MovieChat Forums > Finding Vivian Maier (2014) Discussion > obnoxious families

obnoxious families

posted 8 years ago by aarnolda-54024
4 replies | jump to latest

I just watched most of this doc through netflix, and remember all the hoopla about it a few years ago. I found the adult children Ms.Maier took care of to be extremely obnoxious and self serving and could not believe the lack of editing on behalf of these interviews. It was like they had an opportunity for blaming someone for their entitled childhood. Their parents were just as smug also. The women who had the nerve to tear up when Vivian left them(you know, the one with eye brows , in a sad state of needing a good wax) PUH LEEZE, you had to "drive up to Michigan" because you were distraught. These people were unbearable in their desire to "spill" on someone. And yes I agree Maalof should have edited his mug outta things, he had the luck and determination to bring Vivian to the public, but his acknowledged conflicts with profiting from it were tiresome.

[–] 8 years ago

[deleted]

[–] winonaforever2 8 years ago

I don't agree. I think they were just being sincere. She was not a warm friendly person. Perhaps she was good at being a nanny but after a while she would either leave or be let go. She never shared with them her personal life or her talent and she seemed to have been demanding and even rude. 'No one can go up to my room', to find what? Piles of newspapers? They even say she was a bit crazy. Really, I think this is the way she was. She acted weird, she took pictures she never shared with anybody. One of the interviewees even says Vivian beat her up once or something like that. Even when people were trying to be nice to her she was still weird. There was this couple who were trying to sell their house and told her she could stay for a bit longer until the house was sold and then she would not let the agent in to show the place to prospective buyers. What can you say about some weird woman who looked after you when you were 6?

[–] fairy_depp 8 years ago

I think the woman clearly had mental health issues.. She was a beautiful photographer, I really love her work but she was a dreadful nanny. Taking the kids to slaughter houses, leaving them on the streets, photographing them when they've been run over. I think most of the families kept her on out of a sense of responsibility - knowing that she was vulnerable but there is only so much you can do. That woman you mentioned was a mother - at some point you have to say 'I feel for this woman but I don't feel she's a positive influence on my children'.. Flying off the handle because they got rid of her newspapers.

[–] mckane23 7 years ago

I agree, thank you for bringing this up. Clearly, this woman worked as a nanny for a number of years, an must have had positive relationships with at least some of her clients (especially considering the fact that, in her later years, she was housed and cared for by boys who she used to nanny). Yet, this documentary provides a significantly limited perspective on her time as a nanny by providing such a small subset of interviewees... a woman who considered herself a good friend but knew nothing of her personal life and three members of a family who fired her after less than a year. This later family, the Williams (Linda, Sarah, and Joe), were very poor interviewees who made their biases apparent.
Overall, it seemed as though this family was paranoid and thought themselves to be superior to Maier. Linda, at least, provided a complex picture of Vivianne and attempted to shed some insight on Vivianne's inner workings. Her children, on the other hand, are sensationalist witnesses whose contributions came off as gossipy and judgmental garbage- Sarah made a disparaging remarks about Maier's "status" as a nanny, and she came off as unhinged in her recollections, spastically making unsubstantiated vague and outrageous claims. Their parts should have been edited or omitted entirely.