Author: Kara McVey
In 1955, a man named Albert Maysles strapped a 16mm camera to his hand, and, together with his brother David, journeyed across Soviet Russia on the back of a postwar BMW motorcycle. More than 50 years later, the “Maysles Brothers” have become legendary in the world of documentary filmmaking. They garnered acclaim for their honest and insightful documentaries such as Salesman (1968) and Christo’s Valley Curtain (1974). On Monday, Sep. 21, Maysles came to Occidental to speak about his life in film.
Maysles is at first glance an unremarkable man. Aged 82 and with a head of white hair to match, he sat serenely at the front of Johnson 200, gently resting in his chair. His eyes swept over the audience with surprising intensity behind a pair of thick, black-framed glasses. Here is where the impression of ordinariness ends. It is impossible to forget that these eyes have closely observed such people as John Lennon, Marlon Brando, Truman Capote, Wynton Marsalis, Orson Wells, Seiji Ozawa and Keith Richards.
The next surprise was his speech. He has a strong, deep voice that doesn’t at all match his grandfatherly appearance. Furthermore, Maysles was so enthusiastic and energetic about everything he spoke of that it was almost impossible not to admire him. This must serve him well while he tries to ingratiate himself with his subjects in order to gain their consent to be filmed. As he puts it, the documentary subjects see “confidence and liking in [him]. . . something that’s transmitted when [they] connect eye-to-eye . . . that tells them [he’s] an okay guy.”
Maysles sees documentary films as a way of allowing people to better understand and relate to strangers and situations which they otherwise would not experience. His films demonstrate the way that the media can be used to connect, rather than distract people. In this respect, he thinks documentaries differ from other forms of entertainment. “Almost all entertainment on television is a diversion rather than an engagement,” he said. “I think my work is an engagement.”
The director showed excerpts from several of his most influential documentaries. The first clip he presented was from his 1964 documentary “What’s Happening! The Beatles in the U.S.A.” about the Beatles’ American debut. He filmed the group for five days, during which they had their historic Ed Sullivan Show appearance. This clip showed the Beatles dancing frenziedly with a few girls sporting teased hair and mini-skirts. Significantly, this film was his first foray into the idea of music as an important element of filmmaking. He has since filmed the Rolling Stones (“Gimme Shelter”), opera stars such as Kathleen Battle and Placido Domingo (“The Met in Japan”) and the famed concert-pianist Vladimir Horowitz (“Horowitz Plays Mozart, Vladimir Horowitz: The Last Romantic”), among many others.
One of the other excerpts he showed came from one of his most poignant films “Grey Gardens,” which has been adapted into a Broadway play and an HBO film. In the clip, Edith “Big Edie” Ewing Bouvier Beale, the aristocratic and reclusive aunt of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, sings “Tea for Two” for her daughter and the cameras.
Though she was in her 70s, she sang with all the joy and brightness of a young girl, playing with her wide-brimmed hat as she sang. Many of her contemporaries believed her and her daughter strange, even insane. But in this clip, Maysles allows the audience to see them in a more intimate and relatable manner. Maysles believes that the most touching thing about the film is the relationship between mother and daughter, which he asserted is the strongest bond we have.
Maysles said that he likes to think of his films as “not having a point of view.” He believes that in order to accurately represent his subject, he must be unbiased. Some people have likened his style to a fly-on-the-wall approach, but he argued that he couldn’t be a good documentarian without “sensibility and intelligence.” Without these skills, his films would have no focus or intent. What he does requires a lot of art, and a little luck. “It’s all out there,” he said. “You just have to be at the right place, at the right time.”
The Mary Norton Clapp Library has video recordings of several of Maysles’ documentaries including: “Grey Gardens,” and “Gimme Shelter.” For a complete list of his films, visit http://www.mayslesfilms.com.
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