‘Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus’ (Steven Shainberg, 2006)
Director Steven Shainberg is no stranger to the weird and arcane, his last feature being 2002’s ‘Secretary’. In, ‘Fur’ he palpates similar territory taking Diane Arbus, the controversial American photographer who has been both pilloried and praised in equal measure, as his subject matter. Unlike other ‘bio-pics’, Shainberg does not purport to give his audience factual accuracy; by focusing on what may have been Arbus’ catalyst for her extraordinary career, he presents the film as a piece of interpretive conjecture from the outset. Dispelling the myth that Arbus was a mere voyeur who exploited the disenfranchised, Shainberg suggests that it was within the abject and marginal that Arbus found her true calling; her sympathy for the freakish and strange is shown to be the result of her peripheral status within middle-class society making her photography an act of kinship and not objectification. Unashamedly pro-Arbus, ‘Fur’ gives us a real insight into the formation of a seminal artist whilst the powerful and emotive performances by Downey, Kidman and Burrell ensure that the film is consistently imaginative rather than ridiculous.
Director Steven Shainberg is no stranger to the weird and arcane, his last feature being 2002’s ‘Secretary’. In, ‘Fur’ he palpates similar territory taking Diane Arbus, the controversial American photographer who has been both pilloried and praised in equal measure, as his subject matter. Unlike other ‘bio-pics’, Shainberg does not purport to give his audience factual accuracy; by focusing on what may have been Arbus’ catalyst for her extraordinary career, he presents the film as a piece of interpretive conjecture from the outset. Dispelling the myth that Arbus was a mere voyeur who exploited the disenfranchised, Shainberg suggests that it was within the abject and marginal that Arbus found her true calling; her sympathy for the freakish and strange is shown to be the result of her peripheral status within middle-class society making her photography an act of kinship and not objectification. Unashamedly pro-Arbus, ‘Fur’ gives us a real insight into the formation of a seminal artist whilst the powerful and emotive performances by Downey, Kidman and Burrell ensure that the film is consistently imaginative rather than ridiculous.
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