Maysles Brothers
Albert and David Maysles were documentary filmmakers who often worked together as a team. At the beginning of their career they joined Drew Associates and worked with Robert Drew on his influential film Primary. After the film, the Maysles started making films of their own, with Albert as cinematographer and David as sound recorder. Richard Barsman described them as "the eyes and ears for a highly sophisticated approach to Direct Cinema that uses fictional techniques to shape the reporting of actual events."(1) For this reason, they prefer to use the term "nonfiction" or "Direct" cinema rather than Cinema Verité in referring to their stylistic approach, which was consistent with that of the other Direct Cinema filmmakers. Jonthan Vogels outlined their narrative approach as mainly the rejection of “[1] the authoritative voice-over narrator, [2] didactic script, [3] and traditional problem-and-solution format.” Visually, Vogels continues, the bothers preferred to employed [1] close-up, [2] “scanning the face of their subjects”, and [3] long shots.(2) But a distinctive characteristic that remained from their work with Drew was their use of the “crisis structure,” a strategy in which “the subject or subjects of the film would face a particularly challenging moment in life or where a filmed situation would come to dramatic climax...[and therefore] the filmmaker must choose a subject whose life might provide conflict-oriented episodes, or... situations in which a crisis is imminent, where winner-or-loser outcome is inevitable.”(3)
Major Films:
- PRIMARY (1960)
- SHOWMAN (1968)
- SALESMAN (1969)
- GIMME SHELTER (1970)
- GREY GARDENS (1976)
- CHRISTO IN PARIS (1991)
- ABORTION (1992)
- LETTING GO (1996)
- LALEE'S KIN (2001)
Notes:
(1) Barsam, Richard Meran. Nonfiction Film :A Critical History. Rev a expa -- ed. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1992. Print.
(2) Vogels, Jonathan B., David Maysles, and Albert Maysles. The Direct Cinema of David and Albert Maysles. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 2005.
Official Website
Major Films:
- PRIMARY (1960)
- SHOWMAN (1968)
- SALESMAN (1969)
- GIMME SHELTER (1970)
- GREY GARDENS (1976)
- CHRISTO IN PARIS (1991)
- ABORTION (1992)
- LETTING GO (1996)
- LALEE'S KIN (2001)
Notes:
(1) Barsam, Richard Meran. Nonfiction Film :A Critical History. Rev a expa -- ed. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1992. Print.
(2) Vogels, Jonathan B., David Maysles, and Albert Maysles. The Direct Cinema of David and Albert Maysles. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 2005.
Official Website
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Salesman
this film follows the everyday life of four salesmen who desperately try to sell, door-to-door, a "golden" and expensive version of the bible to low-income Catholic families. This film according to Alan Rosenthal, "illustrates some of the most interesting things about Al's work, such as his his camera versatility and his extraordinary sensitivity to people and situation, it also demonstrates the fundamental difference between European and American exponents of verite- the former being deliberate, obtrusive, and provoking, and the later passive and as detached from the action as possible."(1)
Making. --. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1971. Print.
- Notes:
Making. --. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1971. Print.
- Director: The Maysles Brothers,
- Company/Studio: The Bible Salesman Company, Inc. Maysles Films
- Year: 1968
