By Robin E. SImmons
When award-winning documentarian Albert Maysles (pronounced MAY-zuls) died last week in Manhattan at the age of 88, there was a collective sigh of sadness among film lovers all around the world. Albert, with his younger brother David, created amazing, provocative films that were intensely immediate, human, revealing and often more than a little disturbing. Watching their films, your are wrapped in a world that’s oddly slightly off-center yet more than familiar. They captured and shared a truth via cinema that was devoid of mockery or cynicism and seemed to show life as it is. Albert claimed to have had a learning disability that made him listen very carefully. He said this skill served him well in making docuymentaries. He studied psychology at Syracuse University and received a master’s degree from Boston University, where he taught psychology before making his first film. Albert Maysles received the National Medal of Arts from President Obama in July.
When I think of the Maysles, three incredible films immediately come to mind. All are available in excellent transfers from Criterion for home viewing.
SALESMAN
This landmark American documentary captures in vivid detail the bygone era of the door-to-door Bible salesman. While laboring to sell a relatively expensive gold-embossed version of the Good Book, Paul Brennan and his colleagues target the beleaguered masses—then face the demands of quotas and the frustrations of life on the road. Following Brennan on his daily rounds, the Maysles discover a real-life Willy Loman, walking the line from hype to despondency. His world is a web of disturbing themes, full of desperation, religion and poverty. A heart-breaking and unsettling masterpiece.
GIMME SHELTER (1970)
Called the greatest rock film ever made, this landmark documentary follows the Rolling Stones on their notorious 1969 U.S. tour. When three hundred thousand members of the Love Generation collided with a few dozen Hells Angels at San Francisco’s Altamont Speedway, Direct Cinema pioneers David and Albert Maysles and Charlotte Zwerin were there to immortalize on film the bloody slash that transformed a decade’s dreams into disillusionment. The disc has a multitude of extras including a great commentary from director Maysles.
GREY GARDENS (1975)
You will never forget Big and Little Edie Beale: mother and daughter, high-society dropouts, and reclusive cousins of Jackie Onassis. The two live together amid the squalor, decay and disorder of their East Hampton, New York, mansion, making for an eerily ramshackle echo of the American Camelot. An uncomfortable and hypnotically intimate portrait, this 1976 documentary by Albert and David Maysles, codirected by Ellen Hovde and Muffie Meyer, was an immediate cult classic that made Little Edie a fashion icon and philosopher queen. This Blu-ray edition features the “The Beales of Grey Gardens,” edited from hours of extra footage in the filmmakers’ vaults. There was much conversation regarding the exploitation of these woman who some suggested suffered a shared mental disability. Martin Scorsese described Albert Maysles’ camera as “an inquisitive presence, but also a loving presence, an empathetic presence, tuned to the most sensitive emotional vibrations.” This film was the basis of a Tony winning Broadway musical and also a superb 2009 HBO Emmy Award winning version with Jessica Lange and Drew Barrymore as mother and daughter Beale.
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CINDERELLA
Disney’s ultimate princess movie is just about perfect. And it’s hard to imagine a better Cinderella than the luminous Lilly James (Lady Rose of “Downton Abbey”). With her lilting, melodic voice, she steals every scene she’s in. James’ incarnation of the beloved, iconic heroine who is rewarded for her resiliency and innate kindness, is a timeless, often funny, film that will be around for a very long time.
Under the astute direction of Kenneth Branagh, team Disney has created an instant live-action classic that is uplifting, lushly textured and wonderfully romantic. And the biggest surprise of all, it sticks to the basic story we all think we know with only a few adjustments for our modern mindset. There’s a lot of magic here in this bravura nod to old-school filmmaking – and storytelling. It’s nice to be reminded that, just maybe, good can still conquers evil.
The top-notch cast includes (among others): Cate Blanchett , Helena Bonham Carter, Derek Jacobi, Ben Chapin, Richard Madden and a terrific Sophia McShera as Drisella.
Comments? robinesimmons@aol.com
