In winter of 2007, John Maloof stumbled across a box of negatives at an auction, and was told they belonged to Vivian Maier. After realizing how stunning her photographs were, Maloof spent his time trying to discover who this woman was.
The movie took the form of interviewing numerous people who encountered Vivian Maier. At first, Maloof found people who Maier used to nanny for. Later, Maloof uncovered more people from her past. I thought this was a very personal way to construct this movie. It was very interesting how certain groups of people all described her in the same way. For example, many of the people she looked after, called Maier odd and occasionally mean. One woman recalled Maier shoving food down her throat because she would not clear her plate. Towards the end of the documentary, the people in the town she stayed in described her as lonely and short with conversation, tending to sit alone on a park bench. I do think the interviewees could have done a better job of introducing themselves. Eventually,you could figure out what they had to do with Maier, but it was not clear at first.With this documentary already being almost a mystery, it would have been nice to have certain parts just specifically told to the viewer.
The traits that were consistent in the description of Maier were that she was mysterious, secretive, eccentric and a loner. She kept just about everything and often hid her items in other items in boxes with locks on them. Her dress was very outdated and had a walk where she swung her arms out in front of her. Those from her past kept describing her odd habits and then moved into a darker side of Maier. She had a fear of men, suggesting previous assault. One of the women said that Maier would say “all men want is sex” and to “stay away from men.” Mairer had violent outbursts with the children that she looked after, often getting her dismissed from jobs. One of the children she looked after that claimed Maier would construct these “accidents” for her to get a photograph of them. These would include force feeding them or purposely scaring them. Her photography also displayed the everyday events of life, showing the happy and sad moments. She could have been so skilled in capturing the perfect shot because she was around a wide variety of people through being a nanny.
The history of Maier was rather confusing, in the movie you can see she gave out fake names, was very private, hoarded many of her belongings, and had a fake French accent. With all of this, it shows that Maier did not want to be recognized for her work and did not want others to know who she was. Many of the people she babysat thought she was from outside of the United States and were shocked when they found out she was from New York. I almost wish that the flow of her life was more organized. I feel like the layout of the film could have been confusing on purpose since the history of Vivian Maier was rather confusing. Even though as a view this was confusing at times, I feel like the directors did this on purpose in order to make the movie more of a mystery,like Maier herself.
As far as Vivian Maier’s work, it is stunning. The photos are black and white depicting daily scenes in life and some self-portraits. Many of the photographs shown in the movie were of people, but there were some of objects too, for example one was the inside of a trashcan. Maier had a twin lens Rollieflex, which allowed her to be more secretive when taking pictures of people. This added to her secretive and mysterious personality. I understand that the movie is called Finding Vivian Maier, but I felt as though there was little explanation about her work. The documentary displayed a decent amount of Maier’s work. If the camera was not on one of Maier’s photographs, it was on Maloof, or one of the people he was interviewing. However, Maloof did say he acquired around 150,000 negatives. With this, the amount of her photos displayed was very minimal and I think a montage at the end of the film with more of her work would have been a nice addition. It also would have been nice if the movie makers grouped the photographs. While they were talking about the different places Maier traveled, they could have shown pictures from each place. Instead, the pictures shown almost seemed random.
This would not be a movie that I would have watched on my own. However, after watching it, I found it very fascinating how a woman with such talent kept her work so private. The time and dedication John Maloof put into uncovering the work of the mysterious photographer, Vivian Maier, is inspiring. At the beginning of the documentary, there was very little information on Maier and Maloof managed to piece together large pieces of her life to help us understand who Vivian Maier really was.
