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Review #328 of 365
Movie Review of Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus (2006) [R] 120 minutes
WIP™ Scale: $13.50
Where Viewed: Landmark Mayan, Denver, CO
When 1st Seen: 5 December 2006
Time: 6:50 p.m.
Film's Official Website
DVD Release Date: unscheduled
Directed by: Steven Shainberg (Secretary)
Written by: Erin Cressida Wilson (Secretary) loosely based on the biography Diane Arbus by Patricia Bosworth
Featured Cast (Where You Might Remember Him/Her From):
Nicole Kidman (Happy Feet) • Robert Downey Jr (A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints) • Ty Burrell (Friends with Money) • Harris Yulin (The Emperor's Club) • Jane Alexander (The Ring)
Soundtrack: order the CD below
Click for 'Review Lite' [a 150-word or less review of this film]
Reality and imagination collide in pre-meditated fashion as writer Erin Cressida Wilson abstracted the life of photographer Diane Arbus from Patricia Bosworth's biography and other sources creating a sensual, imaginative, and extraordinarily artistically bewildering yet beguiling snapshot of one of the USA's most influential female artists of the 20th century. In the capable hands of director Steven Shainberg, the script becomes a visual masterpiece of nuance contrasted with the startling and disheartening reality of Arbus's photographic subject matter. The story focuses on a short 3-month slice of Diane's life where she literally and figuratively unlocks her soul awakening a sense of abandon and raw, sensual joy. Being in possession of and reveal secrets have always been part of her nature, and now she will experiment fully with aspects of her inner psyche she's never dared to explore. The film begins with her on the other side of her personal epiphany at a nudist camp to which she has ventured in hopes of gaining clarity into the motivations of the residents and probably to peel off another layer of herself for herself.
"Reality and imagination collide…creating a sensual, imaginative, and extraordinarily artistically bewildering yet beguiling snapshot…"
As she is asked to disrobe prior to interacting with the guests, she flashes back reflecting on the previous few months of her life in Manhattan when a surprising neighbor helped to unleash the inner Diane (Nicole Kidman). Her life is utterly routine and nearly mundane. Having married, very young, her high school sweetheart, Allan Arbus (Ty Burrell), the Jewish socialite daughter of the wealthy furriers David (Harris Yulin) and Gertrude (Jane Alexander) Nemerov, she has settled into motherhood and subservience quite nicely. She serves as the assistant to her husband, a photographer whose work has been featured on the covers of many fashion magazines. At a party held at their home one evening, she grows so weary of this hum-drum life and seeks sanctuary at her bedroom window as she used to do as a child. She exposes herself out the window and notices a stranger, with covered face, looking up at her. Instantly, she is intrigued and drawn to him despite the hidden face. Over the next few days, she will seek to learn his identity and to meet up. He helps her find him, intrigued by her too, and drops her a key to his apartment above. This encounter helps her to realize that she wants to become a photographer herself, to capture images of real subjects, to preserve moments in time, to lock and unlock secrets. She shares the dream with Allan who is fully supportive of her wishes and does not object to her taking her camera off into the night. The night, he does not know, however, is not the night, but rather the apartment above of Mr. Lionel Sweeney (Robert Downey, Jr.). Perfectly fit for her personality, Lionel has set up an elaborate welcome from her full of secrets, mystery, and intrigue all of which lead up to his unveiling. As it turns out he has a genetic condition that causes rapid hair growth all over his body causing him to bear a strong resemblance to the artistic caricatures of werewolves—a characteristic that has bonded him with other outcasts of society, the unusual and wondrous people of circus sideshows. Diane is drawn instantly to him and his world. Over the course of the next month she falls deeply in love with him at the expense of her marriage, all the while snapping hundreds of shots of the exteriors of his apartment and the stairwell. She also brings Lionel in to her family's life by inviting him to dinner, etc. Allan grows suspicious of her relationship with Lionel and starts, ironically, growing a beard himself. Eventually, as Diane grows more and more alive and in tune with her talents and secrets, tragedy befalls Lionel taking her further down the path toward liberation and the actualization of her talents as a photographer at the expense of her loved ones.
"…a real life, though still imaginary, tale of 'Beauty and the Beast' come true."
Steven Shainberg has filmed one of the most sensually evocative films of the year with dynamic and lovely interactions between Diane and Lionel. The palpable electricity between them sparks passions long dormant and desperately seeking a way out. He has blended scenery, set, costume, and fashion into the lives of the Arbuses and Lionel with the same unusual, stark contrasts notable in Diane Arbus's distinctive photographs. Meanwhile, Erin Wilson's script sings with careful diction as artistically deft and symbolic as necessary to reveal Diane Arbus's inner thinking without voice over or interior monologue. Nicole Kidman's gentle and sensitive portrayal was a serious challenge for the beautiful actress not known for her ability to hide within the character on the surface. She does so here with glee and the same abandon necessary to allow Diane to emerge from her shell. It would be easy to overlook her for an Academy Award® nomination precisely because her performance is so understated as to cause one to utterly forget it is she within the veneer of this character. Meanwhile, Robert Downey, Jr. spending 95% of the time completely invisible behind mountains of hairy, Chewbacca-like fur, brings forth his own unique beauty in the role of a man who has lived his life doubly hidden unable to see his true self and yet having to cover his face and body so as not to frighten children or endure the long and startled stares from adults everywhere he were to go. Together, this duo of tortured souls, Mr. Downey, Jr. with his previous history of run ins with the law and drugs and Ms Kidman with her very public marriage and divorce from Tom Cruise brings remarkable layers to their characters making a real life, though still imaginary, tale of "Beauty and the Beast" come true. While occasionally a bit on the slow side, and while failing to reveal the future and power of Diane Arbus's photographic contributions, or that she ended her own life in dramatic fashion at the height of her career, the film is, nonetheless, evocative, fashionable, and extremely well done.
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Click for 'Review Lite' [a 150-word review of this film]
Click for 'Review Lite' [a 150-word review of this film]
Other Projects Featuring Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus (2006)
Cast Members
Nicole Kidman
• Robert Downey Jr• Ty BurrellHarris Yulin
• Jane AlexanderDirector
Steven Shainberg
Writer
Erin Cressida Wilson
| DVD | VHS | CD Soundtrack |
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Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus (2006) Review-lite [150-word cap]
Reality and imagination collide in pre-meditated fashion as writer Erin Cressida Wilson abstracted the life of photographer Diane Arbus from Patricia Bosworth's biography and other sources creating an imaginative, and extraordinarily artistically bewildering yet beguiling snapshot of one of the most influential artists of the 20th century. In the capable hands of director Steven Shainberg, the script becomes a visual masterpiece of nuance contrasted with disheartening reality of Arbus's photographic subject matter. Focusing on a 3-month slice of Diane's life where she literally and figuratively unlocks her soul awakening a sense of abandon and raw joy, Steven Shainberg has filmed one of the most sensually evocative films of the year with dynamic and lovely interactions between Diane (Nicole Kidman) and Lionel (Robert Downey, Jr.). This duo of tortured souls brings remarkable layers to their characters making a real life, though still imaginary, tale of "Beauty and the Beast" come true.
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