How the Music for ‘Frida’ Documentary Gave ‘Inner Voice’ to the Beloved Artist

TheWrap magazine: Victor Hernández Stumpfhauser explains how he used guitar, synthesizer and the human voice to build the film’s triumphal score

A black and white photo of famed artist Frida Kahlo (Prime Video)
Frida Kahlo (Prime Video)

There are no known recordings of Frida Kahlo’s voice. But the iconic painter, who died in 1954, tells her own story in director Carla Gutiérrez’s documentary “Frida,” which is guided by her words (spoken by actress Fernanda Echevarría) from interviews, essays and diaries.

Acclaimed for its semi-animated visual strategy, the film (available on Amazon Prime) is also a sensory aural experience, propelled by a passionate, rhapsodic score by Victor Hernández Stumpfhauser. The Burbank-based, Mexican-born conductor and songwriter’s credits include features, shorts and three compositions on the “Birdman” soundtrack.

For the documentary, he said, “I thought of the music as Frida’s inner voice, sort of like her spirit.

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