FRIDA – VIVA LA VIDA Great Art on Screen Comes to The Ridgefield Playhouse July 23

The Ridgefield Playhouse is kicking off a new film series! RPAC Gallery Great Art on Screen Series will feature documentaries exclusively for U.S. cinemas, taking an in-depth look at the most extraordinary and groundbreaking art masters of their time.

The series, which is also part of the Cohen and Wolf, P.C. Movie Series, will launch on Thursday, July 23 at 7:30pm with Frida - Viva La Vida, a cinematic documentary event film that highlights artist, icon, and pioneer of contemporary feminism, Frida Kahlo.

Kahlo endured polio as a child, but it was a bus crash, when she was 18 years old, that changed her life's trajectory forever. Her painting grew out of her suffering. Confined to bed for months, Kahlo learned to paint by studying her own reflection in a mirror suspended above her. The colors of her paintings reflect the "colors" of her pain and the colors of Mexico. Directed by Giovanni Troli and narrated by Asia Argento, the film looks at the two sides of Frida Kahlo's life - one of suffering giving rise to independence and strength. The other a sensitivity and artistry that expressed a love of life and change.

Asia Argento leads our journey, taking us to the heart of Kahlo's Mexican homeland. With exclusive interviews, documents and reconstructions, we discover the two sides of Frida Kahlo's spirit: on one side the revolutionary, pioneering artist of contemporary feminism and on the other, the human being, victim of her tortured body and a tormented relationship. The film unflinchingly explores her passionate and destructive relationship with fellow artist and husband Diego Rivera. "I feel very close to her because I too was the victim of a patriarchal system, which tends to silence and shut down women," states Argento, the Italian actress who was a major figure in the #MeToo movement as one of the first to openly accuse film producer, Harvey Weinstein of sexual misconduct. The film emphasizes Kahlo's courage and rebellion against a misogynistic system that sees women only as objects of desire.

Mark your calendars for the next installment of this new film series - Hermitage: The Power of Art on Wednesday, August 19 at 7:30pm. This spectacular documentary event tours through St. Petersburg's State Hermitage Museum, a wonderful complex of buildings with the largest collection of paintings in the world, to retrace two and a half centuries. Audiences pass through the magnificent interiors that provided a meeting point for foreign artists, architects and intellectuals creating connections through art and culture.

For tickets ($15) call or visit the box office, 203-438-5795 or go online at ridgefieldplayhouse.org. The Ridgefield Playhouse is a non-profit performing arts center located at 80 East Ridge, parallel to Main Street, Ridgefield, CT.

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