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<夢幻皮草>
Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus
故事大綱
繼話題十足的電影＜Secretary＞後，史提芬辛堡帶來以當代傳奇寫實女攝影師黛安．艾柏斯（Diane Arbus）為主題的全新作品＜夢幻皮草＞。透過鏡頭，黛安引領我們進入一個陌生的世界，而＜夢幻皮草＞則揭示她如何由一名害羞婦人蛻變為一個以相片震撼全球人心靈的藝術家。金像影后妮歌潔曼飾演主角黛安．艾柏斯，一名活於1958年紐約的好主婦、好媽媽，但擁有天賦和敏銳觸覺的她，心底欲望卻為世不容。金像獎提名演員羅拔唐尼飾演她的鄰居萊納（Lionel），一名帶黛安掙脫世俗枷鎖，實現夢想的神秘男子。
受Patricia Bosworth的小說＜Diane Arbus: A Biography＞啟發，＜夢幻皮草＞向黛安．艾柏斯這位以尖銳手法和主題挑戰傳統美醜觀念、徹底改變了攝影學的傳奇女子。史提芬辛堡和編劇Erin Cressida Wilson並非以傳記電影形式攝製＜夢幻皮草＞，反之，此戲以虛擬的角色和旁白交織黛安．艾柏斯真實的生活點滴，拍成一齣獨特又詭秘的電影。這是電影上描繪歷史性重要人物的新手法，捕捉了1958年一名循規蹈矩的家庭主婦和好媽媽，如何於家庭和創作之間作出取捨。＜夢幻皮草＞是一個關於藝術和尋覓自我的故事，像＜愛麗絲夢遊仙境＞一樣刺激好玩但又叫人膽戰心驚，深深打動了觀眾。
＜夢幻皮草＞以一場皮草時裝表演掀開序幕。一班富有的皮草商，在Arbus Family Photography Studio和家中等待萊錫（Russek）最新的一批皮草。萊錫是第五街著名的皮草店，黛安的父親正是店主。對於丈夫艾倫（Ty Burrell飾）是時裝和廣告攝影師的黛安來說，這場表演絲毫不能出錯 - 鍍金椅子必須整齊排好，模特兒必須打扮得完美無瑕，她自己和兩名小女兒也穿上萊錫皮草、以最雍容華貴的一面亮相，絕對不能失禮 - 因為她們不單要取悅那群目中無人的貴客，還要討好黛安的父母和大老闆：David（Harris Yulin飾）和Gertrude Nemerov（Jane Alexander飾）。雖然萊錫的父親聘請了艾倫負責拍店子的廣告，但那其實是種帶?諷刺的施捨。黛安的父母把她培養成上流階級，以批判的眼光觀察她的一舉一動，不容有任何出錯或失禮。雖然她極力掩飾，但披?皮草的黛安其實絕不喜歡和認同這樣的世界。在她循規蹈矩、受人尊敬的外表下，其實是一顆蠢蠢欲動的心。
那夜，當全國的皮草商正注視最新的貴價皮草的同時，一班搬運工人開始把一堆家私和奇怪的物件由貨車搬到閣樓。留意?這些舉動的黛安，忽然瞄到一個古怪的面具，不禁暗暗納罕。而她在街上首次遇見這位新鄰居萊納（Lionel）後，疑團只有越來越大 - 他戴?帽子、穿著大衣，以面具和圍巾遮蓋整張瞼，只露出一雙坦然面對黛安奇異目光的眼睛。之後兩個星期，黛安對這位鄰居的好奇心越來越強烈 - 他上樓梯的腳步聲，由閣樓傳出來的音樂等等，又有一名光頭的訪客匆匆而來，離開時竟已改頭換面。
一天黛安檢查浴室的洗面盆時，沿?一條連接?兩個單位的水渠發現了這位神秘鄰居的秘密。終於，躊躇的她鼓起勇氣，帶?丈夫多年前買給她但未用過的Rolleiflex照相機，敲響了萊納的大門。
不過黛安當晚並沒有應邀進入萊納的家替他照相。事實上，這只是一場冒險旅程的開始 - 她捲進了一段改變她的作品和一生的關係中。
製作特輯
重塑美國傳奇女攝影師黛安•艾柏斯的故事，導演史提芬辛堡選擇了大膽又神秘的風格，避開傳統自傳電影的手法，以現實和幻想交織的情節交代這位奇女子的一生。電影以黛安初任攝影師的1958年為開端，結合了童話故事、心理探究、舊時代片和愛情故事，反映了史提芬辛堡對黛安這位與他有特別淵源的藝術家的了解和仰慕。
在黛安未成名前，年幼的史提芬辛堡，已於他紐約市的家裏見過她那些別樹一格的作品 - 黛安是他叔叔兼作家Lawrence Shainberg的好朋友，Lawrence不時買黛安的作品，黛安也不時送相片給Lawrence為禮物。當時的黛安正為生活掙扎，因為那個時代的人對她的作品不屑一顧，她的收入十分卑微。不過，黛安依然樂此不疲地把生理或心理有問題的人、馬戲團表演者和變性人等被社會歧視的一群攝入鏡頭。
史提芬辛堡跟黛安素未謀面。「但有趣的是，她是我成長的一部分。她鏡頭下的影像在我的視覺成長中扮演重要的角色，當人家的父母每晚為子女朗讀蘇斯博士（Dr. Seuss）的故事時，我每朝醒來就見到貼在房中的猶太巨人照片！」他說的就是黛安鏡頭下著名的495磅重、身高八尺的巨人Eddie Carmel和他父母一起合照的相片。
長大後，史提芬辛堡為了收集美國攝影史的資料而大量搜羅黛安的作品，並因此產生起為她製作一齣電影的念頭。碰巧於1984年，作家Patricia Bosworth出版了＜Diane Arbus: A Biography＞，讓導演Bonnie Timmermann認識了黛安．艾柏斯這位藝術家，並引起她買下版權的興趣。輾轉至1997年，在電影出品人Edward R. Pressman的幫助下買下版權，再花了六年時間籌備電影版。2002年，Timmermann和Pressman看到史提芬辛堡的＜Secretary＞，驚訝於他的大膽、色情、黑色幽默和觸摸人心的準確性，見面後更發現他與黛安之間的淵源，於是攜手攝製這齣電影。他們亦找來了＜Secretary＞的編劇Erin Cressida Wilson。
史提芬辛堡和Wilson合作創造了一種嶄新的自傳電影模式 - 虛擬一段從未發生的愛情故事，並幻想黛安在真實中會如何處理，她一步步成為藝術家時的心路歷程又是如何。在這一方面，他們參考了路易斯．卡羅（Lewis Carroll）的名著＜愛麗斯夢遊仙境＞ - 這是黛安最喜歡的書本之一，她於1963年為《Bazaar》拍內頁時亦曾加入該書的一個謎語。史提芬辛堡說：「黛安由一名賢妻良母變為丈夫的攝影助手，就是『夢遊仙境』似的歷程；在那一刻，突然有無數新鮮事物湧入你的世界，令你眼花撩亂，應接不暇。」
令黛安轉變得更快的，是她如夢一樣的新鄰居萊納。萊納這虛擬角色，靈感其實來自一名黛安拍過的真人。「我和Wilson看了無數正常人稱為『怪胎』，但對我們來說是『奇人』的書，然後看到一個叫萊納的多毛雜耍表演者。這跟黛安父親是位皮草商有?一種詭異但實在的連繫。」Wilson補充道：「黛安看到的，是萊納那被毛髮掩蓋的靈魂。這套電影，說的是一個女人怎樣擺脫外在的束縛，尋回自己的靈魂，過自己喜歡的生活。」
他倆大膽而富創意的劇本叫Timmermann詫異。「我看劇本初稿時，不自覺地驚訝得張大了嘴 - 這劇本多麼美麗，多麼獨特！我從沒想過故事會寫得如此動人。然後我把劇本拿給Ed Pressman看，我見到他的嘴巴也是張開的。」
原著作者Bosworth很高興自己的小說出版廿年後，能夠被拍成一齣電影；但更令她興奮的，是台前幕後人員的熱誠。「我跟史提芬和Erin是好朋友，他們極之創新、聰敏，把黛安的人生變得極其鮮明。黛安決定去找萊納時怕得要死，但她鼓起勇氣，一心要把他攝入鏡頭。」
有了好劇本，下一步就是選角。史提芬辛堡一開始便屬意由妮歌潔曼飾演黛安。「我喜歡妮歌，拍什麼戲都想找她合作。事實上，妮歌跟黛安外型上根本沒有絲毫共通之處，很難叫人想像我為什麼找她。但我關心的是，她對黛安有何感想？她能否投入我們創造的角色內？而妮歌擁有深邃的情感、神秘感和溫柔，這正是黛安這角色必備的特質。」
但以妮歌排得密麻麻的檔期和＜夢幻皮草＞的小規模製作來說，邀得這位影后似乎是遙不可及的事情，不過Timmermann她依然動手打電話給好友兼妮歌的演技導師Susan Batson，並把劇本寄給Batson看。
「那劇本獨一無二，深深吸引?我」妮歌說。了解黛安更多的資料後，對她的興趣更濃。「這故事有多重喻意，尤其是對被『未知』所吸引的女性創作者來說。」 而她早已看過導演的＜Secretary＞，並十分欣賞那原創而充滿挫折和誘惑的故事。
跟妮歌同樣渴望跟史提芬辛堡合作的，是飾演萊納的羅拔唐尼。「看過＜Secretary＞，然後知道史提芬辛堡是這齣戲的導演，叫我急不及待接拍此戲。」史提芬辛堡跟羅拔唐尼可謂惺惺相惜，他認為要演活萊納這角色，羅拔唐尼是不二之選。「舊式的怪人總是悶悶不樂、孤獨、避世、因被誤解而害怕跟人交往，我完全沒興趣塑造這種角色。萊納是個性感，堅強的男人，他和黛安的關係是令人嚮往的，所以演萊納的演員必須有吸引之處，他不能沉默寡言又笨拙，因為黛安將會從他身上獲益良多，當中包括一點點玩世不恭的態度。」而羅拔唐尼正好具備萊納的溫柔敏銳、廣闊心胸、充滿驚喜和愛心。
飾演黛安丈夫艾倫．艾柏斯的是資深舞台劇演員Ty Burrell。「艾倫這角色的選角很困難，他是個再正常不過的男人，但卻十分關鍵，因為他的決定影響了黛安的下半生。」Burrell表示，＜夢幻皮草＞談的是英雄主義。「我認為黛安是個另類英雄，她要保持自我的話，便必須作出某程度上的犧牲。讀劇本時，我發覺艾倫．艾柏斯也是個英雄，他由始至終都想給予妻子最好的東西，還衷心地支持她到底。我們誰都想從自己愛的人身上得到最好的東西，但未必人人懂得珍惜。」
而扮演黛安的富有皮草商父母David和Gertrude Nemerov的，是資深演員Harris Yulin和Jane Alexander。史提芬辛堡說：「Jane Alexander是美國藝術基金會主席，為白宮工作多年。她很清楚Gertrude Nemerov是個怎樣的人，揣摩這角色對她來說易如反掌；Harris Yulin亦是影圈的老行尊。跟他們溝通時毫不費勁。」
Jane本身認識艾柏斯夫婦。「我跟艾倫是朋友。認識黛安時，她剛開始替丈夫拍時裝照。我不知道她在做什麼，但看得出她很喜歡外出，而且頸上永遠掛?一部照相機。」她強調說：「不過，我不會視＜夢幻皮草＞為一齣典型傳記電影。反之，它以創新的手法，把黛安作品的美和深度呈現於觀眾眼前，某程度上亦彰顯了她的個人特質。」Harris Yulin亦十分欣賞＜夢幻皮草＞大膽的風格：「它的獨特之處，在於它包含?黛安的真實資料 - 她的丈夫、父母、子女和生平，但同時又虛擬了種種情節，帶領觀眾去探視她心路歷程上的衝擊。」他又高興自己能跟Jane演對手戲：「我和Jane在工作上已碰過好幾次頭，也演過四次夫婦；她是一位出色的演員，也是我的好友。」
至於萊納身邊一群奇人異士，則是公開招募得來的。史提芬辛堡?意挑選一些陌生的面孔，更決意不運用任何特技或化妝效果。在一眾角色中，最難找的是Althea，萊納那位無臂好友。而結果他們找到一位叫Mary Duffy的無臂愛爾蘭女士。「她從未拍過戲，但她寄來的試鏡錄影帶叫我們眼界大開。於是我們約見了她，向她詳述電影的意念和她那角色的含意。演這些角色的必須是真人，而非隨便找個演員然後用電腦移走她的雙臂便算。我希望這電影裏的一切都是活生生的。」
＜夢幻皮草＞於2005年五月初開拍，於紐約攝製了57天，八月初拍竣。除了一些紐約的內、外景，大部分場景都於紐約西南部布魯克林的Steiner攝影廠完成。史提芬辛堡與攝師師Bill Pope、美指Amy Danger、服裝師Mark Bridges緊密合作，設計出一個疑幻疑真、虛實交替的電影世界。其中，萊納的住所大量參考了＜愛麗斯夢遊仙境＞，如等候黛安來臨的一杯茶和萊納的寵物兔等等。不過，他們亦盡量取得平衡：「如果太多古怪東西，」史提芬辛堡解說：「觀眾便不會當萊納是個真的搬了到黛安樓上的人，也不會覺得黛安真的為了這男人而放棄家庭。另一方面，這個叫『黛安．艾柏斯』的角色，對於離開自己熟悉的環境、去到一個未知的世界，像個小孩子般好奇。這一股天真的好奇心，平衡了沉重的『現實』。」
除了「美女」參考了＜愛麗斯夢遊仙境＞外，萊納的形象也參考了尚．高克多（Jean Cocteau）的經典電影＜美女與野獸＞中的「野獸」。為此，他們邀得化妝出神入化的Stan Winston幫忙。「我們與Stan Winston商量萊納的毛髮和整體造型，務求確保這角色不會流於詼諧，反而是一個真實的、有個性的人物。」出品人之一Fierberg說：「當我們首次看到羅拔唐尼化了全妝的模樣時，我們看到一個依舊帶?羅拔唐尼個性的毛人萊納 - Stan Winston叫我們百分之百放心。」
為突顯黛安的家、萊納的家和外間世界之間的分別，美指設計了三種不同的室內佈景色系、燈光和裝璜。例如黛安的家被一層光覆蓋，像戴上一個冷漠的面具那樣。但萊納的家則有?剝落的油漆和石灰牆，那些錯落的圖紋，暗示萊納過?謎一樣複雜生活，而那種生活是渾身簡潔衣飾的黛安未曾接觸過的。
談到兩位主角妮歌潔曼和羅拔唐尼的火花，史提芬辛堡說：「我想他們惺惺相惜，二人都是有才華、活潑又視野廣闊的演員。」羅拔唐尼說：「我一向很欣賞妮歌演技的多元化。而這次合作，她又叫我見識到她的聰敏和純熟演技。當然，她還長得十分漂亮。」妮歌潔曼則道：「羅拔唐尼性感又神秘，絕對是這角色的完美人選。還有他有一雙迷人的電眼 - 他的眼睛真的會說話，他根本不需要對白！」她驚嘆。「令我覺得他與眾不同的是，演出時他往往變得非常愛說話 - 雖然在此戲裏他的角色沒有太多對白。而我最欣賞的是他很喜歡聆聽我的意見，對＜夢幻皮草＞這一類型的電影來說，這一點非常重要。他是個演戲能手，我很慶幸自己有機會與他合作。」
妮歌潔曼同樣慶幸能跟史提芬辛堡合作。在抵達紐約前，她與這位導演主要以電話來交流。「我們談及自己，幾乎像交代身世那樣，」妮歌回想道：「是以我和他早在開戲前已仿似老朋友一樣。史提芬是個溫暖、和善、有趣又能啟發別人的導演。他很清楚自己要什麼，但他亦讓你有足夠的自由發揮空間。」羅拔唐尼也有類似的評語：「任何人都會喜歡史提芬辛堡，他是個充滿熱誠的傻子，永遠準備充足，腦袋裏滿是古怪又有趣的念頭。他總是很輕易地叫人信服。這齣戲的野心和風險同樣大，而我想不到比史提芬和妮歌更適合的拍檔。我們合作時總是嚴謹準確但又輕鬆融洽。」
史提芬總結道：「某程度上，我們都想憑?做好這齣戲來向黛安．艾柏斯致敬。」
演員履歷
妮歌潔曼Nicole Kidman（飾黛安．艾柏斯）
澳洲女星妮歌潔曼1989年以一齣＜Dead Calm＞取得美國觀眾注目，自此逐步邁向國際，成為炙手可熱的頂尖荷里活巨星。她參演過英國、西班牙、羅馬尼亞、芬蘭、澳洲、美國製作的多齣電影，包括＜大地雄心＞、＜淑女本色＞、＜大開眼戒＞、＜不惜一切＞、＜不速之嚇＞、＜亂世情天＞、＜人間狗鎮＞、＜越世驚情＞。
2002年，她憑?＜情陷紅磨坊＞獲金球獎及奧斯卡提名，翌年再憑＜此時．此刻＞中英國著名女作家「維珍妮亞．伍爾芺」一角，勇奪2003年奧斯卡最佳女主角（歷來首位澳洲影后）、金球獎、有英國奧斯卡之稱的BAFTA獎及柏林影展銀熊獎。
2005年，她參與懸疑片＜叛譯者＞和喜劇＜魔法嬌妻＞。06年她的作品有＜God Grew Tired of Us＞、＜踢躂小企鵝＞（配音），以及異型驚慄片＜The Visiting＞。
於國慶日2006年1月26日，妮歌潔曼獲頒澳洲最高級別的Companion in the Order of Australia勳銜。在電影事業以外，她亦熱心公益，分別是女性人權組織UNIFEM的大使、UNICEF的大使及UCLA女性健康基金的首位主席。
羅拔唐尼Robert Downey Jr.（飾萊納）
羅拔唐尼是荷里活最受尊崇的影星之一。從演逾三十年的他，處女作為其父Robert Downey Sr.執導的＜Pound＞。於1992年，他憑＜Chaplin＞中差利卓別靈一角，勇奪BAFTA最佳男主角及提名奧斯卡。
此外，他亦曾參與過多齣叫人印象深刻的電影，包括1995年＜浮華暫借問＞、1998年＜U.S. Marshal＞、＜一夜情未了＞；1999年＜縱橫黑白道＞、＜In Dreams＞；2000年＜Wonder Boys＞、＜Bowfinger＞等。
於2001年，羅拔唐尼首度參演電視劇＜甜心俏佳人＞，飾演律師「Larry Paul」一角，並憑此贏得金球獎和Screen Actors Guild Award，並獲艾美獎提名。2003年10月，他參演BBC大熱電視劇的電影版＜奇探心魔＞，以及驚慄片＜鬼兆＞。
他亦於講述美國參議員麥卡錫的＜各位觀眾晚安＞中扮演記者Joe Wershba，演出大受好評。他亦於＜冒牌神探撞親愛＞中飾演一名假冒為演員的小偷。
羅拔唐尼最近期的電影為科幻片＜世紀毒殺網絡＞（A Scanner Darkly）（其他演員有奇洛李維斯、雲露娜維達及活地夏里臣）。他亦即將在以三藩市連環殺手為題材的電影＜Zodiac＞中亮相。
他的其他作品包括：＜天生殺人狂＞、＜人生交叉點＞、＜娛樂大本營＞、＜電腦俏紅娘＞等。
2004年11月，羅拔唐尼推出了首張唱片＜The Futurist＞，碟內八首歌由他親自作曲，兩首為翻唱，充分展示他歌喉和音樂天分。
TY Burrell（飾艾倫）
資深戲劇演員Ty Burrell，大銀幕處女作為艾雲列文Ivan Reitman執導的＜Evolution＞，隨即又拍了＜黑鷹15小時＞。兩齣電影後，他又返回舞台界，參與極高評價的＜Burn
This＞。
2004年，Ty Burrell參與過＜活死人凶間＞、＜公私密友＞。同年，他為Peter DuBois執導的舞台劇＜Richard III＞演出。
近期，Ty Burrell的蹤跡可見於＜有米老友記＞（珍妮花安妮絲頓主演）、＜Down In the Valley＞和＜Darwin Awards＞。電視劇則有CBS的喜劇＜Out of Practice＞。
Harris Yulin（飾David Nemerov）
觀眾不難在電影、電視和舞台上見到Harris Yulin的蹤影。縱橫娛樂圈的他多年來拍過多齣叫人印象難忘的電影，包括＜打造天子門生＞、＜邊緣特訓＞、＜火拼時速＞、＜地?酒店謀殺案＞、＜Perfume＞、＜黑罪風雲＞、＜燃眉追擊＞、活地亞倫的＜緣盡半生＞、＜疤面煞星＞、＜捉鬼敢死隊二＞等等。
電視劇方面，他曾參演過有＜24＞、＜X檔案＞、＜美女與疆屍有個約會＞、＜墜落花＞及＜Frasier＞。
Harris Yulin亦是舞台劇的常客，作品包括＜王子復仇記＞和＜仲夏夜之夢＞等。
Jane Alexander（飾Gertrude Nemerov）
參與逾45齣電影的Jane Alexander，憑?＜Testament＞、＜克藍瑪對克藍瑪＞、＜驚天大陰謀＞和＜The Great White Hope＞獲四度提名奧斯卡。她最近期的作品為＜驕陽無限＞和＜七夜冤靈＞。其他好評如潮的電影包括＜黑獄金剛＞、＜辣手神探指天椒＞、＜總有驕陽＞。
電視電影方面，她參演過＜Playing for Time＞（贏得艾美獎）、CBS的＜Jennifer＞（由她的兒子Jace Alexander執導）、＜Carry Me Home＞（獲艾美獎提名）、和HBO的＜Warm Springs＞（贏得艾美獎）。
除大小熒幕以外，Jane Alexander亦是資深舞台劇演員，曾多度獲提名東尼獎。
幕後人員
史提芬辛堡Steven Shainberg（導演）
史提芬辛堡為著名耶魯大學的英國文學及東亞研究系文學士，畢業後即製作大量電影、廣告及搖滾樂錄影帶。他隨即成為獨立電影出品人，出品了數齣電影包括＜Angels＞、改編自Joseph Conrad小說的＜The Secret Agent＞、改編Henry James小說的＜the Americans＞。
其後，他加入美國電影學院，編導四齣短片。其中第四齣的＜The Prom＞贏得侯斯頓影展評審團大獎、科羅拉多州Breckenridge影展的Critic's Award及紐約節的電影組銀牌。1998年，史提芬辛堡製作一系列六齣短片＜Mr. Viril＞，於MTV台播放近六個月。
他的第一部電影為1998年8月的＜Hit Me＞，伊莉亞斯高迪亞扮演被誤捲進酒店竊案的女子，惹來激烈評論；同片的Laure Marsac亦憑此贏得Cesar Award。電影亦分別於多倫多影展、雅典影展、斯德哥爾摩影展等歐洲影展播放。
2004年9月，他創辦「Vox3 Films電影公司」，出品電影包括Michael Hoffman的＜Game 6＞、Matt Mahurin的＜Feel＞、Zoe Cassavetes的＜Broken English＞等。
他的上一部作品是改編自Mary Gaitskill小說＜Bad Behavior＞的＜Secretary＞，<Secretary＞是一個風格大膽的黑色幽默愛情故事，贏得辛丹斯影展的原創組評審團特別大獎，以及國家評論協會獎及獨立精神獎，並獲提名金球獎。
除電影以外，史提芬辛堡亦攝製超過20個電視視廣告，客戶包括Chanel 香水和Miller啤酒。他亦是USC電影及電視學系、哥倫比亞大學電影學系及美國電影學院的客席教授。
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上映日期 : Jan 18, 2007
級別 : IIB
片長 : 123分鐘
官方網址 : www.furmovie.com (US)
www.goldenscene.com (HK)
發行 : Golden Scene Co Ltd.
戲院 : UA Times Square / UA Langham Place / AMC Pacific Place / AMC Festival Walk
/ Broadway Cinematheque / GH Mongkok
FUR:
An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus
SYNOPSIS
Following his breakthrough feature, SECRETARY, director Steven Shainberg creates a ravishing imaginary portrait of the visionary artist Diane Arbus in his new film, FUR: AN IMAGINARY PORTRAIT OF DIANE ARBUS. Much as an actual Arbus photo transports us into strange and unfamiliar worlds, FUR travels through the looking glass to explore the transformation of a shy woman into a powerfully original artist. OscarR winner Nicole Kidman stars as "Diane Arbus," a devoted wife and mother whose innate talents and dark obsessions are profoundly at odds with the conventional life she leads in 1958 New York. OscarR-nominee Robert Downey Jr. co-stars as Lionel, an enigmatic new neighbor who launches Diane on her journey to becoming the artist she is meant to be.
Inspired by Patricia Bosworth's book "Diane Arbus: A Biography," FUR pays homage to a brilliant artistic talent who challenged accepted notions of beauty and ugliness, and forever changed photography through her radical techniques and subject matter. Aptly, Shainberg and screenwriter Erin Cressida Wilson have conjured FUR not as a biopic, but as something different, unique and mysterious, intertwining real aspects of Arbus's life with invented characters and an imaginary narrative. It is a new way of cinematically approaching the portrayal of an historically important person, and captures the real dilemma of a 1958 housewife who is torn between love for her husband and children and her profound need to create and explore. Brilliantly performed by Kidman and Downey, FUR is a tale of artistic and personal self-discovery; an Alice-in-Wonderland adventure that is both exciting and scary, and ultimately, deeply moving.
As FUR opens, a small audience of wealthy furriers is expected at the Arbus Family Photography Studio and home for a fashion show of the latest furs from Russek's, the posh Fifth Avenue fur and department store run by Diane's father. It is a stressful event for Diane Arbus (Nicole Kidman), a housewife and mother who works as an assistant to her husband Allan (Ty Burrell), a fashion and advertising photographer. The delicate gold-leafed chairs must be neatly aligned, the models must be styled to perfection, and Diane and her two young daughters must be immaculately turned out for the occasion in their best dresses and Russek's furs. The correctness of their behavior will be appraised not only by the snooty crowd, but also by Diane's parents, Russek's proprietors Gertrude (Jane Alexander) and David Nemerov (Harris Yulin). Though the Nemerovs employ the Arbuses to photograph the store's ads, it is a barbed form of patronage. They raised Diane to be part of their privileged class, and observe everything she does with a critical eye, commenting on any mistake or breach of protocol. Though trying her best to disguise it, Diane is as uncomfortable and restless in that world as she is in her Russek's stole. It is an unease that lies just beneath the surface of her orderly, respectable life.
That night, while rich furriers from all over the country eye the expensive new fashions, a team of movers begins unloading a large truck. Watching them carry furniture and other odd possessions inside and up the stairs of her building, Diane's eye is caught by a strange-looking mask the size of a man's head. Later, when Diane gets her first glimpse of her new neighbor, Lionel (Robert Downey Jr.), in the nighttime street, the mystery only deepens. He is bundled up in coat and hat, his face obscured by a scarf and mask. Only his eyes are visible, frankly returning Diane's fascinated gaze.
Over the next two weeks, Diane becomes keenly interested in her neighbor's comings and goings -- his footsteps on the stairs, the music playing from his attic apartment, etc. A bald visitor dashes upstairs and returns noticeably changed. Investigating a backed-up bathroom sink one day, Diane traces the problem to a plumbing pipe linking their two apartments … a discovery that leads to yet more tantalizing clues about the man upstairs.
Eventually, tentatively, Diane makes her way up to Lionel's ornate door wearing the Rolleiflex camera that Allan bought her years ago, as yet unused. Diane, however, will not take Lionel's photo that night or the next, when he invites her into his home. It is the beginning of an adventure that will take Diane into the underground worlds that have always called to her -- and into a compelling intimate relationship that will transform her life and her art forever.
Picturehouse presents FUR, an imaginary portrait of Diane Arbus. Directed by Steven Shainberg from a screenplay by Erin Cressida Wilson, inspired by the book, "Diane Arbus: A Biography," by Patricia Bosworth. Produced by William Pohlad, Laura Bickford, Bonnie Timmermann, and Andrew Fierberg. The director of photography is Bill Pope, ASC, the production designer Amy Danger, the editors Keiko Deguchi and Kristina Boden. Music by Carter Burwell. The music supervisor is Beth Amy Rosenblatt, the costume designer Mark Bridges, and the casting is by Ellen Parks, CSA. FUR stars Nicole Kidman, Robert Downey Jr., Ty Burrell, Jane Alexander, and Harris Yulin.
ABOUT THE PRODUCTION
In creating his imaginary portrait of the great American photographer Diane Arbus, director Steven Shainberg has made a film that, like the work and the artist it celebrates, is both daring and mysterious. Eschewing conventional biography, FUR takes the bold step of merging reality and fantasy to explore the emergence of a singularly brilliant artist. It takes us through the looking glass into an invented world of marvelous sights and complex humanity. Set in 1958, the year the real Arbus effectively embarked on her solo career as photographer, FUR is a startling combination of fairy tale, psychological study, period piece, and love story. Above all, FUR reflects Shainberg's personal understanding of and love for this most personal of artists.
Well before Arbus was a legend, Steven Shainberg was growing up in a New York City townhouse lined with her photos. Arbus was a close friend of Shainberg's uncle, the writer Lawrence Shainberg, who occasionally bought her work and received photographs as gifts from the then-unknown photographer. At the time, Arbus was struggling to make a living from her art, which was unlike anything anyone had ever seen, particularly her portraits of people studiously ignored or derided in conventional society. Still, Arbus admired and was fascinated by these "freaks" -- individuals with physical and/or psychological abnormalities, circus performers, transvestites, etc.
Shainberg knew these unusual photos in his childhood home as simply the work of his uncle's friend. "I never met Diane. But she was very much a part of my parents' adult world 'out there'; it was very mysterious and intriguing. The images themselves I think were a fundamental part of my visual upbringing. In the same way that someone's parents might read Dr. Seuss to them every night, I would walk up to my room and pass a picture of the Jewish Giant!" he marvels, referring to the famous Arbus photo of 495-pound, 8-foot-tall "Jewish Giant" Eddie Carmel and his parents.
Shainberg vividly remembers the first Arbus photo to have made a deep, conscious impression on him. "It was at the top of the stairs from the second to the third floor, right outside my parents' bedroom. It was two teenagers standing on a street. He's wearing a kind of a knee-length dark raincoat and he's standing besides his girlfriend. I remember coming home from school one day and stopping and looking at the photograph, and not being able to tell if the subjects in it were adolescents or 50-year-old adults. And I remember thinking how peculiar that was. I was perplexed by just that essential, simple question. In a way, that started me looking at and questioning what is going on in photographs in general."
As an adult, Shainberg has collected Arbus photos for his own extensive collection of American photography. He had long nurtured the hope of making a film about her. In this, he was not alone.
In 1984, Patricia Bosworth's "Diane Arbus: A Biography" was published, the first and thus far only treatment of the photographer's life. Bonnie Timmermann, then in the early stages of her career as one of film's finest casting directors, read the book when it came out and was completely fascinated with Arbus and her work. As Timmermann recalls, "I started to look at Diane's photography very carefully before I even knew I wanted to produce a movie. From my first exposure to her work I felt like there was a part of me in her photographs, whether it was an eyelash, an elbow, a knee, a finger or toe. So my relationship with her photographs has always been very personal, like I had a bond with her. I know other people feel that as well."
Timmermann eventually inquired about rights to the Bosworth book, only to learn that they were unavailable. Since 1984, the rights had been held variously by MGM, Lorimar, and Barbra Streisand; different actresses, directors, producers and writers had come and gone. Timmermann, who is a friend of Bosworth's, kept tabs on the option status over the years until the rights finally became available in 1997, at which point she brought the project to producer Edward R. Pressman, who agreed to partner with Timmermann and optioned the book through his Edward R. Pressman Film Corp. Once they had the rights, Timmermann and Pressman spent the next six years developing the film. Over that time, three different directors became attached each with their own take on the material. Today, Pressman notes that "though all of these directors had their own vision, they all planned on making a traditional bio-pic of Arbus."
Then, in 2002, Timmermann and Pressman saw Shainberg's SECRETARY, and were knocked out by its daring, erotic, darkly funny and psychologically acute take on the perverse relationship between a lawyer and his new secretary. SECRETARY was executive produced by Michael Roban, who had joined Pressman's company at the time, ContentFilm, as head of business affairs. Through Roban, Pressman and Timmermann contacted Shainberg right away. "Steve came up to see us," recalls Timmermann, "and he told us of his passion for Diane Arbus and the many years that he'd wanted to direct a movie about her and her photography. He knew so much about her: he knew her family, he knew all of her photographs and everything she wrote. And he had an idea about how to make this into a film."
Shainberg had tried at different times over a 15-year period to acquire the rights to the Bosworth biography. "I'd had a lot of time to think about how you make a movie about Diane Arbus," he says. "From my point of view, the thing we see when we look at an Arbus photograph, and the reason why her photographs are so unusual and moving, is that they're really about a long, complicated relationship that she had with the subject. We get a single frame, one picture of the Jewish giant with his parents standing beside him, the mother looking up at him. But the truth is, Arbus had a ten-year relationship with Eddie Carmel and she took hundreds and hundreds of pictures of him on many, many occasions. But she only published that one picture. But that one picture was created, and found, and taken because of that long relationship she had with him. That's true of many of her subjects. So when I met with Bonnie, my main point about the proposed film was that it had to deal with the intimacy between Arbus and the subject. A film about Diane Arbus needed to be about the making of one photograph."
Timmermann and Pressman agreed, and with that, FUR began to move forward. Shainberg's friend and SECRETARY screenwriter, Erin Cressida Wilson, happily signed on to write the script and they set to work. Edward R. Pressman Film Corp. announced Shainberg and Wilson's involvement in the long-simmering project in July, 2003.
Rather than take a traditional biographical approach, Shainberg and Wilson developed a narrative that merged elements from the real Arbus's life with a fantasy about her artistic metamorphosis. Blending fact and fiction made a certain sense for a tale about Arbus, notes Wilson. "One of the most important aspects of Arbus's work was the melding of fantasy and stark reality. This was inherent in her vision of the world," the writer says.
Shainberg and Wilson created a character, "Diane Arbus," that incorporated the photographer's basic history: a privileged and overly-protected upbringing in the family that owned Russek's, the exclusive New York City furrier and department store; an adult life of marriage, motherhood and work as an assistant/stylist to her husband Allan, a fashion and advertising photographer. From the Bosworth biography they adapted carefully chosen details and events that went to the heart of the person Arbus would become: her childhood dare of standing on a ledge outside her bedroom window, testing her courage high above Central Park; her early and intense interest in things and people her parents and caretakers forbid her to look at, like the homeless men in a Depression-era Central Park shantytown.
The film, however, strays far from these literal events in the real Arbus's life to invent a story and a relationship which never actually occurred. In imagining what Arbus might have gone through psychologically and emotionally in the days and weeks leading up to the creation of her first photographic portrait -- the first expression of a singular vision that would change the world of photography -- Shainberg and Wilson arrived at a new kind of biographical cinematic approach. As they shaped the narrative of "Diane's" inner journey to becoming an artist, they incorporated judicious references to Lewis Carroll's "Alice in Wonderland," a motif that spoke equally to their character's experience and the real woman that inspired it. "Alice" was one of Arbus's favorite books and a seminal aesthetic influence; she included a riddle from the book in a photo spread she did for Harper's Bazaar in 1963.
Comments Shainberg, "The experience the character of Diane has of transitioning from working as her husband's photography assistant and being a housewife and mother to the Diane Arbus we know is an 'Alice in Wonderland' experience. It's that moment in your life when, because you're becoming aware of new things, you're having a kind of trip or psychedelic experience. So 'Alice in Wonderland' was appropriate for the psychological experience that the character is having, but it also came directly from Arbus's work and her own words."
The catalyst of Diane's transformation is the arrival in her building of her new neighbor, Lionel, a mysterious figure who seems to have stepped out of a dream. In fact, Lionel is inspired by a real person, whom Shainberg and Wilson found while searching for ideas for the character. They felt the character had to be someone the real Arbus might have photographed, but rejected obvious choices like a midget, giant or transvestite. Remembers Shainberg, "We were flipping through a lot of books of what people would normally call "freaks," but whom we call 'unusual people,' and there was a guy from the turn of the century named Lionel who was hairy. That connected in a mysterious, unconscious, tactile way to the fact that Diane Arbus's real father was a furrier."
"Along with the connection with Diane's father being a furrier," adds Wilson, "it also worked because underneath Lionel's fur he would reveal more of himself to Diane. The film is partially about a woman who learns to uncover and become herself. I thought the image of fur would evoke that, but the character would also be the beast that moves in upstairs."
Moreover, the real Lionel did not fit the stereotype of ugly beast, notes Shainberg. "Although Lionel's not like us and he's totally covered in hair, he's incredibly beautiful. And that conjures the idea of `Beauty and the Beast,' which I think is crucial to the Arbus life. She wanted to discover the beasts in the world, to cross the tracks and find out about what she didn't know. I think the first line she wrote in the introduction to her book of photographs is `My favorite thing is to go where I've never been.' To me, that's the Arbus story."
In her relationship with Lionel, Diane is at last able to go where she has never been, to pursue her curiosity about other, different human beings, the kind of person she has been admonished not to look at. Lionel is not afraid of being looked at, nor is he afraid of looking at Diane. It is no accident that Diane does not protest when Lionel requires her to remove her camera on her first visit to his apartment. Remarks Shainberg, "When Lionel says to her, 'Take off your camera,' that is a challenge to experience him, life, other people, this world that he's going to open to her, in a way that she would never have anticipated. It's a kind of dare which cannot be resisted, if you are so inclined."
Timmermann was dazzled by the script. "I read the first draft of the screenplay with my mouth open," she reports. "It was so beautiful and so unique. I never expected anything like it. Then I asked Ed Pressman to read it and I noticed he was reading it with his mouth open as well. We knew we had a script that was very special."
Timmermann had had many discussions with her friend, TRAFFIC producer Laura Bickford, about making a film together. She suspected FUR might be the one, and gave the final screenplay to Bickford. "I was so taken by the journey I went through with the character of Diane Arbus," says Bickford. "On one level it's a very human, relatable transformation story of a woman becoming herself and breaking free from the constraints of a life in the '50s to become the artist she's meant to be. On another level, it's a real fairy tale with allusions to `Alice in Wonderland' and `Beauty and the Beast.' And it's a great, sexy love story."
Bickford was working with producer Bill Pohlad at the time and shared the script with him. Pohlad, who had recently executive produced Ang Lee's BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN, was intrigued by the script as well. "I found compelling the script's depiction of Arbus emerging as an artist. But the story isn't just about Diane Arbus. It's about any woman, any person, who is moving from being one thing and finding her calling as an artist."
Pohlad and Bickford agreed to produce the film alongside Timmermann, with Pohlad's River Road Entertainment providing the financing. Producer Andrew Fierberg, Shainberg's production partner, completed the team. Bosworth was delighted to see a film being made some 20 years after the publication of her book, but more importantly, she was thrilled with the people making it. "I had a wonderful relationship with both Steven and Erin," Bosworth affirms. "They're both amazing, very creative and intelligent, sensitive people. The image of the little girl standing on the ledge - I think the film as a whole really evokes that. 'Diane' is scared to death when she goes into Lionel's apartment, but she's determined to go in, and she's determined to photograph him."
The filmmakers turned their attention to casting. Shainberg's first choice for the role of Diane was Nicole Kidman. "I adore Nicole and would think of her for any movie. In a certain way, to think of Nicole for Arbus doesn't seem particularly obvious given that they're so physically different," he allows. "But what I cared about was does she feel like Arbus? Can she emotionally go through the journey that the character we've made up, who's called 'Diane Arbus,' goes through during the course of the film? Nicole has all of that subtlety, emotional availability, mystery and tenderness, all of the things that the character needed."
It seemed like a long shot, given Kidman's busy schedule and the relatively small scale of FUR. Nonetheless, Timmermann began making calls. As it happened, her friend, acting coach Susan Batson, was on her way to Australia to work with Kidman. Timmermann gave Batson the script, emphasizing that Batson shouldn't do anything with the script unless she herself loved it. In fact, Batson did love the script, and so did Kidman.
"It was like nothing I'd ever read before, which of course attracted me," Kidman remarks. Her research on Arbus further piqued her interest. "The story is a metaphor for so many other things, in terms of a woman finding her creativity, the way in which we're attracted to the unknown. And I think this is a beautiful love story, a tragic love story -- but it's also a story in which Lionel unleashes things in Diane and helps her to unravel in a way that she never would have if she hadn't encountered him. It's so wonderful that he lives upstairs. Part of the strangeness of the film is you start to wonder, does he really even exist?"
Kidman had seen Shainberg's SECRETARY, which she admired and "thought was a great piece of work because it was original, disturbing and sexy." She was eager to work with the director, as was Robert Downey Jr., who was cast as Lionel. "Knowing it was Shainberg directing, having seen SECRETARY -- and then meeting him really more than anything else -- made me want to do the film," Downey explains. "I really hit it off with Shainberg. And then once Nicole came aboard, I knew this was going to be a really cool project."
Shainberg felt Downey was the ideal person to realize Lionel as a sophisticated, confident and charismatic man. Says the director, "I had no interest in portraying the conventional sad, lonely, withdrawn, fearful, isolated freak; the guy who has been so mistreated by the world that he's terrified of contact. From my point of view, that's not who this guy is. Lionel is sexy. He's a man, a strong man, and I wanted the relationship between him and Diane to be wonderful. So Lionel had to have some beauty to him. I didn't want somebody brooding and heavy, because Diane's discovering something from him that has many aspects, including a kind of playfulness.
"What I did want from Lionel," he continues, "was tenderness, sensitivity, unpredictability, openness, surprise, and love. And all that is Downey. You look at him and somehow he moves you. With the soulfulness of his eyes, the elegance of his movement and his sheer inventiveness, he was the perfect choice for Lionel."
Downey describes Lionel as "somebody who's been a freak in show business for as long as he can remember, who is kind of retired. I believe he's coming to this point where he's at peace with the autumn of his life. At this point, he chooses to impart some sort of creative mystery to this girl, Diane Arbus, who he's basically fallen in love with at first sight."
Ty Burrell, an acclaimed stage actor who recently co-starred in Nicole Holofcener's FRIENDS WITH MONEY, was cast as Diane's husband Allan Arbus. "The role of Allan is difficult," Shainberg remarks. "It's the least jazzy, the straightest. He's a normal guy. And yet he's very important because Diane is pulling away from him. So choosing the appropriate actor was key. Not only does Ty hold his own with Nicole and Robert, but he is so right for Allan."
Burrell believes that FUR is a story about heroism. "I really see Diane Arbus as a hero, a strange kind of hero, but the sort that makes the sacrifices necessary in trying to become her true self. I also felt from the moment I read the script a kind of heroism in Allan Arbus, in terms of him wanting the best for his wife, and then following through on it. We all hope to want the best from the people we love, but we don't always follow through on it, especially when we feel like we're going to lose them in the process."
Rounding out the key cast are acclaimed veteran actors Jane Alexander and Harris Yulin, who portray Diane's parents, Gertrude and David Nemerov, wealthy furriers. Notes Shainberg, "Jane Alexander was head of the National Endowment for the Arts and worked with the White House for years. She knows the kind of person Gertrude Nemerov is, and there was no question that she could play it brilliantly. Harris Yulin is also a seasoned actor and when you talk to them about their characters for a half hour, they say `Yeah, of course.' They know what they're doing."
Alexander knew the Arbuses. "I was a friend of Allan's, particularly. At the time I knew Diane she had just stopped doing the fashion photography with Allan. I wasn't privy to what she was doing, but I knew she was interested in being out on the street a lot and she always had a camera around her neck," she recalls. But she emphasizes, "I don't see FUR as imitating life as a biopic might. I think that's all to the good because there is a fantastical quality about Diane's work, and I think also about her in some ways, and all that is captured by the approach of the film. And if you're going to talk about the creative spirit of somebody, what better way than to go into the realm of the fantastical, magical world of her mind."
Yulin also admired FUR's unorthodox style. "Its unusual because it uses certain elements from Diane Arbus's biography -- that is to say, her husband, father, mother, children and her situation -- and posits a completely unique imaginary character to represent that whole other world that she's drawn to and finally enters," he remarks. He was delighted to learn he'd be acting opposite Alexander. "Jane and I have worked together a number of times, playing husband and wife four times; she's a very dear friend and a great actress."
The filmmakers held several open casting calls to assemble Lionel's circle of friends and fellow travelers in the world of the unusual and extraordinary people. Shainberg sought to cast people who would not be familiar from other films or television programs, and he ruled out resorting to special effects. Perhaps the most challenging role to cast was that of Althea, Lionel's armless friend. She is portrayed by an armless Irish woman named Mary Duffy. "She'd never been in a film, but she sent us a tape of herself that was just mind-blowing," Shainberg recalls. "We brought her over and I met her and we talked about what it means to be in a movie. It was important that these people be real, that we not cast an actress and digitally remove her arms. I wanted Nicole and her character and the audience to know that those people in the movie are real, that there's no fakery."
FUR shot for 57 days in New York from early May until early August, 2005. Although there were various exterior and interior locations filmed throughout New York, most of FUR's interiors were shot on sets built at the Steiner studio in Brooklyn. Shainberg worked with his behind-the-camera creative team, including director of photography Bill Pope, production designer Amy Danger and costume designer Mark Bridges, to create a cinematic landscape in which the real and the fantastic could believably co-exist. Lionel's apartment contains subtle references to "Alice in Wonderland," like the cup of tea awaiting Diane upon her arrival and Lionel's pet rabbit. But they were careful not to over-do. As Shainberg explains, "If you play it too hard, you lose the reality of Lionel being somebody real who's moved into her building. You have to feel that what's going on has something real and vital at stake. She genuinely might leave her family for this guy. But at the same time, I think this character we call 'Diane Arbus' would feel very childlike feelings of wonderment upon leaving a known world for an unknown world. That wonderment, her internal experience, leads to the stylistic fairy tale quality that is balanced at all times with 'the real.'"
Lionel's revelation of his furry self to Diane contains a subtle nod to Jean Cocteau's classic BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, a film Shainberg names as an inspiration. That film's presentation of a splendid Beast also informed FUR's depiction of Lionel. But credibility was as important as beauty. To accomplish this, the filmmakers enlisted the great makeup wizard Stan Winston and his studio. Explains producer Fierberg, "When we were talking to Stan Winston about designing the hair and the entire look for Lionel, we were very intent on making sure that the result wasn't a caricature of a person with hair, but that it was a real person, with some individuality and reality to him. When we finally saw Robert in his full makeup, with the hair and the look created by Stan Winston, and still Robert's face and his eyes, his humanism came through, and Robert was still there -- we knew everything was going to be fine."
Distinct visual looks were created for the three different worlds portrayed in the film: the Arbus home, Lionel's apartment, and the outside world explored by Diane and Lionel. Color, light and texture all came into play. "For example," says Shainberg, "the walls in the Arbus apartment downstairs all have a real sheen to them; they feel cool and covered like the apartment itself is wearing a mask. But when you go up to Lionel's place, the paint has been chipped away, layers and layers are exposed. So you have a feeling of a much rawer experience. The robes that he wears in his apartment are filled with endless pattern so that you have the sense that he, and the world that he will take Diane into, have a labyrinthine complexity that the simpler clothes, and the simpler surfaces downstairs in her life don't have."
Eventually, Diane's worlds collide as Lionel insists on meeting the man who has spent the last fifteen years married to the person he adores. "There are some great scenes where Diane's got her husband on one side and this man who's intriguing her -- who I think she hopes will be somebody very important in her life -- sitting on the other side," Kidman says. "And she's in the middle. I loved the way Steven structured those scenes, because there's humor and wit there, as well as her being pushed-and-pulled."
Watching Kidman and Downey work together was unforgettable. "I think that they just adored each other," comments Shainberg. "They're fantastically talented, amazingly vivid and open. I think it's the part of a lifetime for Robert and he came with his 'A' game. Nicole was really committed to, and involved with, playing Arbus in the way that she and I had discussed, which is to say from her own truth and from what mattered to her most personally about Arbus."
"Speaking of the 'Alice in Wonderland' metaphor," Downey remarks, "Kidman really pulled one out of her hat. I've always admired her range and ability, but at some point during the shoot, I realized I was working with one of the smartest, most intuitive and technically proficient actresses in history. Easy on the eyes too, in case you hadn't noticed."
Kidman was equally impressed. "Robert was perfect for this film because he's very seductive and he's unpredictable. And he has the most beautiful eyes," she marvels. "Robert's eyes speak and he doesn't really even need dialogue. And I think that's unusual for him because a lot of the time when he's performing -- and he has said this himself -- he's verbose. He's very, very smart and able to, I suppose, create a really wonderful tangled web. But in this film he's left with very little to say, just his heart and his presence. And he was very open towards me, which I still appreciate because it was extremely necessary for a film like FUR. I feel glad I had the chance to work with him because he truly is an original."
She was just as gratified by her collaboration with Shainberg, which started with a series of phone conversations they had prior to her arrival in New York. "We talked about ourselves; we kind of revealed things," recalls Kidman. "So there was an intimacy created before we started the film. I found him warm, kind, exciting and very stimulating. Steven has such a strong vision of what he wants and yet he allows you to sort of blossom within that."
Says Downey, "You gotta love Shainberg -- he's insanely passionate, very prepared, quirky and fun. He has a way of winning your confidence. This was a very ambitious and risky project, and I couldn't imagine having done it with anyone but him and Nicole. Our collaboration was at times intense, easygoing, fraternal and exacting."
Concludes Shainberg, "We all cared a lot about this film. We all wanted to in some sense honor the photographer that we loved, the Arbus that we loved."
ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS
STEVEN SHAINBERG (Director)
FUR is director Steven Shainberg's third feature film. His previous feature was the critically acclaimed SECRETARY, starring James Spader and Maggie Gyllenhaal in a bold and darkly humorous love story based on a short story from Mary Gaitskill's collection, "Bad Behavior." SECRETARY won the Special Jury Prize for Originality at the Sundance Film Festival and garnered several other prestigious awards from the National Board of Review and the Independent Spirit Awards, in addition to being nominated for a Golden Globe.
Shainberg's first feature, HIT ME, based upon a novel by Jim Thompson was released in August l998 to strong critical raves for Elias Koteas' performance as a high-strung loser who gets drawn into a hotel robbery gone awry. HIT ME, which also starred William H. Macy and Cesar Award winning actress, Laure Marsac, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and screened at the Athens International Film Festival, the Stockholm International Film Festival, and many other European festivals.
Shainberg is one of the founding partners, along with producers Andrew Fierberg and Christina Weiss Lurie, of Vox3 Films, a New York based development and production company committed to original independent film. Established in September 2004, Vox3 is run by filmmakers, for filmmakers, and is geared toward cultivating unusual, original and thought-provoking projects. Vox3 has produced Michael Hoffman's GAME 6 and Shainberg's FUR, while Matt Mahurin's FEEL and Zoe Cassavetes's BROKEN ENGLISH are currently in post-production.
In addition to his feature work, over the last several years Shainberg has directed over twenty television commercials, including spots for Time Warner, Chanel Perfume, and Miller Beer. He has also been a guest lecturer at USC's School of Film and Television, Columbia's School of Cinema and the American Film Institute.
Shainberg received a B.A. in English Literature and East Asian Studies from Yale University. After graduation he worked on numerous films, commercials, and rock videos in a variety of capacities. He subsequently worked as an independent producer and developed several screenplays, including ANGELS with writer Denis Johnson ("Jesus' Son"), and adaptations of Joseph Conrad's novel "The Secret Agent" and Henry James' novel "The Americans."
Thereafter, he entered The American Film Institute where he directed four short films, all of which he wrote or co-wrote. The last of these, THE PROM, starring Jennifer Jason Leigh and J.T. Walsh, won the Grand Prize at the Houston International Film Festival, the Critic's Award at the Breckenridge Festival in Colorado, and the Silver Medal for Drama at the New York Festival. THE PROM hit the International festival circuit, including the Torino Festival in Italy, the San Sebastian Festival in Spain, and the Tokyo International Film Festival. MR. VIRIL, a series of six short films Shainberg made in l998, ran for almost six months in rotation on MTV.
Shainberg is currently living in New York and developing his next project.
ERIN CRESSIDA WILSON (Writer)
Erin Cressida Wilson is an award-winning and internationally produced screenwriter and playwright. She won the 2003 Independent Spirit Award for her acclaimed screenplay, SECRETARY, starring James Spader and Maggie Gyllenhaal; this marked her first produced film with director Steven Shainberg.
Her current projects include a remake of THE HUNGER for Tony Scott and Warner Brothers, an adaptation of Judy Blume's well-known coming of age book, "Deenie," an American adaptation of the French film NATHALIE for Montecito Pictures, and a new project with Steven Shainberg.
Wilson's stage plays have been produced Off Broadway, regionally and internationally at such prestigious theatres as The Mark Taper Forum, The Brooklyn Academy of Music, The Public Theatre, Playwrights Horizons, Classic Stage Company, The Magic Theatre, The Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh, and The New Grove in London.
Also a professor and Director of Graduate Dramatic Writing in the Program of Literary Arts at Brown University, Wilson has won awards from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Rockefeller Foundation.
PATRICIA BOSWORTH (Author/Co-Producer)
Patricia Bosworth is the author of "Diane Arbus: A Biography," the 1984 best-selling book that served as the inspiration for FUR. Bosworth is also author of two other acclaimed biographies, "Montgomery Clift: A Biography" (1978) and "Marlon Brando: A Biography" (2001), as well as the nonfiction book, "Anything Your Little Heart Desires: An American Family Story" (1997). Her next book, "Jane Fonda: Her Life and Times," is scheduled to be published in 2008.
As a journalist, Bosworth has held various editorial positions at some of the country's most prestigious magazines. She has been a Senior Editor at McCall's; Managing Editor of Harper's Bazaar; a writer for Time Life, also helping to develop a woman's weekly magazine with Dick Stolley; a columnist for Working Woman Magazine; Contributing Editor for Vanity Fair, specializing in the arts and culture; Editor at Large for Mirabella, reporting on movies and women's issues. Since 1997, Bosworth has been a Contributing Editor at Vanity Fair, again specializing in arts and culture. Currently, she is also a regular contributor of articles and reviews on politics and culture to The New York Times: Sunday Arts and Leisure and The Nation.
Bosworth has also written two off-Broadway plays, produced by the Women's Project: "Making Contact" (1990) at the Judith Anderson Theater, and which was published in "Best One Act Plays of 1991-1992"; and "Choices" (1978) at The American Place Theater.
Since 1993, Bosworth has held various teaching positions, including Adjunct Professor at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism, where she taught literary non-fiction; the Will Durant Visiting Professor at St. Peter's College, Jersey City, where she taught biography and memoir; Adjunct Professor at Columbia University's School of the Arts, where she taught nonfiction writing to graduate students working toward the MFA degree. In addition, she taught summer workshops in memoir and autobiography and Barnard College.
Bosworth has also lectured on biography and memoir at Boston University, Yale University, University of Houston, Temple University, the New School for Social Research, Columbia University, University of South Carolina, USC, Berkeley, and Adelphi.
Bosworth's professional memberships and affiliations include, the Actors Studio (Board Member), Writers' Guild East, PEN (Board Member), Authors Guild, Dramatists Guild. She is also a recipient of the Front Page Award for Distinguished Journalism. She is a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College, where she received a BA in American Literature.
WILLIAM POHLAD (Producer)
William Pohlad has been producing films for more than fifteen years, but his most recognized work has come only in the last few. Since 2003, Pohlad has served as executive producer on Ang Lee's groundbreaking and award-winning film, BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN, as well as on Robert Altman's A PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION. He also executive produced the Madonna documentary I'M GOING TO TELL YOU A SECRET and Brett Morgen's upcoming political documentary C7. Pohlad is currently producing Sean Penn's INTO THE WILD.
Pohlad began his career in 1987 when he formed River Road Entertainment, a fledgling film production company with aspirations to make independent feature films out of his base in Minneapolis. He wrote, directed and co-produced his first feature film, OLD EXPLORERS, starring veteran actors Jose Ferrer and James Whitmore, in 1990. He followed that film with numerous commercial, corporate and documentary film and video projects. Pohlad's early documentary film credits included profiles of the rock star Prince, the late Hall of Fame baseball player Kirby Puckett and Irish theater director Joe Dowling. Through River Road, he has also created music videos and in-store programming for Musicland/Sam Goody, partnered with Musicland to produce music programming for cable and syndicated television, and created and produced an award-winning network of in-flight programming for Northwest Airlines.
In 2001, Pohlad led River Road Entertainment back into the feature film business and today divides his time between the company's Minneapolis and Los Angeles offices.
LAURA BICKFORD (Producer)
Laura Bickford is the Academy AwardR nominated producer of the critically acclaimed film TRAFFIC. Directed by Steven Soderbergh and starring Michael Douglas, Benicio del Toro and Catherine Zeta-Jones, TRAFFIC landed on more than 200 top-ten lists for the year 2000 and was lauded with numerous awards, including honors from the New York Film Critics; the Los Angeles Film Critics; the Golden Globe Awards; the SAG Awards; the Writers' Guild Awards; and the British Academy Awards. In addition, TRAFFIC earned four out of five OscarsR for which it was nominated and was named AFI Movie of the Year.
One of the film industry's leading producers, with numerous studio and independent projects in development, Bickford is currently in pre-production on a film in two parts about the life of Che Guevara, to be directed by Steven Soderbergh and starring Benicio Del Toro. Bickford's current projects also include a documentary by Brett Morgen and Graydon Carter about the Chicago Seven, and AMERICAN SON, in pre-production with director Neil Abramson. Bickford made her producing debut in 1995 with CITIZEN X for HBO Pictures. Based on the true story of Russian serial killer Andrei Chikatila, the film was written and directed by Chris Gerolmo, and starred Stephen Rea, Donald Sutherland and Max Von Sydow. CITIZEN X received a Cable Ace Award for Best Picture and earned multiple Emmy and Golden Globe Award nominations. For his performance, Sutherland won Emmy and Golden Globe Awards.
After studying filmmaking and various subjects in a Liberal Arts concentration, Bickford earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Sarah Lawrence College. She then began work as a production manager on political commercials in New York City. Shortly thereafter, she moved to London where she lived for five years. While there, Bickford produced music videos (over 50 in the United States and Europe) and developed feature films for Luc Roegand Jeremy Thomas' Vivid Productions.
After returning to the U.S., Bickford settled in Los Angeles and partnered with writer/director Matthew Chapman at his Hollywood Pictures-based company Asylum Films. Following her tenure at Asylum and the production of CITIZEN X, she produced PLAYING GOD with Beacon Pictures. Directed by Andy Wilson and starring David Duchovny, Timothy Hutton and Angelina Jolie, the film was released by Touchstone Pictures in 1997.
Also in 1997, Bickford produced BONGWATER, starring Luke Wilson, Jack Black and Brittany Murphy.
BONNIE TIMMERMAN (Producer)
Bonnie Timmermann is currently producing GEORGIA RULE by Mark Andrus, starring Jane Fonda, Felicity Huffman, and Lindsay Lohan, with Garry Marshall directing, for Morgan Creek. Timmerman recently produced for Greenestreet Films and Lionsgate the forthcoming release SLOW BURN, which stars Ray Liotta, LL Cool J, Taye Diggs and Mekhi Phifer. The film premiered at the 2005 Toronto International Film Festival.
Timmermann made her producing debut with the Broadway production of Ariel Dorfman's "Death and the Maiden," directed by Mike Nichols. She also served as producer on the worldwide productions of the play and on the feature film version directed by Roman Polanski. Since then she has produced the critically acclaimed AN AMERICAN RHAPSODY, starring Nastassja Kinski, Scarlett Johannson, Emmy Rossum and Tony Goldwyn; and served as executive producer on THE GUYS, starring Sigourney Weaver and Anthony Paglia, and directed by Jim Simpson for Content Films.
For television, Timmermann served as producer on the HBO movie IN THE GLOAMING, directed by Christopher Reeve, and starring Glenn Close and Whoopi Goldberg.
Timmermann has long been regarded as one of the most respected casting directors in film and theater. She began her career casting the New York production of Sam Shepard's Pulitzer Prize-winning play "Buried Child," for the Theatre for the New City. She subsequently cast more than twenty plays both on and off-Broadway.
Timmermann's first feature film casting job was on FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH in 1982. Since then she has worked on more than fifty feature films, among them AMADEUS, BITTER MOON, BLACK HAWK DOWN, BULL DURHAM, CARLITO'S WAY, DANGEROUS MINDS, DAVE, DIRTY DANCING, FRANTIC, GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS, HEAT, THE INSIDER, THE KARATE KID, THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS, MANHUNTER, MAN ON FIRE, MASK, MIDNIGHT RUN, THE MUSIC OF CHANCE, THE POPE OF GREENWICH VILLAGE, QUIZ SHOW, ROMEO IS BLEEDING, SPY GAME, STATE OF GRACE, TEQUILA SUNRISE and TRADING PLACES.
For television, Timmermann has also cast Michael Mann's hit series "Miami Vice," "Crime Story," and the Emmy Award-winning miniseries "Drug Wars…The Camarena Story."
ABOUT THE CAST
NICOLE KIDMAN (Diane Arbus)
Nicole Kidman first came to the attention of America audiences with her critically acclaimed performance in the riveting 1989 psychological thriller, DEAD CALM. Since then, she has become one of the most sought-after actresses in film the world over. Kidman has received both critical praise and awards for performances in a number of films (shot in countries ranging from Ireland to England to Spain to Romania to Finland to Australia and the United States), including FAR AND AWAY, PORTRAIT OF A LADY, EYES WIDE SHUT, TO DIE FOR, THE OTHERS, COLD MOUNTAIN, DOGVILLE and BIRTH. She received an Oscar Nomination and Golden Globe Award in 2002 for MOULIN ROUGE, and in 2003 she won the "Best Actress" Academy Award, along with a Golden Globe, BAFTA Award and Berlin Film Festival "Silver Bear," all for her stunning portrayal of Virginia Woolf in THE HOURS.
Last year, Kidman starred with Sean Penn in Sydney Pollack's United Nations thriller, THE INTERPRETER, and with Will Ferrell in writer/director Nora Ephron's comedy feature adaptation of BEWITCHED.
She narrated this year's Sundance Grand Jury/Audience Award-winning documentary GOD GREW TIRED OF US; has voiced a role in director George Miller's (BABE) upcoming animated penguin musical, HAPPY FEET; has completed filming on director Oliver Hirschbiegel's (DOWNFALL) alien invasion thriller THE VISITING, with co-star Daniel Craig, and most recently she completed filming on writer/director Noah Baumbach's next feature, co-starring Jennifer Jason Leigh and Jack Black.
Kidman has just begun filming THE GOLDEN COMPASS, the first of Phillip Pullman's "His Dark Materials" trilogy, directed by Chris Weitz. Early next year, she will re-team with MOULIN ROUGE director Baz Luhrmann and fellow Australian actor Hugh Jackman to film an epic love story set in Australia's outback.
On January 26 of this year, Kidman was awarded Australia's highest honor, the Companion in the Order of Australia. She was also named Goodwill Ambassador of the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), a role that will focus on raising awareness of the infringement on women's human rights around the world. For the past nine years, Kidman has served as the UNICEF Ambassador for Australia. Three years ago she became the first Chair of the Women's Health Fund at UCLA, at the David Geffen School of Medicine.
ROBERT DOWNEY JR. (Lionel)
Robert Downey Jr. has evolved into one of the most respected actors in Hollywood. With an amazing list of credits to his name, he has managed to stay new and fresh even after three decades in the business. Downey received an Academy Award nomination and won the BAFTA (British Academy Award) for Best Actor for his performance in the title role of CHAPLIN, released in 1992 by TriStar Pictures.
Most recently, Downey starred in A SCANNER DARKLY, Richard Linklater's futuristic drama also starring Keanu Reeves, Winona Ryder and Woody Harrelson, set in an America that has lost the war on drugs. He also stars in the forthcoming release, ZODIAC, based on the true story of San Francisco's infamous Zodiac murders. Directed by David Fincher, the film also stars Mark Ruffalo, Jake Gyllenhaal and Anthony Edwards.
Previously, Downey had a starring role in the critically acclaimed GOOD NIGHT AND GOOD LUCK, directed by George Clooney, in which Downey plays journalist Joe Wershba, who is part of the Edward R. Murrow/CBS team that takes on Senator Joe McCarthy. Downey also starred in KISS KISS, BANG BANG, an action comedy written and directed by Shane Black, and also starring Val Kilmer. Downey played a thief who masquerades as an actor.
In November 2004, Downey released his debut album called "The Futurist" on the Sony Classics label. The album, which contains eight original songs that Downey wrote, and two cover songs, shows off his sultry singing voice and his musical talents.
In October 2003, Downey was seen in two very different films. The first was Icon's THE SINGING DETECTIVE, a musical drama based on the popular BBC hit television miniseries of the same name. In the film Downey sings and dances alongside Adrien Brody, Katie Holmes and Robin Wright-Penn. The second film was the thriller GOTHIKA, which also starred Halle Berry and Penelope Cruz. Downey played a psychiatrist who works in a mental institution.
Downey made his primetime television debut in 2001, joining the cast of the Fox series "Ally McBeal," in the role of attorney Larry Paul. For this role, he won the Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television, as well as the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male in a Comedy Series. Downey was also nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series.
In 2000, Downey co-starred with Michael Douglas and Toby Maguire in WONDER BOYS, directed by Curtis Hanson, and with Steve Martin and Eddie Murphy in BOWFINGER. In 1999, Downey starred alongside Ben Stiller, Elijah Wood, Gaby Hoffman, Brooke Shields and Claudia Schiffer in BLACK AND WHITE, written and directed by James Toback; and IN DREAMS, opposite Annette Bening and Aidan Quinn, directed by Neil Jordan.
In 1998, Downey co-starred with Tommy Lee Jones and Wesley Snipes in U.S. MARSHAL, directed by Stuart Baird. He also starred with Heather Graham and Natasha Gregson Wagner in the critically acclaimed TWO GIRLS AND A GUY, directed by James Toback. In 1997, Downey was seen in Robert Altman's THE GINGERBREAD MAN, starring with Kenneth Branagh, Daryl Hannah and Embeth Davitz; HUGO POOL, directed by his father Robert Downey Sr., starring Sean Penn and Patrick Dempsey; and ONE NIGHT STAND, directed by Mike Figgis and starring Wesley Snipes and Nastassja Kinski. In 1995, Downey starred in RESTORATION, with Hugh Grant, Meg Ryan and Ian McKellen, directed by Michael Hoffman. Also that year, he starred in RICHARD III, in which he appeared opposite his RESTORATION co-star McKellen.
Downey's other film credits include Oliver Stone's NATURAL BORN KILLERS; Robert Altman's SHORT CUTS; HEARTS AND SOULS; the documentary THE LAST PARTY; SOAPDISH; AIR AMERICA; CHANCES ARE; TRUE BELIEVER; JOHNNY BE GOOD; 1969; LESS THAN ZERO; THE PICK-UP ARTIST; BACK TO SCHOOL; TUFF TURF; WEIRD SCIENCE; FIRSTBORN; and POUND, in which he made his feature film debut and which was directed by Robert Downey, Sr.
TY BURRELL (Allan)
With an extensive background in repertory theatre, Ty Burrell more recently has been praised for his work in film and on television as well. Burrell was immediately cast in his first film, Ivan Reitman's EVOLUTION, which he directly followed with BLACK HAWK DOWN, directed by Ridley Scott.
Following these two films, Burrell went back to theatre, segueing into the highly acclaimed Signature Theatre Off-Broadway production of "Burn This," for which he received glowing reviews for his performance in a starring role opposite Edward Norton, Catherine Keener and Dallas Roberts.
In 2004, Burrell appeared in two films that garnered him notice, DAWN OF THE DEAD, which premiered at The Cannes Film Festival, and the Weitz brothers' IN GOOD COMPANY, which starred Dennis Quaid, Topher Grace and Scarlett Johansen. In the same year he starred as Lord Buckingham in The New York Public Theatre's production of "Richard III," opposite Peter Dinklage, and directed by Peter DuBois.
Most recently, Burrell had starring roles in Nicole Holofcener's FRIENDS WITH MONEY, opposite Jennifer Aniston, Catherine Keener and Francis McDormand; DOWN IN THE VALLEY, opposite Edward Norton, for director David Jacobson; and the forthcoming DARWIN AWARDS, directed by Finn Taylor.
On television, currently Burrell is starring in the CBS comedy "Out of Practice," opposite Stockard Channing and Henry Winkler.
HARRIS YULIN (David Nemerov)
Harris Yulin has had a long and distinguished career in film, on television and on the stage. His feature credits include an extraordinarily diverse group of films, many directed by some of the most highly regarded filmmakers in the business.
Among his many films are THE TREATMENT, GAME SIX and THE EMPEROR'S CLUB, directed by Michael Hoffman; the award-winning TRAINING DAY, starring Denzel Washington and Ethan Hawke, directed by Antoine Fuqua; RUSH HOUR, directed by Brett Ratner; THE MILLION DOLLAR HOTEL, directed by Wim Wenders; PERFUME; CHELSEA WALLS, directed by Ethan Hawke; THE HURRICANE, starring Denzel Washington, directed by Norman Jewison; CRADLE WILL ROCK, directed by Tim Robbins; LOOKING FOR RICHARD, directed by Al Pacino; MURDER AT 1600 and MULTIPLICITY, directed by Harold Ramis; A CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER, starring Harrison Ford, directed by Philip Noyce; Woody Allen's ANOTHER WOMAN; SCARFACE, starring Al Pacino, directed by Brian DePalma; NARROW MARGIN, starring Gene Hackman, directed by Peter Hyams; THE MIDNIGHT MAN, directed by Burt Lancaster; END OF THE ROAD, directed by Aram Avakian; DOC, directed by Frank Perry; NIGHT MOVES, starring Gene Hackman, directed by Arthur Penn; THE BELIEVERS, directed by John Schlesinger; "GHOSTBUSTERS II," starring Bill Murray, directed by Ivan Reitman; ST. IVES, starring Charles Bronson, directed by J. Lee Thompson; FINAL ANALYSIS, directed by Phil Joanou; and FATAL BEAUTY.
On television, Yulin has appeared in made-for-television movies and miniseries that include: FORTUNATE SON, "WHEN EVERY DAY WAS THE FOURTH OF JULY and THE LAST RIDE OF THE DALTON GANG, for NBC; THE VIRGINIAN and HEART OF JUSTICE, for TNT; HOSTILE WATERS, IF THESE WALLS COULD TALK, TRUMAN, TAILSPIN: FLIGHT OF THE 007 and CONSPIRACY: THE TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 8, for HBO; THE LONG KILL, for USA; TRAITOR IN MY HOUSE and INCIDENT IN VICHY for PBS; FACE OF A STRANGER, for CBS; and ROBERT KENNEDY AND HIS TIMES, DAUGHTER OF THE STREETS, HOW THE WEST WAS WON, MELVIN PERVIS: G-MAN, THE NIGHT RIDER and THE MISSILES OF OCTOBER, for ABC.
Yulin has also had roles in numerous television series, including "24," starring Keifer Sutherland, and "The X Files," for Fox; "Buffy, the Vampire Slayer," for Warner Bros.; "La Femme Nikita," for USA (for which he received an Emmy nomination); "Frasier," (for which he also received an Emmy nomination) and "Mister Sterling" for NBC; and "Murphy Brown" and "W.I.O.U.," for CBS.
On stage, Yulin has had starring roles in the Broadway productions of "Hedda Gabler," Arthur Miller's "The Price," "The Diary of Anne Frank," "The Visit," "A Lesson From Aloes" and "Watch on the Rhine."
Yulin's Off-Broadway credits include productions of "Fran's Bed," "Raindance," "Arts and Leisure," "Don Juan in Hell," "Approaching Zanzibar," "Hamlet," "King John," "Mrs. Warren's Profession," "Hedda Gabler," "A Midsummer Night's Dream," "Next Time I'll Sing To You," "Arms and the Man," "Richard III," "Troubled Waters" and "The Cannibals." Yulin recently directed the critically acclaimed Off Broadway revival of Horton Foote's "Trip to Bountiful" and was presented the Lucille Lortel Award for Best Direction. Among his other theatrical credits are productions of "On the March to the Sea," "Finishing the Picture," "The Talking Cure," "King Lear," "Tartuffe," "Henry V," "The Little Foxes," "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf," "The Entertainer," "The Rehearsal," "Julius Caesar," "School for Wives," "The Doctor's Dilemma," "The Tempest," "Uncle Vanya," "Beckett," "Look Back in Anger," "The Seagull" and "The Night of the Iguana."
JANE ALEXANDER (Gertrude Nemerov)
Jane Alexander is a four-time OscarR nominee for the films TESTAMENT, KRAMER VS. KRAMER, ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN and THE GREAT WHITE HOPE. She has also appeared in over 45 films, among them BRUBAKER, CITY HEAT and THE CIDER HOUSE RULES. Most recently, she had starring roles in John Sayles' SUNSHINE STATE and THE RING.
Alexander also has had a distinguished acting career on stage, which includes her Tony Award-winning performance in "The Great White Hope," directed by Ed Sherin (who later became her husband) and Tony-nominated roles in "Honour," "The Sisters Rosensweig," "The Visit," "First Monday in October," "Find Your Way Home," and "6 Rms Riv Vu," all on Broadway. In addition, she won an Obie Award and a Drama Desk Award for "The Great White Hope." She also appeared in "Shadowlands," opposite Nigel Hawthorne, both on Broadway and in London's West End.
Alexander's regional theatre work includes performances at the Arena Stage and the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., as well as at the Mark Taper Forum, the Alliance Theatre Company, the McCarter Theatre, and the American Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford, Connecticut. She has appeared in over 100 stage roles in all throughout her career, the most recent being her portrayal of Djuna Barnes in the one-woman show, "What of the Night."
On television, Alexander won an Emmy Award for the movie PLAYING FOR TIME and a Television Critics' Circle Award for her portrayal of Eleanor Roosevelt in ELEANOR AND FRANKLIN: THE WHITE HOUSE YEARS. More recently, she was in the made-for-television movie JENNIFER, for CBS, which was directed by her son, Jace Alexander; and received a Daytime Emmy nomination for her cameo role in Showtime's CARRY ME HOME, also directed by Jace Alexander. She also was seen in HBO's WARM SPRINGS, for which she received an Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or Movie for her portrayal of Sara Roosevelt; and the HBO pilot "Sex Life."
Alexander is the author of "Command Performance: An Actress in the Theater of Politics," documenting her tenure as chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts from 1993-1997. She continues her political career as Commissioner of Parks, the Taconic Region, for N.Y. State.
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Release Date : Jan 18, 2007
Category : IIB
Runtime : 123mins
Official Website : www.furmovie.com (US)
www.goldenscene.com (HK)
Distributor : Golden Scene Co Ltd.Cinemas : UA Times Square / UA Langham Place
/ AMC Pacific Place / AMC Festival Walk / Broadway Cinematheque / GH Mongkok
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