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Fur: an Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus (2006)
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With the likes of Dogville, Birth and Eyes Wide Shut on her CV, it's fair to say that Nicole Kidman has always been fearless in her choice of projects. It's also fair to say that this phantasmagoric biopic of American photographer Diane Arbus is definitely one of her stranger roles. Arbus, who died in 1971, was inspired by Tod Browning's cult 1932 movie Freaks and is best known for her photographs of people on the fringes of society. Billed as “an imaginary portrait”, this highly fictionalised biographical snapshot follows Arbus as she embarks on a mysterious and sexually charged affair with her neighbour Lionel (Robert Downey Jr), a man suffering from hypertrichosis, which gives him a werewolf-like abundance of hair. Director Steven Shainberg (Secretary) lets Kidman's bashfully aroused performance lead us into a neurotic, psychosexual fairy tale in which normality gives way to a dark carnival of weirdness as the photographer discovers her artistic calling. Kidman and Downey Jr excel as the improbable lovers, and the unusual premise just about survives Shainberg's constrictive pacing and mannered direction. JR
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Running time
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117min
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Country of origin
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US
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Genre
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Fantasy Biographical Drama
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Alternate title
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Fur
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Original language
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English
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Screenplay
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Erin Cressida Wilson, inspired by the book Diane Arbus: a Biography by Patricia Bosworth
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Theatrical distributor
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Entertainment
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UK cinema certificate
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15
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UK cinema release date
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March 2007
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Film certification logos reproduced by kind permission of BBFC |
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