Films like Frida induce aw, inspiration, and jealousy for me as a writer. Julie Taymor, the director, is not only able to accomplish my number one goal as a writer, which is showing and not telling, beautifully in this film, she has a leg up by simply using a video camera instead of only words. The characterization created in Frida by the silences, spaces, and meditative moments are stunning, captivating, and gorgeous works of art.
The first place where space and silence really built character for me is when Frida goes to Diego for the first time with her paintings. She is cripple, intimidated, but trying to be professional. As she limps into the Palacio Nacional we see a world of wonder and worry on her face. After insisting, Diego finally comes down, and tells Frida to, "leave the best one here, and if it is any good I'll come by to look at more". She chooses one and leaves it as instructed. This interaction creates a sense of trust between the two characters. Frida must trust Diego to keep his word, and look at her work, and Diego has to trust that she will still want his opinion after shooing her away. In the physical space and time between this interaction there is a nervous undercurrent, will he look at her painting? Will she wait for him to critique her? Is she angry about the way he treated her? Then we see her nervously smoking a cigarette, her face drawn down by worry, which immediately lifts when she sees Diego standing in her doorway. This fairy-tale moment created by the absence of interaction between the two characters is made in the implied space and time between shots.
The silences in the film are vital to creating Frida's character. We see a great deal of conditional characterization in the beginning of the film when Frida goes from a rambunctious little girl zipping around town to a quiet girl in a full-body casted forced into a contemplative roll. This shift is where we begin to see the artist emerge, in these quiet moments where day turns to night around her immobile body. Later in the film we see quiet and contemplative Frida sitting in the bathtub in New York. We are not privy to her thoughts, but the scene that follows of her yelling at Diego, "I want to go back!" informs us that Mexico was on her mind in the tub. The director depicts Frida's strength through her silence. When Frida finds Diego sleeping with her sister he runs to Frida begging for her to speak to him. Frida sits silently in a chair, contemplating, and then after Diego has suffered her silence she calmly looks at him and says, "Two horrible things have happened to me in my life...the accident and you. You are by far the worst."
Conversely, Diego is rarely shown having moments of silence, nor is he characterized in the silent spaces. His character is developed through dialog, his physical appearance, actions, the friends he introduces Frida to, and his function in Frida's life. One of the only scenarios we discover Diego's character indirectly is through witnessing how his break-up with his wife effects her, and at times Frida. One of the few times Diego's character is reveled in the silence is when we see him sobbing over Frida's picture in the hallway of the hospital. In this moment Frida and Diego share the silence of the screen feeling the impact of their miscarriage.
Seeing the way Taymor uses silence in Frida has made me reconsider the white space on the page, and respect the strength and power of silence and space in my writing. Seeing the electricity and tension that can happen in the absent spaces has left me with the challenge of creating that on the page.
- Margaret -
Welcome to the Blog for Craft of Creative Non-Fiction at Mills, English 226, Fall 2011. Here is where you write your reader responses for the books we are reading this semester. These responses examine the scaffolding of the book in regards to presence and identity of the narrator. Don't forget to respond to your colleagues' blogs as well.
Margaret,
ReplyDeleteI like the way you talk about Frida and Diego almost as opposites in terms of silence. Of course there are moments for Diego to be silent and moments for Frida to be loud, but there is a great deal that nothing more than their natural tendencies with noise suggests about their characters.
On a scene-by-scene basis, we can see how a particular silence characterizes Frida in that moment (or vice versa with Diego), but also important is her overall silence (and his overall sound).
Diego becomes a character who we understand to be largely external. He does not hide who he is. He openly flaunts his social skills, his political beliefs, his own skill. He is only, it seems, internal when it comes to his love for Frida, his silence showing only in his deepest moments of despair for her.
Frida becomes a character who we understand to be largely internal. She does not understand her talent, prefers to show herself off with action instead of words, etc.
And we can see this as well in their painting styles. We see Diego painting successfully when he is in public, surrounded by noise, showing himself to the world. His failures on the canvas come only in private. And Frida paints only in private, and when most successful only paints her own heart.
Wow everybody, we're rockin this one. I appreciate your observations Margaret and showing the shadow selves that diego and Frida were for each other. I appreciate as wel Garrett recognizing how their public style was also representative of their artistic ones.
ReplyDeleteWhat's great about it, as you both describe it, although it's obvious, it's not obvious. True?
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