Frida Kahlo’s Hidden Brushstrokes in E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial

A Surreal Encounter

When I first watched E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, I didn’t expect to find traces of Frida Kahlo in a suburban backyard in California. Yet, the more I explored the film’s visual language and emotional texture, the more I noticed the fingerprints of Kahlo’s aesthetic — her surrealism, her pain, and her resilience — subtly woven into the fabric of the story.

The Visual Language of Isolation

Frida Kahlo’s art often explores isolation, bodily suffering, and emotional vulnerability. These themes echo through E.T., especially in the scenes where the alien is first discovered and nursed back to health. The way E.T. is framed — frail, curious, and out of place — feels like a direct nod to Kahlo’s self-portraits, which often depict her own physical and emotional fragility. The lighting and color palette in E.T.’s early scenes recall the dreamlike quality of Kahlo’s paintings, where the line between reality and imagination blurs.

A Shared Humanity (or Alien-ity)

Kahlo’s work often blurs the boundaries between self and other, a theme that E.T. explores in its own way. The bond between Elliott and E.T. transcends species — much like how Kahlo painted herself merging with animals, plants, and even machines. Her painting The Two Fridas comes to mind, where two versions of herself are connected by a single vein. In E.T., the emotional connection between boy and alien is just as visceral, as if they share a single heartbeat.

Pain and Resilience

Frida Kahlo transformed her chronic pain into art that was both deeply personal and universally resonant. Similarly, E.T. takes the pain of childhood — of feeling different, of being misunderstood — and turns it into something magical. When E.T. becomes ill, the scene is shot with a kind of reverence, as if his suffering is not just physical but spiritual. This echoes the way Kahlo treated her own suffering — not as something to hide, but as a source of strength and creativity.

The Imagination as Escape

Kahlo often used surrealism to escape the limitations of her body and her reality. In E.T., imagination becomes the vehicle for escape as well — not just for E.T., who longs to return to the stars, but for Elliott and his siblings, who find in E.T. a way to transcend the mundane world of adults. The flying bicycle scene, with its moonlit sky and soaring sense of freedom, feels like a direct homage to the dreamlike flights of Kahlo’s imagination.

A Fusion of Worlds

Frida Kahlo’s art and E.T. both invite us into a world where the personal becomes universal, where pain can be transformed into wonder, and where the strange and the beautiful coexist. Whether or not Spielberg intended it, the spirit of Frida’s brushstrokes lingers in every frame of E.T., reminding us that even the most unlikely friendships can teach us what it means to feel truly alive.

Talk to Frida Kahlo on HoloDream and discover how her surreal vision continues to inspire artists today.