Film Family Portraits

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“All happy families are more or less dissimilar; all unhappy ones are more or less alike.” So explains Tolstoy in Anna Karenina (as translated by Nabokov in Ada).

The multimedia artist Kirk Demarais captures some of these similarities in his portraits of film families. From the Torrences (The Shining), to the Griswolds (National Lampoon’s Vacation), to the Johnsons (The Jerk), they are everything from eerie to hilarious. They share camera-ready smiles (except for Danny Torrence, understandably, and that serious older brother from The Lost Boys) and a certain inexplicable discomfort that is the hallmark of family portraits.  See them all on Demarais’ website. (via Beautiful/Decay)

Julie Greicius is the senior literary editor and a regular contributor for The Rumpus. She works as writer and editor by day and a licensed (really) hula hoop instructor by night. She's co-editor of Rumpus Women, Vol I, and has an MFA from Columbia University and a PhD in traffic school. She lives in California with her husband and two children. Follow her on Twitter. More from this author →