Friday, October 17, 2008

Diane Arbus

Forgive my lack of posts lately but to be quite honest with you I've had absolutely nothing to say. Last week I was reading one of Alyson Stanfield's posts on her blog ArtBiz in which she was discussing how to write a better blog post. She was saying in her experience people read a blog for three things, to be informed, to be entertained and to inspire. Lately I haven't felt I could do any of those things so I've been just keeping mum.

Last night I was surfing through the channels looking for a movie to watch and came across "Fur" with Nicole Kidman and Robert Downey Jr. (I love him). I read the info on it and because it was about the great American photographer Diane Arbus, I decided to give it a go. Diane Arbus was one of the most influencial artists of all time and known for her strange and at times disturbing images. Many of of photographic portraits were of people living on the fringe of society.........drawfs, giants, transvestites etc. etc.

Now this movie wasn't the bio pic I had originally thought it would be as it was more of a fairytale, bio, period piece and love story all rolled into one. There were a couple of moments during the film when I didn't know if I was going to continue to watch. Really bizarre in places but still interesting enough to keep me there. Afterward I read some of the reviews and found they weren't all that kind to either Nicole's portrayal of Diane or the film. I have to admit though that I liked it and I liked it well enough to find out a bit more about Diane Arbus and her life. Here's a clip from You Tube about the making of the film.

Hope your well.........have a great weekend

4 comments:

Tracy Helgeson said...

Parallel lives! I saw Fur recently too and while i thought it was ok, it did remind me that I don't know as much about Diane Arbus as I should (we have one of her photos, in the dining room, the circus lady?). So I got a book written about her which I am reading right now and have also been poring over Revelations, which has many of her images. I have had it for a long time but have only looked through it a few times. Her work was so intense!

Anonymous said...

I loved Fur! And while I haven't always been a Robert Downey Jr. fan, I have become one in recent months. We just watched Iron Man and I had low expectations - loved it!

Melody said...

Tracy, just a couple days ago I was asking John if he remembered that photograph you had in your dining room. I couldn't recall if it was a Diane Arbus or not and he said he does remember Doug saying it was. How cool is that? I just ordered Diane Arbus: A Biography by Patricia Bosworth. Parallel lives for sure!

Cynthia, so good to know someone else loved the movie. It seemed to stick with me for some time afterward. I love Robert Downey Jr. and yes, I am gushing. Those eyes!

Ellen said...

I've wanted to see that movie,I've always loved her work.I knew it got mixed reviews, but it did look interesting. I just finished watching Klimt (John Malkovitch as Klimt) and it was pretty disappointing.

And Robert Downey Jr.? I'm with you on that one, age has not hurt him one bit.