100 --> 02:27:39,220
and the dirtiest insults
I never expected from him.

1783
02:27:40,900 --> 02:27:43,420
Two weeks ago, we began the divorce.

1784
02:27:46,260 --> 02:27:49,780
The divorce is proposed to Frida.

1785
02:27:49,780 --> 02:27:52,260
It's not like a question,

1786
02:27:52,260 --> 02:27:55,500
it's not like something
we have to discuss.

1787
02:28:01,700 --> 02:28:05,100
She never expected that Rivera

1788
02:28:05,100 --> 02:28:08,820
would terminate the kind of loyalty
they had.

1789
02:28:10,700 --> 02:28:13,380
Because they could have had
huge differences,

1790
02:28:13,380 --> 02:28:15,780
discussions, infidelities,

1791
02:28:15,780 --> 02:28:18,820
but all that was part of the game
they were playing.

1792
02:28:20,020 --> 02:28:23,180
So she just didn't understand
where this came from.

1793
02:28:26,460 --> 02:28:28,060
It's a terrible time for Frida.

1794
02:28:29,500 --> 02:28:31,820
And interesting enough,

1795
02:28:31,820 --> 02:28:35,580
it's the climax of her career
as an artist.

1796
02:29:00,900 --> 02:29:02,180
The Two Fridas.

1797
02:29:04,300 --> 02:29:07,020
Apparently, it's the same woman.

1798
02:29:07,020 --> 02:29:10,460
But when you look carefully,
it's not the same woman.

1799
02:29:13,900 --> 02:29:19,980
One Frida is dressed in white
with a European wardrobe,

1800
02:29:19,980 --> 02:29:22,900
and the Frida on the right

1801
02:29:22,900 --> 02:29:24,620
is a Mexican woman.

1802
02:29:29,980 --> 02:29:32,140
What is she trying to tell us?

1803
02:29:33,780 --> 02:29:37,740
I feel like I am one woman

1804
02:29:37,740 --> 02:29:40,820
and I am another woman
after these events?

1805
02:29:44,420 --> 02:29:48,220
So the first woman
is the woman Rivera met.

1806
02:29:51,380 --> 02:29:55,420
Rivera was the first real man
in her life,

1807
02:29:55,420 --> 02:29:58,660
and they had a marriage.
They had a union.

1808
02:30:00,220 --> 02:30:03,660
But this Frida
is suddenly put aside.

1809
02:30:07,020 --> 02:30:10,820
And the Frida that is left there
has to be strong.

1810
02:30:15,780 --> 02:30:20,020
When you look at it, you see
that both have, like, half hearts,

1811
02:30:20,020 --> 02:30:22,300
both are bleeding.

1812
02:30:22,300 --> 02:30:25,020
And maybe at this point,

1813
02:30:25,020 --> 02:30:29,300
after her miscarriage
and after she's divorcing,

1814
02:30:29,300 --> 02:30:34,060
after Rivera had not just
multiple affairs,

1815
02:30:34,060 --> 02:30:36,260
but one with her sister, as well...

1816
02:30:38,460 --> 02:30:44,140
..maybe she is showing that
the roles of wife and mother

1817
02:30:44,140 --> 02:30:46,980
are wounding experiences for her.

1818
02:30:51,660 --> 02:30:55,220
The post-divorce freedom
is carrying in her hands

1819
02:30:55,220 --> 02:30:59,940
a little miniature portrait of
Diego Rivera when he was a child.

1820
02:31:01,340 --> 02:31:05,940
So the presence of Rivera
diminished in the painting

1821
02:31:05,940 --> 02:31:10,100
up to a small little object
in her hands.

1822
02:31:12,420 --> 02:31:15,500
Frida has played the role
of the mother,

1823
02:31:15,500 --> 02:31:18,220
taking care of this little brat.

1824
02:31:21,220 --> 02:31:24,820
I believe the painting
is a message for Rivera.

1825
02:31:27,180 --> 02:31:29,100
"You have left me like this.

1826
02:31:30,380 --> 02:31:33,500
"Broken, divided.

1827
02:31:33,500 --> 02:31:35,660
"This is what you have done.

1828
02:31:35,660 --> 02:31:37,140
"You have torn me apart."

1829
02:31:45,460 --> 02:31:47,260
BIRDSONG

1830
02:31:52,220 --> 02:31:55,020
She said,
"The minute you divorce me,

1831
02:31:55,020 --> 02:31:57,700
"I don't want you to give me
one cent.

1832
02:31:57,700 --> 02:31:59,780
"I'm going to support myself."

1833
02:32:01,460 --> 02:32:03,700
It's a really interesting period
for her,

1834
02:32:03,700 --> 02:32:06,820
because she decides she's going to
professionalise.

1835
02:32:06,820 --> 02:32:12,300
And she produces these incredible,
incredible self-portraits.

1836
02:32:15,660 --> 02:32:18,380
She said, "What they want
is my self-portrait.

1837
02:32:18,380 --> 02:32:21,140
"That's what they want.
I'm going to do self-portraits."

1838
02:32:26,380 --> 02:32:29,780
She makes all these great
self-portraits in the '40s,

1839
02:32:29,780 --> 02:32:32,100
because this is what collectors
were asking.

1840
02:32:32,100 --> 02:32:36,060
She ends up painting herself
once and over,

1841
02:32:36,060 --> 02:32:38,780
and with monkeys, and two monkeys
and four monkeys.

1842
02:32:40,180 --> 02:32:45,300
And parrots, and you see
in all these self-portraits

1843
02:32:45,300 --> 02:32:47,660
that she's constructing an image.

1844
02:32:50,860 --> 02:32:52,740
They're beautifully done.

1845
02:32:54,540 --> 02:32:56,820
She was never a better painter.

1846
02:32:56,820 --> 02:32:59,780
But at the same time,
they become cryptic.

1847
02:33:01,100 --> 02:33:02,700
Almost like a closed door.

1848
02:33:02,700 --> 02:33:05,060
You can see, but you can't walk in.

1849
02:33:06,580 --> 02:33:09,180
This is what you want to see,
here I am.

1850
02:33:09,180 --> 02:33:12,060
But you don't have a clue
what's going on inside me.

1851
02:33:16,260 --> 02:33:21,420
1940, when she's really,
really trying to be independent,

1852
02:33:21,420 --> 02:33:28,140
she finds out that gallerist
Alberto Misrachi

1853
02:33:28,140 --> 02:33:30,980
sold one of her paintings,

1854
02:33:30,980 --> 02:33:32,620
and she's very excited.

1855
02:33:32,620 --> 02:33:35,300
Misrachi said,
"I have some money for you, Frida.

1856
02:33:35,300 --> 02:33:38,860
"I sold one self-portrait. Great!"

1857
02:33:45,300 --> 02:33:47,940
But then she finds out
that Diego bought it.

1858
02:33:49,260 --> 02:33:51,460
So she writes to him in a letter...

1859
02:33:54,020 --> 02:33:55,620
"All I've done is failed

1860
02:33:57,700 --> 02:34:01,060
"When I was a little girl,
I wanted to be a doctor,

1861
02:34:01,060 --> 02:34:03,140
"and the boss squashed me.

1862
02:34:05,980 --> 02:34:09,100
"I lived with you for ten years
without doing anything

1863
02:34:09,100 --> 02:34:11,780
"but causing you problems.

1864
02:34:11,780 --> 02:34:15,500
"And my painting is useless
to anyone but me

1865
02:34:15,500 --> 02:34:19,060
"and you, who buys it,
knowing that no-one else will."

1866
02:34:28,100 --> 02:34:33,140
Kahlo begins to suffer again
because of her illnesses.

1867
02:34:33,140 --> 02:34:37,180
And the reality in terms
of financial input

1868
02:34:37,180 --> 02:34:40,540
is that Rivera's
taking care of her.

1869
02:34:51,660 --> 02:34:56,340
It is my opinion that the reason
Diego Rivera started a divorce...

1870
02:34:58,140 --> 02:35:01,980
..was Paulette Goddard,
the ex-wife of Charles Chaplin...

1871
02:35:03,540 --> 02:35:07,180
..who was here in Mexico
while Frida was in Paris.

1872
02:35:07,180 --> 02:35:09,620
And when Frida came back from Paris,

1873
02:35:09,620 --> 02:35:13,940
Paulette was living
across the street from the studio,

1874
02:35:13,940 --> 02:35:18,060
behaving like the new companion
of Diego Rivera.

1875
02:35:21,220 --> 02:35:22,780
INCOMING CALL

1876
02:35:22,780 --> 02:35:25,620
One night, I received
a telephone call

1877
02:35:25,620 --> 02:35:28,820
from the movie actress
Paulette Goddard.

1878
02:35:28,820 --> 02:35:33,780
"Diego", she said, her voice
trembling with excitement.

1879
02:35:33,780 --> 02:35:37,940
"If you know anything about
gangster movies, brother,

1880
02:35:37,940 --> 02:35:39,860
"you're on the spot.

1881
02:35:39,860 --> 02:35:42,420
"The cops are swarming around
your studio,

1882
02:35:42,420 --> 02:35:45,060
"and they look like
they mean business."

1883
02:35:47,420 --> 02:35:49,900
On May 24th 1940,

1884
02:35:49,900 --> 02:35:52,420
someone attacked Leon Trotsky.

1885
02:35:56,300 --> 02:35:59,260
They manage to get inside
of Trotsky's house,

1886
02:35:59,260 --> 02:36:03,340
and they shoot it up, unloading
dozens and dozens of bullets

1887
02:36:03,340 --> 02:36:04,860
in Trotsky's bedroom,

1888
02:36:04,860 --> 02:36:07,340
with Trotsky and his wife
hidden underneath the bed.

1889
02:36:10,540 --> 02:36:13,260
They didn't kill Trotsky.

1890
02:36:13,260 --> 02:36:16,540
He survived, almost miraculously.

1891
02:36:18,340 --> 02:36:22,540
So the police are looking for who
could have carried out this attack,

1892
02:36:22,540 --> 02:36:25,620
and they suspect that perhaps
Diego Rivera

1893
02:36:25,620 --> 02:36:27,700
has something to do with it.

1894
02:36:27,700 --> 02:36:30,180
Certainly considering
his recent break with Trotsky.

1895
02:36:31,700 --> 02:36:36,300
So now Rivera knows that the police
want to interrogate him,

1896
02:36:36,300 --> 02:36:38,180
so he escapes from Mexico,

1897
02:36:38,180 --> 02:36:40,300
he travels all the way to
San Francisco,

1898
02:36:40,300 --> 02:36:42,220
with the help of Paulette Goddard.

1899
02:36:44,140 --> 02:36:46,660
And Frida is on her own,

1900
02:36:46,660 --> 02:36:50,060
and she knows
it's just a matter of time,

1901
02:36:50,060 --> 02:36:52,300
something's going to happen to her.

1902
02:36:55,180 --> 02:36:57,300
It's not only the separation
from Diego,

1903
02:36:57,300 --> 02:37:00,860
which in itself would have been
enough to make me sad,

1904
02:37:00,860 --> 02:37:05,900
but there are many other which are
more disgusting and exhausting.

1905
02:37:05,900 --> 02:37:09,300
The limit was when I was arrested
by the police

1906
02:37:09,300 --> 02:37:11,380
on account of the Trotsky affair.

1907
02:37:12,820 --> 02:37:17,300
The police arrest her because
they want to know from her

1908
02:37:17,300 --> 02:37:19,220
where Diego Rivera is.

1909
02:37:19,220 --> 02:37:20,700
But she has no idea.

1910
02:37:23,380 --> 02:37:26,460
After the arrest,
she really hits rock-bottom.

1911
02:37:26,460 --> 02:37:28,580
Not only has Diego divorced her,

1912
02:37:28,580 --> 02:37:30,660
but she's now been arrested,

1913
02:37:30,660 --> 02:37:33,740
embroiled in an extremely dangerous
situation.

1914
02:37:33,740 --> 02:37:38,340
And at this point, she becomes
sicker and sicker and sicker.

1915
02:37:44,420 --> 02:37:47,460
My situation was desperate.

1916
02:37:47,460 --> 02:37:49,860
I didn't know where Diego was.

1917
02:37:49,860 --> 02:37:52,540
If he was dead or alive.

1918
02:37:53,860 --> 02:37:57,380
I was in such a state
that I felt like dying.

1919
02:37:57,380 --> 02:38:02,900
I strongly believe that Rivera
decided to divorce Frida Kahlo

1920
02:38:02,900 --> 02:38:05,700
as a way to keep her safe.

1921
02:38:07,460 --> 02:38:12,460
If, eventually, the Soviet police
decided to go after him,

1922
02:38:12,460 --> 02:38:17,060
at least Frida would be safe
if they were separated.

1923
02:38:19,820 --> 02:38:25,220
But then, a few months later,
a Soviet operative finally kills

1924
02:38:25,220 --> 02:38:28,900
Trotsky with an ice axe
blow to his head.

1925
02:38:32,260 --> 02:38:34,620
It is gruesome. It is gruesome.

1926
02:38:56,140 --> 02:39:01,460
Eventually, Frida Kahlo's health
and Diego Rivera's concern for her

1927
02:39:01,460 --> 02:39:05,580
leads to him insisting
that she come to San Francisco.

1928
02:39:07,340 --> 02:39:12,820
When Frida arrived in San Francisco,
she was suffering such severe pain

1929
02:39:12,820 --> 02:39:15,100
that she could hardly move.

1930
02:39:21,420 --> 02:39:24,900
The stresses and strains
of the past few months

1931
02:39:24,900 --> 02:39:27,780
had borne on her heavily.

1932
02:39:27,780 --> 02:39:30,620
But they were gone now.

1933
02:39:30,620 --> 02:39:34,300
Except for one.
The fact of our separation.

1934
02:39:35,620 --> 02:39:39,700
The doctor who treated Frida Kahlo
in San Francisco said,

1935
02:39:39,700 --> 02:39:43,220
"You both are connected so fully.

1936
02:39:46,220 --> 02:39:50,140
"So why don't you just accept
what you both are?

1937
02:39:51,420 --> 02:39:55,460
"What I see is that Diego Rivera
loves you a lot

1938
02:39:55,460 --> 02:39:58,420
"and that you are decaying
in your health."

1939
02:39:59,780 --> 02:40:02,740
He said that for her health,

1940
02:40:02,740 --> 02:40:06,260
it was much better
to be with Diego Rivera.

1941
02:40:07,620 --> 02:40:11,700
You can't have Frida Kahlo
if you don't understand

1942
02:40:11,700 --> 02:40:13,260
Diego comes first.

1943
02:40:16,140 --> 02:40:18,940
Art itself is not enough.

1944
02:40:18,940 --> 02:40:20,660
At the end,

1945
02:40:20,660 --> 02:40:24,700
where is this woman
without the person she loves?

1946
02:40:29,340 --> 02:40:31,380
There was a co-dependency.

1947
02:40:40,060 --> 02:40:41,660
They decide to get married again.

1948
02:40:41,660 --> 02:40:43,860
MUSIC: Historia De Un Amor
by Carlos Eleta Almaran

1949
02:40:43,860 --> 02:40:46,140
And when they get married
the second time,

1950
02:40:46,140 --> 02:40:49,180
they get married in San Francisco.

1951
02:40:49,180 --> 02:40:52,460
And, uh, it works.

1952
02:40:52,460 --> 02:40:56,340

of my existence...

1953
02:40:56,340 --> 02:40:59,740
The remarriage is working well.

1954
02:40:59,740 --> 02:41:03,100
Few quarrels,
greater mutual understanding,

1955
02:41:03,100 --> 02:41:06,980
and on my part, less bothersome
inquiring into the question

1956
02:41:06,980 --> 02:41:08,940
of other women.

1957
02:41:08,940 --> 02:41:11,900
I finally realised that life
is like that

1958
02:41:11,900 --> 02:41:14,420
and the rest is just
window dressing.

1959
02:41:16,300 --> 02:41:19,260
I really believe when Frida
said that she loved him

1960
02:41:19,260 --> 02:41:21,060
more than her own life.

1961
02:41:21,060 --> 02:41:23,140
She must have hated him
a lot of the time.

1962
02:41:23,140 --> 02:41:26,500
But that didn't mean
she didn't love him.

1963
02:41:26,500 --> 02:41:31,020
Both of them agreed that
they were not going to change.

1964
02:41:31,020 --> 02:41:32,940
Frida Kahlo would live
in the Blue House

1965
02:41:32,940 --> 02:41:35,220
and he would live in the studio.

1966
02:41:35,220 --> 02:41:40,060
And Frida Kahlo would not accept
a cent from Diego Rivera.

1967
02:41:40,060 --> 02:41:43,540
And then she started
really blooming.

1968
02:42:38,940 --> 02:42:42,100
Frida had many friends
in different areas,

1969
02:42:42,100 --> 02:42:47,460
and one of them was the director
of La Esmeralda, the school.

1970
02:42:47,460 --> 02:42:50,700
And she said,
"Why don't you come as a teacher?"

1971
02:43:32,020 --> 02:43:38,660
What she did wonderfully was giving
the hope of being an artist.

1972
02:43:38,660 --> 02:43:42,220
Do what you know,
paint what you know really.

1973
02:43:42,220 --> 02:43:46,060
Your own background,
your own spaces.

1974
02:43:46,060 --> 02:43:50,460
Be yourself and sing,
sing while you're working.

1975
02:43:50,460 --> 02:43:52,740
HE SINGS

1976
02:43:52,740 --> 02:43:58,060
The mark that she made in the life
of these young men was immense.

1977
02:43:59,860 --> 02:44:05,460
They were very young, 14, 15,
poor people, and they loved her.

1978
02:44:44,860 --> 02:44:47,740
THUNDER AND RAINFALL

1979
02:45:41,340 --> 02:45:46,260
By 1944,
Frida was in constant pain.

1980
02:45:46,260 --> 02:45:52,780
And it's like if Frida is lying
on a bed of broken glass.

1981
02:47:09,260 --> 02:47:14,700
She, during this time, painted one
of her most tormented paintings.

1982
02:47:16,940 --> 02:47:19,180
Her hair is swirling
around her neck,

1983
02:47:19,180 --> 02:47:21,100
almost going to choke her.

1984
02:47:22,660 --> 02:47:28,020
She's got Diego Rivera
in her forehead and she's crying.

1985
02:47:28,020 --> 02:47:30,620
It's the one painting
where she almost loses

1986
02:47:30,620 --> 02:47:32,340
that mask of reserve.

1987
02:47:41,860 --> 02:47:43,580
It's over.

1988
02:47:43,580 --> 02:47:45,980
But Diego is in her mind.

1989
02:47:45,980 --> 02:47:49,220
It's the last thing she knows
she counts on.

1990
02:47:54,500 --> 02:47:57,540
She starts working on her diary.

1991
02:48:00,540 --> 02:48:02,660
Written words and drawings.

1992
02:48:06,500 --> 02:48:09,460
Concepts, poetics.

1993
02:48:11,700 --> 02:48:13,980
You can see pieces of her body.

1994
02:48:13,980 --> 02:48:15,980
You see blood.

1995
02:48:15,980 --> 02:48:18,020
Everything is falling apart.

1996
02:48:20,100 --> 02:48:22,460
I keep on wanting to kill myself.

1997
02:48:24,100 --> 02:48:27,540
Diego's what's keeping me from it,
through my vain idea

1998
02:48:27,540 --> 02:48:30,100
that he would miss me.

1999
02:48:30,100 --> 02:48:33,700
She is more poetic
and strong than ever.

2000
02:48:33,700 --> 02:48:38,580
But, the irony of all this is
when she is in the climax

2001
02:48:38,580 --> 02:48:42,340
of her intellectual capacities
as an artist,

2002
02:48:42,340 --> 02:48:48,420
her body turns off
and the pain takes over.

2003
02:48:53,540 --> 02:48:56,300
They amputated my leg
six months ago.

2004
02:48:58,140 --> 02:49:01,380
They've given me centuries
of torture.

2005
02:49:01,380 --> 02:49:04,220
and at moments,
I almost lost my reason.

2006
02:49:05,220 --> 02:49:06,980
Feet.

2007
02:49:06,980 --> 02:49:11,540
What do I need them for,
if I have wings to fly?

2008
02:49:58,140 --> 02:50:02,300
She started not liking
her day-by-day,

2009
02:50:02,300 --> 02:50:06,380
and she started abusing drugs
and alcohol.

2010
02:50:08,140 --> 02:50:13,140
She didn't want to be,
again, picked open.

2011
02:50:15,300 --> 02:50:19,580
No? Everybody will get tired
of that, no? Sooner or later.

2012
02:50:19,580 --> 02:50:22,140
MUSIC: Clair De Lune
by Claude Debussy

2013
02:50:24,980 --> 02:50:30,780
And she started to let herself go.

2014
02:50:38,340 --> 02:50:41,340
For her, the future
was really terrifying,

2015
02:50:41,340 --> 02:50:44,380
and she decided not to go
through that future.

2016
02:50:51,300 --> 02:50:55,300
Diego Rivera was very much aware
that for Frida,

2017
02:50:55,300 --> 02:50:58,300
living like that was almost
impossible.

2018
02:50:59,340 --> 02:51:02,100
He didn't want her
to suffer that much.

2019
02:51:02,100 --> 02:51:07,340
And we don't know whether Frida
took the pills by herself.

2020
02:51:10,420 --> 02:51:13,660
There are some versions
that says that Diego helped her.

2021
02:51:13,660 --> 02:51:17,420
That in the family, it's a taboo.
Nobody talks about that.

2022
02:51:18,540 --> 02:51:22,500
Probably. And I don't feel
like something wrong, no?

2023
02:51:22,500 --> 02:51:26,940
If your companion of life,
of all your life told you,

2024
02:51:26,940 --> 02:51:29,940
"I'm tired.
I really want to go. Help me."

2025
02:51:29,940 --> 02:51:32,980
Well, maybe you try, no?

2026
02:51:37,980 --> 02:51:40,780
I await the exit with joy.

2027
02:51:41,900 --> 02:51:43,860
And I hope never to return.

2028
02:51:45,740 --> 02:51:47,300
Frida.

2029
02:52:05,540 --> 02:52:08,420
BIRDSONG

2030
02:52:21,660 --> 02:52:24,500
BELL TOLLS

2031
02:53:36,780 --> 02:53:42,260
SONG CONTINUES WITH FEMALE VOCAL

2032
02:53:42,260 --> 02:53:44,700
You know, watching that film
footage of the funeral,

2033
02:53:44,700 --> 02:53:47,100
you can feel
the pain of everyone there.

2034
02:53:47,100 --> 02:53:48,780
Even the fact that it was filmed

2035
02:53:48,780 --> 02:53:51,380
shows you how important
and loved she was.

2036
02:53:51,380 --> 02:53:54,020
It captures Diego so heartbroken.

2037
02:54:02,020 --> 02:54:06,340
In that film, you can see his face
becomes like grey and fallen.

2038
02:54:06,340 --> 02:54:09,020
It's just,
everything fell in his face.

2039
02:54:11,380 --> 02:54:15,380
He was described as a soul
cut in two.

2040
02:54:27,060 --> 02:54:29,700
When she passes away,

2041
02:54:29,700 --> 02:54:32,780
his life falls apart as well.

2042
02:54:32,780 --> 02:54:38,860
He's sick of cancer,
but there's no attempt to continue.

2043
02:54:38,860 --> 02:54:43,380
He knows that without Frieda,
his life is also over.

2044
02:55:09,180 --> 02:55:11,860
MUSIC: Gold Dust Woman
by Fleetwood Mac

2045
02:55:14,740 --> 02:55:17,540


2046
02:55:18,820 --> 02:55:25,620

in your shadow

2047
02:55:29,540 --> 02:55:34,140


2048
02:55:34,140 --> 02:55:37,260
AUCTIONEER: I'm going to start the
bidding here at $26 million.

2049
02:55:37,260 --> 02:55:39,860
At 26 million, 27 million,
28 million, $29 million.

2050
02:55:39,860 --> 02:55:41,380
$30 million.

2051
02:55:41,380 --> 02:55:43,420
$31 million. On this side...

2052
02:55:43,420 --> 02:55:48,660
I love to see Frida
claiming $34 million

2053
02:55:48,660 --> 02:55:50,300
for a small painting.

2054
02:55:50,300 --> 02:55:53,580
I love to, because I know
what it means for many others.

2055
02:55:53,580 --> 02:55:58,140


2056
02:56:00,620 --> 02:56:05,420
Whoever opens a door or a window,
opens it for everybody.

2057
02:56:07,260 --> 02:56:10,380
And Frida Kahlo opened windows.

2058
02:56:10,380 --> 02:56:16,060


2059
02:56:17,540 --> 02:56:22,220