Fur - an imagined life of Diane Arbus

If you're looking for a good movie with a photography theme check out Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus (also known simply as Fur). I've had this film on my Netflix movie "q" for years but never got around to seeing it until now.

Fur is a 2006 film starring Nicole Kidman as iconic American photographer Diane Arbus, who was known for her strange, disturbing images and the always wonderful Robert Downey, Jr. as a neighbor who leads Arbus out of her straight laced world into the world of strange, bizarre, forbidden people.

I've always been a big fan of Arbus's square format, black and white images of midgest, circus perormers, nudiest and mental patients in Halloween masks and have read Patricia Bosworth's biography on Diane Arbus so I have a good idea of the real life work and storyline of Diane Arbus. The fictional movie uses the real story but embellishes the events and characters that formed Arbus's journy towards the strange.

The movie is gripping and full of mystery, from its startling opening showing a nervous Arbus visiting a nudist colony to the scenes of her discovering a full completment of freak show characters living in the neighborhood.

For someone growing up in a wealthy, protected, perfect world the desire for the damaged, torn, imperfect lead her on a journey with her photography of the under belly of society and in the end it claimed her life as she could not merge the world she was groomed to live and the life she desired to live.


This movie was interesting with all of its vintage photography equipment and strange characters but it left me yearning for a true documentary about Diane Arbus.

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