All language subtitles for BBC.Becoming.Frida.Kahlo.1080p.HDTV.x265.AAC.MVGroup.org

BABY CRIES

Let me tell you about a little girl
born in Mexico.

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

in the world.

We all recognise her face,
and that look.

But who was she really?

And why is she more loved now
than ever before?

This daughter of the revolution
lived no ordinary life,

and hers is no easy tale to tell.

Frida Kahlo was a rule-breaker.

The way she broke taboos,
the way she broke the norm

was completely revolutionary
and transgressive.

She doesn't respect things
that should be respected,

like birth, blood, miscarriages.

She made no concessions
about her art.

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

But she was also driven
and tormented by love.

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

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

An obsession that was painful.

So why do we still idolise her?

This mixed-up mess
of contradictions.

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

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

irreverence.

For people who are queer,
for people who are brown,

for people who are creative
in different ways.

She teaches us about identity.

Art was her superpower.

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

She was genius.

BELL RINGS

THUNDER RUMBLES

Frida Kahlo was born under the rain.

July is a month of rain in Mexico.

And I have a theory

people that are born
in the rainy season are different.

SHE SPEAKS SPANISH

What doesn't kill you
make you stronger.

At the age of six, I had polio
and my leg began to grow thin.

At first, I assumed that
the children's taunts

wouldn't affect me, but later, they
really did, and each time worse.

As she grew up,

she needed to be different,
and needed to be noticed.

She was a rule-breaker!

She drank too much.

She smoked too much.

She used foul language.

And so what she's saying is,

"Yes. I am something else.

"What am I?"

Frida Kahlo was a daughter
of the Mexican Revolution.

Mexico's revolution is really
the first major social revolution

in the 20th century.

It was the first opportunity
a country had taken to say,

"We want to change things."

"We're going to improve society."

Frida Kahlo claimed that 1910
was her date of birth,

even though she was born in 1907.

She wanted to align
her date of birth

with the birth
of this new Mexico.

She was making a statement
about her devotion to all the layers

of Mexican culture.

Frida came from the village
of Coyoacan,

in the middle of nowhere.

Surrounded by rivers, trees,

animals, flowers, the church.

There isn't really much going on.

So the experience of going
to the National Preparatory School

in Mexico City changed her life.

In those days, it was very few women
who started the preparatory.

You have to bear in mind
that from the generation of 2,000,

there were only 35 women.

Students from very different
backgrounds

would join in a single place
and learned all together.

This is a generation of change.

Frida becomes part of this.

The students were very much
involved into politics.

The Communist Party was very
powerful at that time in Mexico.

And they had meetings
and they had marches.

And Frida joined the young section
of the Communist Party.

Dear Mama,

today I will stay at school
because Diego Rivera

will deliver a lecture.

I believe it's about Russia.

And I would like to learn some
about Russia.

If you would like to come,
let me know at noon.

Send me five cents
for an ice-cream cone

and five cents for quesadillas?

Your daughter, Frida.

If you were a student
in the National Preparatory School

such as Frida was, there is no way
you didn't know who was Diego Rivera

and what he was painting.

For the very young Frida Kahlo,

seeing Rivera talk,

that must have been fascinating.

Mexican muralist -

but a movement that completely
changed the idea of art

in the world.

And my grandfather, Diego, promote
himself as he being the inventor.

And he was the leading head.

The Ministry of Education implements
the idea to produce public art

in public buildings.

We need to let the people,
the common people, know,

through public walls,
what has happened,

and what are we searching for?

In the walls, viewers could see
a contemporary history.

You didn't need to read,
but you could see the wall.

You could follow these stories.

Who was who.

What kinds of battles took place.

If you put yourself in front of
one of these murals,

your life has been changed.

BELL RINGS

I fell in with a group called
Los Cachuchas.

They were not communists,
but liberals.

They were lazy and never studied.

They were called the Cachuchas.

According to their caps
were cachuchas.

I've never heard of that word
for cap, but...

She was very mischievous
and so were they.

I was loafing around in class.

I was with the boys
everywhere they went.

Instead of going to my classes,
I went to theirs.

I barely passed classes,
or I cheated to get good grades.

They were terrible, all of them
terrible and very bad students,

which is something very,
very incredible.

Because they were so bright.
So bright.

The Cachuchas had a lot
of admiration for

Alejandro Gomez Arias.

Gomez Arias was the speaker
in school.

He always participated in all
the meetings and all the trouble.

I fell in love with Gomez Arias
and he with me.

He was handsome.

He was pretty good-looking.

I mean, when I saw him,
he was an old man, but...

But I've seen photographs
of him when he was younger.

And he was very gentle.

They were an interesting pair
that way

because she's kind of fierce
and he was not fierce at all.

When Gomez Arias took me home,

he would kiss me
and recite verses to me.

I was in love with Gomez Arias,
but I was very flirtatious.

He would become horribly jealous.

I wanted him to ravish me.

But he preferred to tell me nice
things, to kiss me and hug me.

He had this passion for her
and she had a passion for him.

He loved the vitality in Frida.

She was beautiful.

I think she was a beautiful girl.

So... And she was more fun
than most people.

Lots of fun.

It was 16 of September,
one day after the grito,

which is a very big festivity
in Mexico

for the independence
of Mexico.

In those days, there was sort of
a fair going around the Zocalo,

in the main plaza.

Frido went to the fair
with Alejandro Gomez Arias,

and there were stands with candies
and with balloons

and with little toys.

And Frida was very fond
of the little toys.

She bought a small umbrella,
this kind of Chinese umbrella

that are used to decorate beverages.

And she was fascinated with that.

They were coming home from Mexico
City on a bus, and the buses

at that point were pretty rickety.

They were wooden.

They were going to get on one bus,
but she'd lost some toy,

therefore they got on the next bus.

She has this quote where she says,

"Most of my friends grow up slowly.
I grew up in an instant."

She was about to be 20.

ALEJANDRO: I was sitting
next to Frida.

The electric train with two cars

approached the bus slowly.

It hit the bus in the middle.

Slowly, the train pushed it.

The bus got ploughed into
by a trolley car.

It was almost as though
it was intentional.

I mean, he just kept coming
and kept coming.

The bus bent more and more.
For a time,

it did not break, but then
it burst into 1,000 pieces.

It ran over many people.

There were dead people
and people screaming.

Naturally, the first thing
that I did was to look for Frida.

I picked her up
and then I noticed with horror

Frida had a piece of iron
in her body.

QUIET BEEPING

Frida's condition was so grave
that the doctors did not think

they could save her.

They thought she would die
on the operating table.

There was a metal handrail
that pierced Frida Kahlo's body.

Everything - she was broken
in many different parts.

In this hospital,

death is dancing around my bed
at night.

I lost my virginity, a kidney
was bruised, I couldn't urinate.

But the thing I complained about
the most was my backbone.

I do not fear death.

It's pain I can't stand.

It's not that Frida Kahlo
starts to paint from zero.

She liked to draw.

She liked art history.

We know that young Frida Kahlo,

she would make these short trips
around Coyoacan,

and she would make drawings.

BELL RINGS

Some people wanted their photos
to have colour, so you needed to

paint over the photo
with a very thin brush.

The father showed Frida
how to do this.

All this is before the accident.

So she's doing portraits of members
of her family, her sisters,

one of her wealthy neighbours.

And she's so pleased with the result

that she writes in the back
of the painting,

"This is my first work of art."

Listen, my Alex, if you can't
come yet, write to me.

You can't know...

Alex, the last time you came,

you told me that you would return
very soon.

One of these days...

The pen doesn't write well in tears.

I have done nothing
but wait for that day

that still hasn't come.

Come to see me, Alex.

I want you to come and tell me
that you love me,

even if it isn't true.

She pleads with him in other letters
to please come and see her.

Oh, it's really horribly painful
because Alejandro began to pull away

from Frida Kahlo while she was
recuperating from the accident.

I think his parents probably thought
"She's not suitable for him,"

and so they sent him off to Europe.

Frida was not an asset.

She had gone out of school,
so it was...

She was not going to be
improving herself.

What is Alejandro Gomez Arias
going to do

with a crippled girlfriend?

So he steps aside, he abandons her.

"He has left me.

"This man who was to be the love
of my life has disappeared."

So she has to rebuild herself
from zero.

Her first self-portrait,

she did it as a gift
for Alejandro Gomez Arias,

at the moment that
he was trying to be...

not be her boyfriend any more.

And she sent it to him
and she sent a note with it saying,

"Please hang it in a low place,
where you can look at it

"as if you were looking at me."

MUSIC: Wish
by Anna Calvi

# I got one more wish
before I die

# So please don't you stop me

# No, don't you stop me... #

It's funny, because if you think
in terms of today,

that would be almost like
an act of harassment, no?

# Like a mirror staring out to sea

# My mind is free

# So please don't you stop me

# No, don't you stop me... #

So the message of Frida
in the painting is,

no matter what happened
to my body...

...I am still here.

And don't you forget that.

It's a very special
painting for her.

VIBRANT LATIN MUSIC

If you want to become an artist
between 1920 and 1940,

you have to be in Mexico.

It was like a procession.

At this time, in the 1920s,

Mexico was fun.

So it was a real flowering
of culture.

After the Mexican Revolution,
people went crazy about Mexico.

They all came.

A huge amount of artists,
they wrote,

they painted,
people from the cinema.

Orson Welles came with
Rita Hayworth, who was really

very extraordinary, very beautiful.

And they were quite taken by,
by Mexico.

They thought it was like
coming to paradise.

By 1927, Frida Kahlo has recovered
sufficiently from her accident

that she wanted to be an artist.

She had ambitions
of being an artist.

She wants to meet them.

Her spirit was back.

And she decided
that she had to paint.

And obviously, she loved doing it.

And I think she must have realised

that she wasn't bad,
she was pretty good.

The reality must have been -
"What is going to be of me

"if I'm not going to be able
to go back to school

"and I'm not going to be able to

"become a doctor,"
as she wished to.

"What is going to happen to me?

"I'm not sure about it.

"I don't know
if I have what it takes."

So she goes to see Rivera,
when he was painting at

the Ministry of Education.

Her approach to Rivera
based on the fact

that he was very important,

he was very well-known.

He had painted murals,
he was a celebrity.

And she had already listened
to him at different lectures

at the National Preparatory School.

Well, that's a strong reason
to approach him, no?

She went to the scaffold
where Rivera was painting.

She wasn't fazed by one of the most
famous artists in the world.

She ordered him to come down
from the scaffold and said,

"Listen, Diego,
I need to make a living.

"Please look at these
and tell me if I'm good enough."

She didn't have many,
but she'd painted a few portraits,

some of them quite good.

And he says, "Yes, there is
definitely something there.

"Interesting.

"You should pursue your idea
of becoming an artist."

He told me that I should try
to paint whatever I wanted,

without being influenced
by anyone else.

That impressed me a lot, and I began
to paint what I believe in.

"I may not be a formal artist
like all you guys, but I am myself

"and I'm going to find my own way."
Which is exactly what she did.

Post-revolutionary Mexico -

it was an opportunity for women,
you know, to stand up and say,

"I'm not going to stay home.

"I'm not just going to be a mother.

"I want to try by my own."

This is the world
that surrounds Frida.

This is the world

she has to find her own path,
her own answers.

For someone as curious as
Frida Kahlo, she would naturally

want to be a part of
what's happening.

She really did - she wanted
to belong with these women.

MELODRAMATIC MUSIC

Tina Modotti is originally
from Italy.

She moved to Hollywood
when she was young

and she was in the silent movies.

And she's quite, you know,
adventurous -

says, "All right," she gets on
a train and moves to Mexico City.

Tina Modotti becomes a photographer
and she's also a political activist.

She was working
for the Communist Party

and she has very strong
leftist views.

And this, I actually think,
is where Tina Modotti becomes...

..quite interesting.

She was a rebel.

There's no question about it.

She's outspoken.

She didn't really believe
in marriage.

She's willing to pose without
her clothes on, without shame.

Frida was fascinated with
this type of woman

that she had never met before.

A young woman, a beautiful one,

a sexy one.

All of us at some point in our lives
have looked up to an older woman

and wanted to be like them.

She's a role model for Frida Kahlo.

Tina Modotti, for example, joins
Mexico's Communist Party in 1927,

and Frida Kahlo joins in 1928.

Frida was seduced by everything -

by Tina, by the Communist
Party, who took her in,

by the group that was there.

There was Julio Antonio Mella,

a Cuban, who was a leader
of students.

Che Guevara was not in
at that time,

but Julio Antonio Mella
was very much in that line

of being the, the perfect hero.

He was totally handsome!
He's very handsome.

And Tina Modotti loves to take
photographs of him.

And they fall madly in love.

At that time, the Communist Party
was very powerful.

It was, it was in fashion in Mexico.

It was Julio Antonio Mella,
it was Diego Rivera.

They were all the elite
of the Communist Party,

and Diego Rivera,

he was quite a monument in Mexico.

CORK POPS

Tina Modotti
threw fantastic parties.

These parties were wild.

And not surprisingly, Diego Rivera
was one of the frequent participants

in this, in these happenings.

And I mean, his reputation
preceded him.

The meeting with Diego was in the
period when people carried pistols.

At a party given by Tina,

Diego shot a phonograph, and I began
to be very interested in him.

In the context of the
post-revolution era in Mexico,

it was common to carry a gun, just,
you know, to keep things straight.

You know?
And Rivera was that kind of man.

And it was then that Frida,

she started to see him
in a different context,

not in terms of the master
who makes murals -

"The man whose opinion
is important to me."

Rivera was impressive.

He was huge.

He had this great personality.

He could be very funny.

He was very outspoken.

You know, everybody listened
when Rivera talked, and I think

this is part of what Frida
starts to see in Rivera.

I think he was the most
famous painter in the world.

Possibly Picasso was more famous
at that time.

So what's not to love about
that for Frida?!

He was,
he was sort of adorable.

I could see it - very easily.

Diego was a macho, but I think...
he was not a womaniser.

You know, a Latin macho
is somebody that denigrates women.

And Diego would never do that.

Never. Never.

He really likes them.

No? He...

But he wasn't able to be with one.

That was a problem.

He always said that
he was good in bed

because he made love
like a woman.

That is something difficult
to understand,

but that's what he said!

There is a very funny story
that when Diego Rivera arrived

to visit Frida,

Guillermo Kahlo asked him,

"I notice that you are
very frequently coming

"to visit my daughter.

"I suppose you are interested
in Frida?"

And Diego says, "Of course,

"otherwise, I didn't come to
Coyoacan, like,

"so far, to see her."

And then Guillermo Kahlo said,
"Ah, but you know she is a demon."

And Diego Rivera said,
"Yes, I know."

"OK, I warn you, like,
it's your problem."

Imagine - there's this, world-famous
artist that is telling you,

"I want to make you a portrait
in the most important mural

"I ever done."

Well, Frida fall immediately.

Absolutely.

Because also,
it's a beautiful portrait.

This must have been
extremely seductive for her.

You know, "This is the way
he sees me.

"This is the way he wants me.

"He wants me to fight.

"He wants me to be a comrade."

No? "I have a voice.

"I'm not just a nice girl

"he likes and wants to go
to bed with."

Once, once Diego
could seduce Frida,

then she became devoted
to Diego Rivera.

I believe they fell in love.

On January 10th, 1929, Tina Modotti
and Julio Mella had attended

a political meeting.

The Mexican government think
he's a troublemaker.

They think he's dangerous,
partly because he is charismatic

and that he can maybe sway
people more... So...

At this point,

Julio Mella has moved in with Tina
Modotti and they could see

the building ahead of them.

But...

GUNSHOTS

..shots rang out and Julio Mella
falls to the ground.

He's 26 years old.

He's quite young when he dies.

Tina Modotti is questioned.

The police suspect her.

What they argue is that, of course,
this is a crime of passion,

that she's in love with somebody
else, and has orchestrated the death

of Julio Mella.

So the police arrest her.

People know that she didn't kill...

She had nothing to do with
Julio Mella.

It's like...

At the same time this is happening
to Tina Modotti

in the police station,

she's being tried in the newspapers.

They're saying, well, basically,

if you're a member of the
Communist Party, if you pose nude,

if you take on numerous lovers,

this is what's going to happen
to you.

They did humiliate her at a time
when she was obviously destroyed.

It's almost like a public shaming
of Tina Modotti.

It's a way, in a sense,
to punish women

who don't live by the morality
of the time.

It's a lesson.

I think all women, including
Frida Kahlo, understand that women

are supposed to live
a certain kind of life.

They're supposed to be married.

They're supposed to be in the house,
cooking, cleaning...

Remember, at this time,

in Mexico, women still don't
have the vote.

During the revolution, there
were a lot of promises made

towards women that they would
have much more equality and in fact,

that, that never happened.

Mexican journalism destroying
the woman in in less than five,

six, seven days.

Diego Rivera was really -
he behaved very well because he...

..he accompanied Tina.

He took care of her.

He defended her from journalists.

He was very good at that time.

Very extraordinary.

Diego Rivera says that he came
to Tina Modotti's rescue,

in his autobiography.

He was called to testify.

I'm sure Frida would have been
impressed by Diego's actions,

standing up for their comrade
and their close friend.

She knows that her friend is,
um, crushed.

So that, I think,
would have a huge effect on her.

Frida Kahlo understands
what was happening.

She knows, of course, being with
Diego Rivera, in a way, provides

a safe haven for her.

He was her way out.

And although she wanted
to be independent,

as a woman on her own,

it was impossible to do.

I don't know if she convinced
Diego Rivera

or Diego Rivera
ask her to be married,

but what they did
was something very small.

They went to a civil ceremony -
only Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo,

and her father.

The mother didn't go.

Remember, a person 20 years older,
and a communist -

impossible for the mother
to accept it.

Isn't she...
She's smoking, isn't she?

She's smoking.

So she's incredibly irreverent
about this situation

of getting married.

It's hilarious.

She looks - Frida Kahlo!

She doesn't pretend anything
that she's not. Mm?

So it was kind of crazy,

crazy wedding.

The photo came out in the press,
of course.

There was a huge scandal
because of the ages.

You know, Frida was 22
and Diego was 44,

or something like that.

Diego was like, "Finally,
I can construct a life."

The face of him was like,

"Finally, I can construct
something."

I think Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera
fell in love very quickly.

I think they... There was a mutual
attraction they had for each other.

He was not a guy...

He just didn't want to get married.

I mean, he didn't really believe
in marriage.

And he'd been with women for a long,
long time, you know,

women who he had a serious
relationship and had children with,

and yet he didn't want to marry
them, but he almost immediately

wanted to marry Frida Kahlo.
So I think that does say something.

When Frida and Diego married
her father, Guillermo,

was in terrible problems of...

He has a loan on their house
that he was almost going to lose

the Blue House,
and Diego paid for everything,

he paid for the house and he
put it through Frida's name.

And I think her father saw
that this man could take care

of Frida, and probably her father
realised that he wasn't going

to be able to pay all the medical
bills that she was likely to have.

He was one of the five most
well-paid painters in the world,

with Picasso, Matisse...

He was one of the most
well-paid painters.

Immediately, they went to Cuernavaca
to live in the house

of the Ambassador
of the United States in Mexico,

to paint a mural for him.

He accepts that commission
from the US Ambassador.

But this goes against everything
that the Communists stand for.

That's really being a traitor.

All of the other communist artists
say, "We are not accepting money

"from capitalists
for any mural commissions."

Diego Rivera continues to accept.

He actually wanted to just paint.

Remember, this is a time of big
divisions in the Communist Party,

and Diego has been seen as not
supporting the Communist Party line.

Taking work from capitalist
Americans to paint a mural

is the final straw.

The instruction is,
get rid of Rivera,

get him out of the Communist Party,
and that's what happens.

So he says goodbye, but he still
is an artist from the left.

He knew what was going to happen.

There's no way that Diego Rivera
did not know he would be expelled.

And even though it was
a very contentious relationship

with Mexico's Communist Party,
this, this was his life

and these were his friends.

And they were no longer his friends.

They were his enemies.

I always wondered, like,
how must that, must that feel

for Frida Kahlo, losing her friends
as well?

She had no choice, really.

She could not have stayed
with Diego Rivera and remained

in the party when he is expelled.

So...

..what's, what is she going to do?

I mean, she leaves the party.

She describes the first year
of marriage, and she said

that she took care of her house.

She dusted the house.

She spent her time taking
Diego his midday meal,

with sort of flowers and a basket.

I think she did a lot
to please Rivera.

I think she was just playing
the role of his exotic little wife.

And she was...

It wasn't perfect for her because
she had too much,

too much going on inside
to play that role forever.

I think in the first year,
she was, she was happy.

Then half as happy
because Diego Rivera was starting to

get affairs with other women.

I don't... I'm not very sure
that she wanted so...

..erm...

..so...to be a mother.

You know? I'm not sure.

I think that for her,
the most important thing,

apart from her paintings,
was Diego Rivera.

And she says Diego Rivera
is such an important person

that has to be travelling
all the time and working,

and with more important
subjects than being a father.

The first year of marriage,
she lost a child, and Rivera

was having an affair.

She was terribly unhappy.

In 1929,

she paints this portrait.

Time Flies By, as it's known.

What is she saying?

She's searching for her identity
as an artist.

"I may be just married to this great
artist who's larger than me,

"who's more important than me,
he's in the control of everything,

"Everybody thinks I'm Rivera's
wife only. But where am I?"

"I have to find my own place."

"This is my time."

That's what she's saying
with the plane and the clock.

It's not about the past.

It's about now.

So then what's the next step
for the revolutionary artist?

She's 23.

She's in a foreign country.

She had no friends.

In that point,
they only have each other.

It's Diego's world.

He's the famous artist.

She's just starting out.

She was mostly known as
the little wife

to the great, you know, maestro!

You will always be in the shadow.
Always.

"They came at six with the ambulance

"and got her in the agonies
of birth pain,

"out of the pools of blood
she had made.

"She looked so tiny,
her tresses wet with tears."

She's it's as though, with Frida
Kahlo, pain drove her to paint.

She said, "I had to paint it
because I felt murdered by life."

I think she made no concessions
about her art.

She can't make
a conventional portrait.

She was not willing to fulfil
what they expected to see.

BABY CRIES

Let me tell you about a little girl
born in Mexico.

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

in the world.

We all recognise her face,
and that look.

But who was she really?

And why is she more loved now
than ever before?

This daughter of the revolution
lived no ordinary life,

and hers is no easy tale to tell.

Frida Kahlo was a rule breaker.

The way she broke taboos,
the way she broke the norm

was completely revolutionary
and transgressive.

She doesn't respect things
that should be respected,

like birth, blood, miscarriages.

She made no concessions
about her art.

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

but she was also driven
and tormented by love.

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

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

An obsession that was painful.

So why do we still idolise her -

this mixed up mess
of contradictions?

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

What people see in her

is all that power of rebellion,
irreverence.

For people who are queer,
for people who are brown,

for people who are creative
in different ways.

She teaches us about identity.

Art was her superpower.

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

She was genius.

TRAIN TOOTS

I think Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera
fell in love very quickly.

She'd become pregnant,
but then lost the child.

She creates a drawing.

On Frida's belly is an image
of a foetus

that looks like she erased
but is still visible.

Diego may have also been
cheating on her.

It wasn't easy, of course,

but Rivera still signified
many things for Frida.

BELL RINGS

TRAIN TOOTS

Mamacita Linda, the route to
San Francisco is just spectacular.

The train travels all along
the coast.

I was delighted to see the sea
for the first time.

When Frida first arrived in the US,
she's 23 and Diego is 43.

She's been married
a little over a year.

So when they arrive, yeah,
they're newlyweds on one level,

but it's not, you know, like,
"Oh, everything is so blissful."

They've already gone through a lot.

But, you know, she had been
wanting to come to San Francisco

since she was a teenager,

and so this was a dream for her,
you know, come true.

MUSIC: Tu Vuo Fa L'Americano
by Renato Carosone

# Tu vuo' fa' l'Americano

# 'Mericano, 'Mericano

# Sient'a mme chi t' 'o ffa fa'? #

I mean, arriving in San Francisco,
even today,

it's considered the New York
of the west coast.

Very upscale, very cosmopolitan,

with theatres and, erm, promenades.

This city is in
a marvellous location.

There are neighbourhoods
for foreigners

from every part of the world.

We live near Chinatown.

Imagine, there are 10,000
Chinese residents here.

They sell beautiful things
in the stores.

Handmade clothing and textiles
made of the finest silks.

She had to be dazzled
by this glistening city.

Frida just loved seeing the bay,

Fisherman's Wharf.

She really was fascinated
with the Italian fishermen,

as she writes to her mother
on a postcard.

You know, at that time,
it was fish and coffee smells.

Diego hasn't started work yet
painting the mural,

so I'm going here and there
with him all day

and we're very happy.

He's good to me and he loves me,

at least up to now, very much.

It's Diego's world.
He's the famous artist.

He is kind of at the height
of his career.

She's just starting out.

She was mostly known as the
little wife to the great maestro.

She's got a lot of heart,
a lot of chutzpah,

but she's 23.

She had no friends,
she's in a foreign country.

Segregationist signage
that one would see -

no Mexicans, no dogs, no negroes -

this was a common occurrence.

Frida must have felt a little bit...

Felt a little bit as if she
were a second-class citizen.

Diego gave a talk yesterday
at the ladies club.

The gringos are so dull here

that any foolishness
attracts their attention.

They just stand there
with their mouths gaping

when they see my jade necklaces.

They size me up as if I were
some kind of rare beast.

Never is Frida more Mexican...

..than when she's in the US.

She brought this trunk, actually,
full of Mexican clothes

and the jewellery and everything.

She wants to distinguish herself
from the Americans,

from the gringas.

She hates their style. She says that
they're dull and they're scarecrows.

She develops her persona
and her style.

She transforms herself.

People are really taken with her
because there's really nobody

in San Francisco
who's dressed like this,

and so there are stories, you know,
about them walking down the street

in North Beach and people stopping
and kind of commenting

on what she's wearing,
and she loves it.

All the photographers
come to see Diego Rivera

and they find this beautiful,
beautiful, flamboyant woman.

The photographers,
they're going wild over her.

It was a collaboration,
and you can see it.

She knows how to compose herself
and strike a pose

and craft the way she was looking.

She was never an object.
She always had agency.

Diego...loved the United States,

so I think that the idea of Diego
to go into the United States

with his mural says,
"I'm going to be the king

"of the most important country
of the world."

Diego is happy to be painting here.

He has a lot of subject matter
to sketch and draw.

You know how he loves machines,
factories and everything like that.

Rivera is invited to paint
at the stock exchange,

and he made plans
to have this marvellous mural.

As you know, in his heart,
Diego was a communist,

he believed in equality,

yet he paints this mural

in a building that is
a monument to capitalism.

Yes, he's kind of mild
in his criticism

in the stock exchange.

Why?

Because he was amazed
at what he saw.

You're standing in this mine
of gold.

You have oil, you have minerals,
you have industry.

So he becomes seduced by the US, no?

Yesterday, Diego gave a conference.

A large crowd of people attended
and everybody congratulated him.

He's "el gran caca"
here in San Francisco.

They don't even let the poor fellow
go to the bathroom in peace.

Frida sees that Diego was treated
as a cultural hero.

This must have been
very impressive for Frida.

This thing about becoming
an artist is a serious issue.

You can make a living,
you can be respected,

you can be heard.

I've been painting quite a lot -
almost all day.

I've made six pictures and everyone
has liked them very much.

I think this might be the only
opportunity I have to meet people

who perhaps in the future might be
interested in buying my paintings.

She clearly had ambitions.

She's really, I think, flourishing.

Diego, he was proud of her work.

He was there to support Frida.

Diego wants me to have
an exhibition here.

It's an opportunity for me
because I can sell something.

It will be more than silly for me
to pass up this chance,

don't you agree?

So, Diego wanted to find a woman

to represent California.

This woman, she becomes
the earth mother of the mural.

She's the focus of it.

He meets the tennis star
Helen Wills Moody.

She's a star.

She was just on the cover
of famous magazines.

She'd won Wimbledon.

She was really riding this wave
and he really is taken with her.

He refers to her as having
the fine, chiselled features

of a Greek statue.

She's spending all this time
with Diego.

She's posing nude.

Helen had a convertible,
and they would be seen driving

in the hills of San Francisco,
and Diego wouldn't come home.

I think Frida knew
what was going on.

Diego wasn't just unfaithful,
he could be quite cruel.

You know, he could really throw
these affairs in her face.

He's creating this huge image
of her on this wall,

and she's exactly
the opposite of Frida.

Mamacita Linda, I just want to
leave this place.

These dumb gringos
really annoy me now.

I am painting and I hope
I can do the exhibition.

Frida was not happy in the US,
but this doesn't mean

she didn't realise
what you could achieve.

A lot of people look at
this painting

and they think that Frida
is showing herself

as the little wife to
the great, you know, maestro,

but she is making herself stand out.

What is she wearing?
This beautiful red rebozo.

I mean, it just ignites
this painting.

At the top of the painting,
she has included a ribbon

and it says she's painted it
for Albert Bender.

Albert Bender, who's one of
the most important art patrons

of the San Francisco Bay area.

His business was insurance,
but he loved art.

Frida knew exactly
what she was doing.

If she had just done
a self portrait,

I don't think at that time
it would have had the same interest

for people wanting to show it
throughout the US,

because they didn't know
who Frida Kahlo was.

But if they say, "Oh, yeah,
here's this famous Diego Rivera,

"we know him.
Oh, and there's his wife, Frida.

"Oh, and she made the painting.
Oh, how interesting."

She's very canny.

And you know what? It worked.

Because Albert Bender
did loan it to this exhibition

at the Palace of the Legion
of Honor.

It ended up getting discussed
in the Oakland Tribune

and it was actually featured
as the image for this article.

It is in San Francisco,
where Frida Kahlo shows

professionally as an artist
the first time,

so the year and a half
she's in San Francisco,

she does achieve something
important for her.

"I'm becoming an artist,
a professional artist,

"an artist with my own voice.

"All my hard work will take me
somewhere."

FERRY TOOTS

Diego Rivera is a very ambitious
artist,

so if he is going to be painting
large-scale murals,

he needs power-player patrons.

Rockefeller was the richest man
ever existed on Earth.

Nobody else ever has put so
many money in one hand, ever.

How it was possible that he was
doing murals to Rockefeller?

Being a communist
and work for Rockefeller?

If you can think of the worst thing
in life, it was Rockefeller.

The Rockefeller family were one
of the largest art patrons

and they were the force behind
the Museum of Modern Art

in New York City.

Abby Rockefeller,
she commissioned Diego,

and was comfortable with the
communist element in his persona,

in his history, in his politics
and in his art.

So she seemed to be
rather radical...

..for her position in life,

and Frida really liked
Abby Rockefeller.

They seemed to get along well.

Modern art was brand-new
in the United States,

so for him to be included
in a group of modern artists

like Picasso and Matisse,

his career is about to, erm...

..go viral.

SHE LAUGHS

Diego is painting
at the Museum of Modern Art.

After working all day, he has
to get dressed up in a tuxedo

and go out to dine.

Everyone has received us very well

but, no matter what, one just can't
enter into this class of society.

Although the gringas
I've met here are good people,

I don't feel that comfortable
with them.

And besides, I don't really
enjoy friendships that much.

"November 16th, 1931,"

"New York City.

"Met Frida and Diego at this banquet
that was held in his honour.

"I got so excited about Rivera,
I spoke for the entire evening.

"I asked Rivera if I could help him
with his huge frescoes

"and, to my surprise,
he said, 'Sure'."

These are just a few diaries
of my grandmother.

My grandmother, Lucienne Bloch,
was a single woman,

22 years old, aspiring artist.

After discussing fresco for hours
at this banquet, erm...

..Frida walked up to my grandmother
and she said, "I hate you."

She thought she was flirting
with her husband Diego.

Then my grandmother explained,
"I have no signs at all

"to ever make it for your husband,"

and explained that she was
raised in a household

where her father
always had girlfriends.

My grandmother knew exactly
what Frida was going through

but she said she would never,
ever do that to Frida.

And that was the beginning
of their friendship.

Mamacita Linda, we're living in a
very good hotel with every comfort.

The Barbizon-Plaza Hotel.

The hotel is good
but very expensive.

It's a block away from Fifth Avenue,
where all the shameless,

super-rich ricachones live.

"Went to see Frida at her hotel,
Barbizon-Plaza,

"which she can't stand
since the elevator boys snub her

"because they can see
she is no rich person.

"The other day she called one
of them a son of a bitch."

They're snubbing her.
They think she's just a poor pauper.

She's a Mexican, she's wearing
a long skirt, she's not fancy,

so the elevator boys
are kind of like,

"Get your own bag."

The Barbizon Hotel was situated
at the heart

of one of the most expensive
neighbourhoods in Manhattan.

Saks Fifth Avenue, Bergdorf Goodman,

is the place where nobody
can afford to shop.

The Barbizon Hotel overlooks this
beautiful, relatively young park

that is normally breathtaking...

..but at that time...

When they got to San Francisco,

the Great Depression hadn't really
taken hold of the country yet.

By the time they got to New York
in 1931, where wealth and poverty

have routinely lived side-by-side,

now they're literally
on top of each other.

That had to be very disturbing
for both of them.

New York is a Babylon.

There is so much wealth
and such misery at the same time

that it seems unbelievable
that people can bear

such a difference in classes.

There are millions of people
without work and without food

and homeless, and they don't
have even a shimmer of hope.

People were starving everywhere.

Erm, there were protests,

and the violence against
labour union was severe.

What Frida realises when she's here
is that this idea

that the United States is
kind of this land of the free,

this place where no matter who you
are, you can rise up the ladder

and you can make it
as long as you work hard,

what she's discovering is that
a lot of those ideals are myths.

What's interesting in
the MOMA exhibition is that,

because the Depression
has gotten worse,

that there is a lot more, erm...

..room for critiques of capitalism.

Diego Rivera, he essentially
does a series of frescoes.

This central piece, where you have
these three different layers.

You have the tremendous prosperity
of New York City,

even in the middle of a Depression,

and then underneath that
is a flophouse.

You have lots of unemployed.
They're frozen assets.

It's human capital
that's not being put to work.

And then in the bottom level, you
have another set of frozen assets,

and that is a very secure vault

where rich capitalists
are keeping their money.

It is a bold thing to do
and I think this was

a pot-shot of sorts that the
Rockefellers were willing to take.

This fresco is his most overt
critique of US capitalism

up until that point.

And he gets away with it, right?

He's a star.

One would give a right arm
to be invited

to a Museum of Modern Art opening...

..because of the people
you're rubbing elbows with -

the elites of New York
like the Astors and the Whitneys.

Frida was surrounded
by well-known people

like actors Paul Robeson
and Edward G. Robinson.

You also have Alfred Stieglitz,
the gallery owner and photographer,

and his wife, Georgia O'Keeffe,
the painter.

Frida meets Georgia O'Keeffe

and, yeah, they seem to...
they seem to hit it off.

You know, they're at really
different places in their careers.

I mean, Georgia O'Keeffe
is very well known at this point.

In terms of women artists,
she's one of the most well-known,

which, for Frida, would have been
important. Here's a role model,

somebody who made it
as a professional artist.

She sees that it's possible
for a woman artist

to become successful.

She really likes Georgia
and there's this connection.

They did have something more
than just a friendship.

THUNDER

Georgia, it was wonderful
to hear your voice again.

Every day since I called you,
I wanted to write you a letter.

I wrote many, but every one
seemed more stupid and empty

and I tore them up.

I can't write in English all I would
like to tell, especially to you.

I thought of you a lot

and never forget your wonderful
hands and the colour of your eyes.

I will see you soon.

I will bring you flowers.

But it is so difficult to find
the ones I would like for you.

I would be so happy
if you could write to me,

even two words.

I like you very much, Georgia.

Frida.

You know, with both Frida and Diego,

one of the misconceptions
about their relationship

is that Frida was this victim whose
husband was always cheating on her

and that she wanted
this monogamous relationship.

There's an element of that
that's true,

but she was very comfortable
with her sexuality as well.

An open relations are
wonderful in theory

but they're complicated
in execution.

Frida Kahlo and Georgia O'Keeffe
became friends.

They had...

..a small affair.

They had a connection
on a very personal level.

But nobody could have substituted
what Rivera meant for Kahlo.

I think she needed him
and he needed her

and I don't think either of them
could function very well

without the other one.

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

Winter here is the saddest thing.

The sky is the colour
of a fly's wing

and the streets are full
of melting snow.

I'm completely disillusioned
with the famous United States.

Everything is just for appearances,

but underneath it all
is nothing but crap.

Diego feels more or less the same.

He has developed a distaste
for this country.

Unfortunately, he has to work,
so we're going to Detroit.

Diego has a crazy dream of painting
the steel industry there.

Diego Rivera, he is a man
of two minds,

as many of us are.

You know, we want to earn a living,

we want to improve
our station in life.

We also understand as workers
what that means.

So it's a tightrope to navigate.

The Fords, another wealthy
American family,

who made their millions
producing cars.

Ford, he's making his living
by overworking the workers.

And with the Depression,
nobody's buying cars,

so you have to lay people off.

These workers don't have
unemployment benefits.

They're just laid off and that's it.

GUNFIRE

GUNFIRE

Violence, confrontations,
four deaths, many people injured.

It's a very complex moment...

..that Diego and Frida arrive in.

The question is, will he
convey this in the mural?

Obviously, Frida, yeah, she was
quite disturbed that, OK, the...

Here's your patron,
this man who just, you know,

ordered these peaceful protesters
to be killed.

There is never the question
of refusing to paint this mural.

Rivera has leftist politics

but I think ultimately
they're secondary to...

..his desire to paint.

I mean, that's his real passion.

There is something very
uncomfortable about it.

And then there's something
extraordinary about what he paints.

He is deliberately creating a mural

that glorifies working men
in a modern factory setting.

That had to be a deliberate
slap in the face to Ford.

He thinks that the revolution
is going to occur

by marrying the technology
of the United States

with the sort of
communist philosophy

of emphasis on workers' rights.

These workers on the assembly line,

they're the real creators
of a utopian future.

This city seems to me
like a shabby old village.

I don't like it at all.

The industrial part of Detroit
is really the most interesting.

The rest is seen all over
the United States -

ugly and stupid.

But Diego is working
very happily here,

like a child with a new toy.

She starts actually
going to a studio

that was set up for her at
the Detroit Institute of Arts.

While Diego is creating
in the courtyard,

she's creating in her studio.

A little bit about what
she thought about Detroit

comes out in Self-Portrait
On The Borderline,

where she's standing
on a sort of pedestal

in a very pretty pink dress.
Very uncharacteristic.

Not a Tehuana dress, she's in a
little fluffy pink dress.

On one side in the background
is Mexico,

the United States on the right,
and the United States is awful.

It's got smokestacks
besmirching the sky.

For Frida, this is a little more
of a critique.

Do you see the American flag
in the smoke of Ford industry?

She's making a statement
about the United States

and the power of somebody
like Ford Industries.

You know, that somebody like Henry
Ford, this man who just, you know,

ordered these peaceful protesters
to be killed,

if he can be a hero
in the United States,

the land of the free,
what does that mean?

When Diego was working
full-time on the mural,

Frida is just homesick.

What am I doing all by myself
in this Detroit apartment...

..in a place I don't know,
without any friends?

And then my grandmother comes along
and Frida said, "Don't leave.

"Just stay with us for a while.

"Stay with me."

"June 11th, 1932,

"Detroit.

"My God, I never wrote
of Frida's, baby.

"It has been the biggest subject
in everyone's mind since I'm here."

I am two months pregnant.

I want to vomit all the time
and I am fed up.

I get tired from everything
since my spine hurts.

At this moment, the situation
for me is rather difficult,

since poor little Diego,

no matter how much he wants
to take care of me, he cannot,

so I will not count on him
for anything.

I do not know whether it would be
good or not to have a child.

He didn't want any kids.

He said, "If you had a baby and I
have a commission, wherever that is,

"way out of Mexico,
you remain here with the baby.

"There's no way we can take
the baby around wherever I go,

"so you decide.

"You decide.

"I cannot lead the type of life
that I want with babies.

"I can take you with me
whenever you want, but that's it."

I think what I would say is
she felt really conflicted.

I think, yes, a part of her
very much wanted to have a child.

"Tuesday, July 5th, 1932.

"Detroit.

"Sunday evening, Frida was so blue
and menstruating, so went to bed

"and doctor came and told her
as usual that it was nothing.

"In the night, I heard
the worst cries of despair,

"but thinking that Diego
would call me if I could help,

"I only dozed and had nightmares.

"At five, Diego rushes in the room,
all dishevelled and pale,

"and asks me to call the doctor up.

"They came at six with ambulance
and got her in the agonies

"of birth pain out of the pools
of blood she had made

"and over the huge clots
of blood she kept losing.

"She looked so tiny.

"12 years old,
her tresses wet with tears."

Bad news.

Yesterday I miscarried
without apparent reason.

It's all over.

"I went to visit Frida today.

"I brought her a fake telegram
from Henry Ford.

"She laughs and, at the same
instant, cried more and more

"at the idea of not being able
to have kids."

The foetus did not take form,
since he came out all disintegrated

in spite of my being already
three-and-a-half months pregnant.

Who knows what the devil
is going on inside of me?

I had such hope
to have a little Dieguito.

This is...

This is heartbreaking.

Small in size, but...

..just completely overwhelming.

She is broken.

She almost died here.

She calls it The Lost Desire.

She doesn't call it
Henry Ford Hospital

the first time she shows it.

Even if you're ambivalent
about having a child...

..if you lose a pregnancy...

..it's a loss.

Lying in her hospital bed,
floating in a vast empty plane,

and way in the distance is
the Rouge Plant, where Rivera was.

The sense of solitude is amplified.

She's... It's as though
with Frida Kahlo,

pain drove her to paint.

It's a woman not shown
from a man's perspective

but from the perspective
of her own self.

It is incredibly personal.

"August, 1932.

"We watched eclipse
from the museum roof.

"Frida was cross
and so I hardly spoke to her.

"Frida working hard,
but she was like the wildest animal

"when anyone came into the studio.

"She would be so cross,

"she would swear each time
a fly came settling on her arm."

"September, 1932.

"During lunch, there came
a telegram for Frida.

"I said how I hated the things,

"since they generally
always had bad news.

"This one did.

"Her ma is very sick in Mexico."

Frida knows that she's got
to rush to Mexico immediately

and Diego says,
"You need to go with her."

TRAIN TOOTS

My grandmother had her
little Brownie box camera.

You can tell
she's just so melancholy.

When you know what she's just
experienced within the last month.

Sadness - you can see sadness.

"Friday, September 16th, 1932,

"Mexico.

"Went to Coyoacan with Frida.

"Her ma is in awful shape
and looks deadly pale.

"Her pa is a dear.
Very fussy, deaf and shabby.

"Worry hangs on the whole house."

Her mother is sent to the hospital
to have gallstones removed

and then she can't withstand...

Like, 72 hours after,
she passes away.

Your mother is your roots.

No matter what kind of relationship
you have with her,

life changes
when your mother is gone.

And that is something
all of us have learned.

Because no matter
when your mother dies,

it's always premature.

You're never prepared.

If you can think about
the losses she's endured

in just a few months.

Loses her child
and then her mother dies.

Trauma is something that...

..can't be remembered
and can't be forgotten

because it's so painful.

You can't find the words
to express it.

It's unsayable.

Frida Kahlo is a woman
who can paint something

that has been almost impossible
to communicate in the past.

No-one ever, ever thought
that such experiences

were worthy of representation.

I adore you, my Diego.

I feel I have left my child alone
and that he needs me.

I can't live without you,
my darling little child.

Everything seems horrible
to me without you.

I'm more in love with you than ever

and every day more and more.

I send you all my love.

Your nina chiquitita.

I know that my grandmother talks
about, when they get back,

that he looked very thin.

She could barely recognise him.

But that the work that he had done
was incredible.

Diego adds a child to his mural.

I think that, you know,
he was affected by the trauma

of the miscarriage as well, yeah.

I think he did care.
I think he was really...

I think Diego was really afraid
that Frida was going to die.

"I went to see Frida today.

"She seemed so glad to see us and
said she's been sometimes so lonely

"in the afternoons
that she would just cry.

"We passed all afternoon in a movie

"to see the gruesome film
Frankenstein,

"which Frida wanted to see again.

"It was the kind of thing
to joke about..." It's alive!

"..so exaggerated
was the gloominess.

"Then went to a Spanish restaurant
and had a kind of strong stuff

"like vodka, which one drinks
with lemon and salt.

"We acted most crazy
and laughed a lot together."

I do think it's pretty nice, yeah.

That they got to hang out
and just be normal together.

The Rockefeller Center
is a moneymaking

capitalist dream come true.

Taller than almost any other
buildings in the country.

70 floors of offices,

you know, TV and film studios,
retail shops.

There is a skating rink.

It is impressive.

The mural shows a man at the centre

standing over kind of a glass orb

with options.

On his right, he can opt for
an orderly communist world.

On the other side of
the mural is the...

..decadent capitalist world,

where babies are crawling
around naked, unattended,

where people are drinking alcohol.

The repression of striking workers,

erm, the use of gas masks.

So far, you know, provocative,
but OK.

And then he decides...

..if he's gotten this far,
he can go one step further.

He inserts Lenin in the mural.

Lenin is the communist Russian
leader who ousts the tzars,

who were the Rockefellers of Russia,

in a very aggressive way,

and converts Russia into a country

where, theoretically, wealth
is going to be shared equally

and there will be no super rich
and no extremely poor.

So this man is the antichrist
to wealthy America.

I think he has something to prove.

I mean, in some ways,
he more than makes up for

not taking a stand in Detroit.

He was asked to remove
the portrait of Lenin.

But Diego Rivera,
a card carrying communist,

absolutely refuses
to alter his mural.

As a result, a disaster occurs.

"Frida told me not to lose a minute
and make photos of the fresco,

"since things rash might happen
any time now.

"I got up at seven and went to
Rockefeller Center to make photos,

"though it was absolutely forbidden.

"They couldn't possibly do anything

"to such a tremendous
piece of artwork."

And she slips her camera out
at one point.

She doesn't put it up to her face,
but she puts it right here

and she just snaps some photographs,
as much as she can.

And these are the only
existing photographs.

"Four armed guards
walked into the lobby.

"I saw them guarding the gates,
covering every glass space

"with tarpaulin so no-one would know
what was happening from outside.

"I was so furious,
my heart almost burst.

"We were the last out.
The rest is in the papers."

Workers for the Rockefellers

came in the wee hours with pickaxes

and hacked it off the wall.

Of course, it puts him
at the centre of a controversy

and on the front pages
of newspapers.

You cannot destroy
a 40 foot work of art

by one of the most
renowned artists in the world.

But what can you do? It's destroyed.
You can't fix it now.

Imagine all of this happening

for the young Frida Kahlo
in her early 20s.

I think she was fed up
of the situation.

She felt...powerless.

She realises how important he is.

But then when they're censored...

..this same system...

..can destroy you
if you don't follow the rules.

She said, "What are we doing here?

"If they don't appreciate
who you are, let's go back."

So when they get back to Mexico,
I think he's having

a kind of existential crisis because
it's like, "OK, what do I do now?"

He's on top of the world
and then everything falls apart.

He was grumpy and miserable.

He was furious at Frida
for making him go back to Mexico.

It wasn't her doing,
it was his own doing

that forced him to go back
to Mexico.

And they were not getting along
at all.

So he returns to the National Palace
and he paints the last wall.

It sort of completes the staircase
mural that he starts in 1929.

In that last wall, the present
and future of Mexico.

He paints this sort of
radical vision of Mexico,

sort of consumed in
class confrontation.

And he paints Frida and her sister
right next to each other.

Cristina has left her husband,

so she kind of becomes
a part of their world.

They take her in to help her out.

Frida is portrayed as a teacher.

Sitting right next to her
is Cristina,

presented in a much more
sensual way.

He's representing Frida
along with her sister

at the same time that
he's sleeping with her sister.

It was completely devastating.

This, for Frida, was a treason.

She cut her hair off,
she cut off her long hair,

and he loved her long hair.

She was mad as hell.

It was impossible for Frida
to prevent that

Rivera couldn't have affairs
with other women.

As long as this woman meant
nothing to him, she was safe.

She was the principal woman
in his life.

She was the partner,
she was the wife,

she was the friend and the lover.

Frida wrote, "I thought
this was nothing...

"..and now I realise
how wrong I am."

Rivera was not only playing
with Cristina,

he was thinking of having
something more stable.

He helped Cristina to find
a place where they can meet.

This was not something that was
over a couple of weeks later...

..so it becomes something different.

What does he want?
To have them both at the same time?

For the first time in her life,
Cristina dreamt of being the wife

of Diego Rivera and enjoying
the place that her sister had.

Like being introduced
to wonderful people

and receiving all kinds
of attentions.

The treason, it's both ways.

Your husband and your...

Not only your sister,
your best friend,

your companion, your all.

It was terrible.

That is the reason of painting
Unos Cuantos Piquetitos.

It just shows her absolute rage
and misery at that time.

She said, "I had to paint it
because I felt murdered by life."

Her body torn apart through stabbing
and full of blood.

Woman as a sexual object...

..used and thrown away.

Just imagine this in the 1930s
in Mexico.

It's about her pain,

but I think it's about the pain
that women endure.

You know, violence committed
against women.

She doesn't know where she's
standing any more with Diego.

The affair made her rethink,
what was Rivera capable of?

Was he selfish enough
to destroy everything they had?

REPORTER: Mexico is about
the only land that will have him.

He's dodged about from country
to country,

so here he is, Trotsky,
landing at Tampico with his wife.

All the world was following
what was happening

and Frida was there, right in
the middle of this turmoil.

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

Nothing hurts her more than that.

And if she crosses a line
in return,

it is sleeping with
his political mentor.

It's a terrible time for Frida.

The painting is a message
for Rivera.

This is what you have done.
You have torn me apart.

The irony of all this is,
when she is in the climax

of her intellectual capacities
as an artist,

her body turns off...

..and the pain takes over.

BABY CRIES

Let me tell you about
a little girl born in Mexico.

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

We all recognise her face,
and that look.

But who was she really?

And why is she more loved now
than ever before?

This daughter of the revolution
lived no ordinary life.

And hers is no easy tale to tell.

Frida Kahlo was a rule-breaker.

The way she broke taboos,

the way she broke the norm,

was completely revolutionary
and transgressive.

She doesn't respect things
that should be respected.

Like birth, blood, miscarriages.

She made no concessions
about her art.

She was strong and ambitious

and answered to no-one,

but she was also driven
and tormented by love.

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

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

An obsession that was painful.

So, why do we still idolise her?

This mixed-up mess
of contradictions.

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

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

For people who are queer,
for people who are brown,

for people who are creative
in different ways.

She teaches us about identity.

Art was her superpower.

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

She was genius.

June 11th, 1932. Detroit.

My God, I never wrote
of Frida's baby.

It has been the biggest subject
in everyone's mind since I'm here.

If you lose a pregnancy,

it's a heartbreaking loss.

No matter when your mother dies,
it's always premature.

You're never prepared.

Diego Rivera paints Frida and her
sister right next to each other,

at the same time
that he's sleeping with her sister.

FOGHORN

GULLS CRY

REPORTER: Mexico is about
the only land that will have him.

He's dodged about from country
to country.

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

Leon Trotsky arrives to Mexico
in 1937,

and Frida actually goes to meet him.

Leon Trotsky
was a Russian revolutionary,

second only to Vladimir Lenin.

And in the post-Lenin rivalry
with Stalin,

he ultimately lost out.

Stalin had Trotsky
expelled from the country.

So Trotsky went from country
to country to country

without a home for many years.

He really has no place to go,

and there's a sort of desperate
attempt by his followers

throughout the world to find
a safe place for him.

Security is an essential issue.

This is a man who is clearly
being hunted

by Stalinists throughout the world.

And Diego Rivera is the most
famous Trotskyist in Mexico.

And, so, because of
the stature of Diego Rivera,

bringing him home to Frida's house
makes a lot of sense.

Trotsky arrived at
a very interesting moment

in Frida Kahlo's life.

She came back to Mexico by late '33,

and then, suddenly,
she discovered the affair

between Rivera and Cristina,
her sister.

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

Like, it wasn't just a short fling.

What's amazing, though,
to me, about Frida, ultimately,

is that she comes around
and embraces her sister

and forgives her.

And she also forgives Diego.

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

And even if we go through
countless affairs,

we shall always love each other.

All these things that have happened
and happened again

for the seven years
we've lived together,

and all the rages
that I've gone into,

have only led me
to understand better

that I love you more
than my own skin.

She always seemed to forgive Rivera.

But I think what Frida did

was began to have love affairs
of her own.

Trotsky is somebody she admired,

because he was a survivor.

He was a revolutionary.

So because she's attracted to
his level of intelligence,

why not become closer to Trotsky?

If Diego Rivera crosses a line,
it's with her sister.

Nothing hurts her more than that.

And if she crosses a line in return,

it is sleeping with his
political mentor.

There's sort of a wonderful leverage
in it.

From 1936 to 1938,

I did nothing but paint.

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

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

The arrival of Trotsky,
and soon after, Andre Breton,

the founder of the
Surrealist movement in France,

amplifies the stage for her art

at a time when she
is taking herself seriously

as an artist for the first time.

Andre Breton was the founder,

basically, of surrealism,

in terms of artistic movement.

So this guy is the big deal.

And, of course, when she finds out

that he's coming to Mexico
to meet Trotsky,

she prepares herself
through her work.

She did a self-portrait of her,

which she gave away to Trotsky,

to make sure this was hanging
at his office at the Blue House.

Knowing that would be the
first painting Breton himself saw.

And Breton falls enchanted.

I have, for long, admired

the self-portrait
by Frida Kahlo de Rivera,

that hangs on the wall
of Trotsky's study.

But my surprise and joy
was unbounded

when I discovered

that her work has blossomed forth
into pure surreality.

She's sort of calculating in terms
of her art,

because she is a voracious reader
of other people's styles.

An absolute original,
but she is aware of the things

that are going on internationally,

and incorporates them
and makes them her own.

She excelled to make an impact
on Breton.

The paintings are totally surrealist

in their proposal,
in their language.

And one of these paintings is
the most surrealist work Frida did,

which is What Water Gave Me,
from 1938.

Which is not only a very interesting
painting from the perspective

of Frida's own position
as a woman artist,

but the way she perceives
unconsciousness

and portrays it in the painting.

And, of course, What Water Gave Me
is a self-portrait,

but it is a self-portrait
seen through the eyes

and the ideas of surrealism.

Which, of course, had a huge impact
on Andre Breton.

He was convinced that Frida
was the most surrealist artist

that he had ever encountered.

I have never had an exhibition
before.

I was always shy and afraid
to show my things.

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

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

Not as Diego Rivera's wife,

but she comes to have
her first solo exhibition

at the Julien Levy Gallery.

Julien Levy was the most
outspoken representative

of surrealist artists in New York.

And, of course, Andre Breton decides

he wants to write the presentation
for Frida's show.

Frida Kahlo goes to New York

to have the show
at the Julien Levy Gallery.

And this is Frida's opportunity

to really break into
an international stage.

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

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

Meeting Trotsky and Breton
in Mexico,

having a single exhibition
in New York,

as an artist,
the world is in your hands.

And for Rivera,
this is what Rivera wanted.

Somebody equal.

Another artist.

If he had come with her,

all the attention would be on
Diego Rivera.

Diego Rivera was proud of her.

He was proud of her.

REPORTER: Flutter of the week
in Manhattan

was caused by the first exhibition
of paintings

by famed muralist Diego Rivera's
German-Mexican wife, Frida Kahlo.

In a note on her exhibition,

Surrealist Breton ended
by describing her painting as,

"A ribbon around a bomb."

She was totally unknown.

In New York, I mean, she was nobody.

She was the wife of Diego Rivera.

I mean, here she comes along.

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

So it's a huge moment
for Frida Kahlo.

She's there, yes, of course,

because of all these connections
she and Rivera had...

..but it's her own work

and the quality of her painting

that talks for her.

Her first solo exhibition,

November 1st to the 15th,
so just two weeks.

She shows 25 paintings.

And it includes
some of the most shocking.

This was way ahead of what
any other woman artist

was capable of wanting to show
to the public.

Her body is the principal role
in these paintings.

As a woman who gives life,

or death, in the case of birth.

A woman who has lost a child.

A woman who's assassinated.

To make this the topic of her single
first exhibition in New York,

among the surrealists
and this sophisticated crowd,

it was quite daring for Kahlo
to achieve something like this.

She loved having a show,

and I think a lot of things sold,

and she got a nice writeup
in Time magazine,

which was every artist's dream
at that point.

Frida has a great success
in New York.

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

She's very well received.

Some of her paintings are purchased.

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

And at that point, she was having
a love affair with Nick Muray,

the photographer who took
such great photographs of her.

Nickolas Muray was a very famous
photographer,

and he was one of the first who
started doing colour photographs

with the very special personalities.

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

I think she found in Nickolas Muray

a friend who supported her,

a lover,

intelligent, prominent,
well connected.

I also think he fell in love
with her.

There's something that you have
to see through the years.

She was excellent in letting
you know

as a probable companion

that you were wonderful,

that you were the best,

and that she loved you
more than any one.

You know, it's not a coincidence

that Nickolas Muray
becomes her lover.

He's a pioneer of
colour photography.

And that was something
she was good at.

Posing for photographs,
striking a pose,

performing identities
in front of the camera.

So when you see this series,

they're doing it together, right?

They're collaborating.
And it's magic.

I love this one, the red rebozo one.

Because she writes to him,

"You will always be under
my magenta rebozo

"on the left side, near my heart".

And when she writes about this,
she calls it, "FW",

Fucking Wonder,
with the double entendre.

You can see by the photos
that Nickolas Muray took of Kahlo,

how devoted he was to her image.

But even these photos,

if you look at them
in a more critical perspective...

..they were kind of Hollywood style.

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

Frida was a woman more complex,
more complicated.

The way Muray portrayed Kahlo

was just a fraction
of her personality.

For the opening of
Frida's exhibition,

Rivera and Kahlo
had prepared a very careful list

of who should be invited and why.

Rivera had considered that
she should invite Clare Boothe Luce,

who was editor of Vanity Fair.

A woman with huge connections
worldwide.

So you see again
that the two accomplices,

Rivera and Kahlo,
are preparing the scenario.

Now, Clare Boothe Luce

specifically requests from Kahlo

to make a painting, a portrait,
of Dorothy Hale.

Dorothy Hale was a dear friend
of Clare Boothe Luce

who had recently passed away.

Dorothy Hale was
a not-that-successful actress,

but she was a very good actress.

Tonight?

You wouldn't dare!

She died by jumping out of
the Hampshire House

on Central Park South.

Frida Kahlo writes a letter
to Diego, in which she explains

what she's going to do
in terms of composition.

I want this to look
almost like a film.

I want to portray Dorothy falling.

And then I want to portray her dead
on the street.

I think about death very often.

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

I imagine that if I were dying,

I would be thinking of Diego.

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

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

It wasn't what was intended,
and she was appalled.

She can't make
a conventional portrait.

She has to do something convincing

in terms of her own needs
as an artist.

Frida Kahlo cared about
what she had painted there.

She made no concessions
about her art.

The only thing I know is I paint
always what passes through my head

without any other consideration.

Diegito, I miss you so much,
my darling.

There are moments when I feel like
going back to Mexico

more than anything else.

I need you as I need air to breathe.

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

Diego is an unemployed artist
at this time.

In fact, most of the
government muralist projects

have been abandoned.

And his relation with Trotsky
starts to deteriorate very quickly.

Trotsky says to Diego Rivera,

"You're a great painter,
you're one of the world's best,

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

This happened over and over again,
evidently.

And Diego Rivera finally had enough
of it and said,

"I'm done. I'm out.
I want nothing to do with you."

So this causes quite an uproar.

And Leon Trotsky then moves out
of the Blue House.

This change eventually
would put Trotsky

into a very dangerous situation.

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

MUFFLED CHATTER

Frida Kahlo is aware of the things
that are going on at home,

but she gets an invitation
to go to Paris.

FOGHORN

Andre Breton invites her to Paris
to have an exhibition.

I think Paris, for her, is like,
"OK, I'm going to make it."

And she takes a boat.

Encouraged by Rivera, by the way,

because I think he really wanted her
to succeed.

Mi ninita chiquita, don't be silly.

I do not want you, for my sake,

to lose the opportunity
to go to Paris.

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

Spit on your little hands

and make something that will
put in shade

everything around it.

For you, my chiquita,
deserve everything.

Your number one toad-frog, Diego.

REPORTER: For the second time
within a few months,

France is faced with
the possibility of war.

This time,
to defend its own territory.

She comes to Paris.

It's in the spring of 1939.

And she feels
that the war is imminent.

She can't stand the fact
that the surrealists

sit in cafes and just gossip

while the world
is falling to pieces.

Her letters,
especially to Nickolas Muray,

are, like, scathing.

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

They make me vomit.

They sit for hours and talk
without stopping,

thinking themselves
the gods of the world.

They are so damn intellectual
and rotten

that I can't stand them any more.

So, eventually, Andre Breton
organises a show.

But it's not a solo exhibition,

it's an exhibition called Mexique.

It was not a show about Frida.

Breton wanted to make an exhibition
about his encounter with Mexico

and what he concluded about Mexico.

It includes Breton's collection

of eclectic Mexican folk art.

A lot of what she calls

in one of the letters, "junk".

And 18 paintings by Frida Kahlo.

Frida was extremely upset when
she found out about this in Paris,

that her work was going to be shown
side by side market toys!

There were a few reviews,

but it's not a triumph
in the way that she had hoped.

And she can't stand Breton.

But she loves Jacqueline Lamba,
his wife.

And apparently,
also has an affair with her

and has a very long
and beautiful relationship with her.

Jacqueline Lamba was young,
she was beautiful,

and Frida was a woman very
responsible of filling in her needs

in terms of her sexual life.

But I think Jacqueline
and Nickolas Muray,

and all these other people
who were significant for Kahlo,

at the end, they were
fighting against a titan.

"Dear Jacqueline,

"the nights are long and difficult.

"The water, the ship in the dock

"and the parting that made you
appear so small to my eyes,

"framed in that round porthole.

"Everything is untouched,

"but you know that all my eyes see,

"all I touch with myself
from any distance, is Diego."

She came back to Diego Rivera.

She would always come back
to Diego Rivera.

She painted for Diego Rivera
to see the paintings.

She lived and moved and talked

the way that Diego Rivera
would have liked her.

She moved around the world

in order to please Diego Rivera.

THUNDERCLAP

Rivera was very proud of Frida Kahlo
having had a show in Paris.

But she got back...

..and things were really bad
between them.

My situation with Diego
was worse and worse,

till it came to an end.

He told me the worst things
you can imagine

and the dirtiest insults
I never expected from him.

Two weeks ago, we began the divorce.

The divorce is proposed to Frida.

It's not like a question,

it's not like something
we have to discuss.

She never expected that Rivera

would terminate the kind of loyalty
they had.

Because they could have had
huge differences,

discussions, infidelities,

but all that was part of the game
they were playing.

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

It's a terrible time for Frida.

And interesting enough,

it's the climax of her career
as an artist.

The Two Fridas.

Apparently, it's the same woman.

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

One Frida is dressed in white
with a European wardrobe,

and the Frida on the right

is a Mexican woman.

What is she trying to tell us?

I feel like I am one woman

and I am another woman
after these events?

So the first woman
is the woman Rivera met.

Rivera was the first real man
in her life,

and they had a marriage.
They had a union.

But this Frida
is suddenly put aside.

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

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

both are bleeding.

And maybe at this point,

after her miscarriage
and after she's divorcing,

after Rivera had not just
multiple affairs,

but one with her sister, as well...

..maybe she is showing that
the roles of wife and mother

are wounding experiences for her.

The post-divorce freedom
is carrying in her hands

a little miniature portrait of
Diego Rivera when he was a child.

So the presence of Rivera
diminished in the painting

up to a small little object
in her hands.

Frida has played the role
of the mother,

taking care of this little brat.

I believe the painting
is a message for Rivera.

"You have left me like this.

"Broken, divided.

"This is what you have done.

"You have torn me apart."

BIRDSONG

She said,
"The minute you divorce me,

"I don't want you to give me
one cent.

"I'm going to support myself."

It's a really interesting period
for her,

because she decides she's going to
professionalise.

And she produces these incredible,
incredible self-portraits.

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

"That's what they want.
I'm going to do self-portraits."

She makes all these great
self-portraits in the '40s,

because this is what collectors
were asking.

She ends up painting herself
once and over,

and with monkeys, and two monkeys
and four monkeys.

And parrots, and you see
in all these self-portraits

that she's constructing an image.

They're beautifully done.

She was never a better painter.

But at the same time,
they become cryptic.

Almost like a closed door.

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

This is what you want to see,
here I am.

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

1940, when she's really,
really trying to be independent,

she finds out that gallerist
Alberto Misrachi

sold one of her paintings,

and she's very excited.

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

"I sold one self-portrait. Great!"

But then she finds out
that Diego bought it.

So she writes to him in a letter...

"All I've done is failed

"When I was a little girl,
I wanted to be a doctor,

"and the boss squashed me.

"I lived with you for ten years
without doing anything

"but causing you problems.

"And my painting is useless
to anyone but me

"and you, who buys it,
knowing that no-one else will."

Kahlo begins to suffer again
because of her illnesses.

And the reality in terms
of financial input

is that Rivera's
taking care of her.

It is my opinion that the reason
Diego Rivera started a divorce...

..was Paulette Goddard,
the ex-wife of Charles Chaplin...

..who was here in Mexico
while Frida was in Paris.

And when Frida came back from Paris,

Paulette was living
across the street from the studio,

behaving like the new companion
of Diego Rivera.

INCOMING CALL

One night, I received
a telephone call

from the movie actress
Paulette Goddard.

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

"If you know anything about
gangster movies, brother,

"you're on the spot.

"The cops are swarming around
your studio,

"and they look like
they mean business."

On May 24th 1940,

someone attacked Leon Trotsky.

They manage to get inside
of Trotsky's house,

and they shoot it up, unloading
dozens and dozens of bullets

in Trotsky's bedroom,

with Trotsky and his wife
hidden underneath the bed.

They didn't kill Trotsky.

He survived, almost miraculously.

So the police are looking for who
could have carried out this attack,

and they suspect that perhaps
Diego Rivera

has something to do with it.

Certainly considering
his recent break with Trotsky.

So now Rivera knows that the police
want to interrogate him,

so he escapes from Mexico,

he travels all the way to
San Francisco,

with the help of Paulette Goddard.

And Frida is on her own,

and she knows
it's just a matter of time,

something's going to happen to her.

It's not only the separation
from Diego,

which in itself would have been
enough to make me sad,

but there are many other which are
more disgusting and exhausting.

The limit was when I was arrested
by the police

on account of the Trotsky affair.

The police arrest her because
they want to know from her

where Diego Rivera is.

But she has no idea.

After the arrest,
she really hits rock-bottom.

Not only has Diego divorced her,

but she's now been arrested,

embroiled in an extremely dangerous
situation.

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

My situation was desperate.

I didn't know where Diego was.

If he was dead or alive.

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

I strongly believe that Rivera
decided to divorce Frida Kahlo

as a way to keep her safe.

If, eventually, the Soviet police
decided to go after him,

at least Frida would be safe
if they were separated.

But then, a few months later,
a Soviet operative finally kills

Trotsky with an ice axe
blow to his head.

It is gruesome. It is gruesome.

Eventually, Frida Kahlo's health
and Diego Rivera's concern for her

leads to him insisting
that she come to San Francisco.

When Frida arrived in San Francisco,
she was suffering such severe pain

that she could hardly move.

The stresses and strains
of the past few months

had borne on her heavily.

But they were gone now.

Except for one.
The fact of our separation.

The doctor who treated Frida Kahlo
in San Francisco said,

"You both are connected so fully.

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

"What I see is that Diego Rivera
loves you a lot

"and that you are decaying
in your health."

He said that for her health,

it was much better
to be with Diego Rivera.

You can't have Frida Kahlo
if you don't understand

Diego comes first.

Art itself is not enough.

At the end,

where is this woman
without the person she loves?

There was a co-dependency.

They decide to get married again.

MUSIC: Historia De Un Amor
by Carlos Eleta Almaran

And when they get married
the second time,

they get married in San Francisco.

And, uh, it works.

# Siempre fuiste la razon
de mi existir... #

The remarriage is working well.

Few quarrels,
greater mutual understanding,

and on my part, less bothersome
inquiring into the question

of other women.

I finally realised that life
is like that

and the rest is just
window dressing.

I really believe when Frida
said that she loved him

more than her own life.

She must have hated him
a lot of the time.

But that didn't mean
she didn't love him.

Both of them agreed that
they were not going to change.

Frida Kahlo would live
in the Blue House

and he would live in the studio.

And Frida Kahlo would not accept
a cent from Diego Rivera.

And then she started
really blooming.

Frida had many friends
in different areas,

and one of them was the director
of La Esmeralda, the school.

And she said,
"Why don't you come as a teacher?"

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

Do what you know,
paint what you know really.

Your own background,
your own spaces.

Be yourself and sing,
sing while you're working.

HE SINGS

The mark that she made in the life
of these young men was immense.

They were very young, 14, 15,
poor people, and they loved her.

THUNDER AND RAINFALL

By 1944,
Frida was in constant pain.

And it's like if Frida is lying
on a bed of broken glass.

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

Her hair is swirling
around her neck,

almost going to choke her.

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

It's the one painting
where she almost loses

that mask of reserve.

It's over.

But Diego is in her mind.

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

She starts working on her diary.

Written words and drawings.

Concepts, poetics.

You can see pieces of her body.

You see blood.

Everything is falling apart.

I keep on wanting to kill myself.

Diego's what's keeping me from it,
through my vain idea

that he would miss me.

She is more poetic
and strong than ever.

But, the irony of all this is
when she is in the climax

of her intellectual capacities
as an artist,

her body turns off
and the pain takes over.

They amputated my leg
six months ago.

They've given me centuries
of torture.

and at moments,
I almost lost my reason.

Feet.

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

She started not liking
her day-by-day,

and she started abusing drugs
and alcohol.

She didn't want to be,
again, picked open.

No? Everybody will get tired
of that, no? Sooner or later.

MUSIC: Clair De Lune
by Claude Debussy

And she started to let herself go.

For her, the future
was really terrifying,

and she decided not to go
through that future.

Diego Rivera was very much aware
that for Frida,

living like that was almost
impossible.

He didn't want her
to suffer that much.

And we don't know whether Frida
took the pills by herself.

There are some versions
that says that Diego helped her.

That in the family, it's a taboo.
Nobody talks about that.

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

If your companion of life,
of all your life told you,

"I'm tired.
I really want to go. Help me."

Well, maybe you try, no?

I await the exit with joy.

And I hope never to return.

Frida.

BIRDSONG

BELL TOLLS

SONG CONTINUES WITH FEMALE VOCAL

You know, watching that film
footage of the funeral,

you can feel
the pain of everyone there.

Even the fact that it was filmed

shows you how important
and loved she was.

It captures Diego so heartbroken.

In that film, you can see his face
becomes like grey and fallen.

It's just,
everything fell in his face.

He was described as a soul
cut in two.

When she passes away,

his life falls apart as well.

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

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

MUSIC: Gold Dust Woman
by Fleetwood Mac

# Rock on, ancient queen

# Follow those who pale
in your shadow

# Ooh, pale shadow... #

AUCTIONEER: I'm going to start the
bidding here at $26 million.

At 26 million, 27 million,
28 million, $29 million.

$30 million.

$31 million. On this side...

I love to see Frida
claiming $34 million

for a small painting.

I love to, because I know
what it means for many others.

# Ooh, black widow... #

Whoever opens a door or a window,
opens it for everybody.

And Frida Kahlo opened windows.

# Oooh, pale shadow of a woman

# Oooh, black widow. #