Frida: Portrait of a self.

This paper is an analysis of the film Frida, based on accounts of the life of the Mexican artist, Frida Kahlo. Frida may be seen as a tragic hero in the mold of Antigone and Elektra. The paper explores the process by which a self may be created, with special emphasis on the uses of portraiture; it delves into the integration of contraries in the life of the protagonist and offers a psychoanalytic view of the way the self evolves under a variety of conditions. Frida's body has been injured and broken by physical trauma; her mind and spirit have also been influenced by this and other painful events. She fantasizes that she will be cured and made whole by her mentor, lover, husband, and betrayer, Diego Rivera. But Diego's adversary is Death, a personified force to whom Frida has given at least an equal measure of her love. It is inevitable that Death will win in this struggle: Frida, the phoenix, is consumed by fire that is her destruction but also a symbol of her unconquerable passion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]