PITFALLS OF POSTHUMOUS FAN-BOYING

“Finding Vivian Maier” is a milk package advertisement type of documentary which like the Oscar-winning “Searching for Sugarman” sets ou...


“Finding Vivian Maier” is a milk package advertisement type of documentary which like the Oscar-winning “Searching for Sugarman” sets out to discover a story of a forgotten genius. The eccentric nanny and compulsive hoarder Vivian Maier, who took copious amounts of photos of people in the streets which have never been developed in an aspect ratio very similar to Instagam, seems to be a perfect subject for a trendy documentary. As the story unfolds, however, the excitement of discovering a true gem of an artist is underplayed by the structure of the film. The majority of screen time is devoted to the director of the film who also happens to be the guy who accidentally bought the crates of her films (ay, there's the rub!) and made it his mission – come hell or high water – to introduce these to the general public. A noble mission, no doubt about that, but his overwhelming straight-cut and not overly charismatic presence gives the film a kind of fan-boy tinge. The major art institutions reject Maier’s works which of course does not diminish the value of her photographs but the film fails to offer any kind of substantial evaluation of the said art works or even provide a background of the genre in question. The photos and the kooky personality of Vivian Maier emerge from the depths of nowhere to assume an undefined and slightly questionable position of some kind of importance according to the person who found them.  The emphasis on the personal anecdotes told by the children she used to mind take us even further into the realm of subjective opinions and scandal hunting. Without substantial grounding or background, the bits and bobs of information never lead anywhere, leaving poor departed Vivian with a rather arbitrary label of slightly weird and kind of cool closet Instagrammer of her time. The film was clearly a project very close to the director's heart but some distance from his own opinion would have gone a far longer way for writing Maier's name into the annals of history. 

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Aenean commodo ligula eget dolor Aenean massa.Aenean commodo ligula eget dolor Aenean massa.

You Might Also Like

0 comments