Born in pre-war New England to Jewish immigrant parents,Albert and David Mayslesboth studied psychology at Boston University before having early experiences behind the camera. In the early 1950s, Albert made a film documenting a Russian mental hospital while David found early work as a production assistant in Hollywood. Both were disenchanted with conventional movie-making, opting to make documentaries in the Direct Cinema style, employing hand held camera and newly-mobile sound recording equipment to document subjects that wereoff the beaten path of typical American non-fiction fare. During their collaborative years, the duo made over 30 films together, ranging from profiles of artistic icons and rock bands to examinations of mental health and psychology via small, contained films about idiosyncratic subjects. By the mid-1970s, the duo found themselves at the forefront of American documentary filmmaking, reaching enormous acclaim for the stimulating subjects they turned their lens on.
The Maysles' greatest attribute was their enormous range as filmmakers, weaving their camera through stories of everyday American life as inSalesman —as well as examining the work of international icons like artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude — and the enormouscultural influence of The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. They were passed the torch by mid-century verité master D.A. Pennebaker, for whom Albert Maysles worked as a cinematographer on the seminal concert filmMonterey Pop. Memorably, the brothers' signature film came in the form of a small-scale documentary,Grey Gardens, that remains maybe the most influential American doc ever made. Along the way, they rifled off one interesting film after another to cement their legacies among the greatest masters of non-fiction filmmaking.
The following are the 10 most interesting documentaries by the Maysles brothers.
10Meet Marlon Brando
Marlon Brando became an enigma of sorts in his late career, rivaling Howard Hughes with his reticence to perform and do interviews after all the rumors thrown his way post-Apocalypse Now. That makes an earlier film,Meet Marlon Brando, all the more nostalgic — catching the acting icon during a period when he was a more gregarious young actor at the peak of his powers. The Maysles take a highly ‘Direct Cinema’ approach to the short documentary, fashioning a profile of the man they knew would become one of the most respected acting talents in film history.
Why One-Eyed Jacks Is a Pivotal Marlon Brando Film
Brando’s attempts to create a new western classic with One-Eyed Jacks was met with many challenges, but remains a masterpiece nonetheless.
9With Love From Truman
There’s a way in which the Maysles presaged reality television by picking subjects who were not only engaging, but eager to speak to the camera. Still, by ditching a simple “talking heads” approach to this film, the Maysles were able to show Truman Capote in his environment, showcasing theIn Cold Bloodwriter’s quick wit through his personal interactions.With Love From Trumanwould air on public networks like PBS and the BBC after its release, a half-hour doc that helped form a template for the modern documentary profile of iconic Americans. Thanks to YouTube, these once deep-cut films are watchable today, with this being maybe the Maysles' greatest short form documentary ever.
Iris Apfel is just the type of quirky character that the Maysles Brothers made a career out of documenting, with brother David’s DNA finding a place squarely in the center of the documentaryIris—which examined the unlikely fashion icon more than 30 years after the elder Maysles' death. His brother carried the torch of their collaborative career, making the creative act the focus of this film, rather than merely profiling this New York-centricflaneur. Apfel inhabits the fabric of theNew York fashion sceneat the tender age of 93, creating the Maysles' first journey to the center of the art world since their collaborations with Christo and Jeanne-Claude began in earnest some 30 years before.
7Christo’s Valley Curtain
Christo and Jeanne-Caude were a somewhat obscure artist duo, but also a couple with a complicated relationship that made their enormous art projects perfect fodder for documentary films. The Maysles obliged withChristo’s Valley Curtain, documenting several of their saffron-colored jaunts, in this case hanging an enormous curtain from the precipitous edges of a valley in Colorado.
The Moroccan and Bulgarian matched theenormous scale of the American Westwith the might of their environmental artwork, and the Maysles let their oft-contemptuous relationship illuminate this look into artistic anxiety, with Jeanne-Claude donning a hardhat and smoking a cigarette while helping solve the enormous engineering puzzles of these artworks. For her efforts these artworks now bear her name, as well.
6The Beatles: The First U.S. Visit
The Maysles carry the distinction of being the only documentarians to make contemporaneous films about both The Rolling StonesandThe Beatles in their respective heydays. WhileGimme Shelteris the more remembered of the two,The Beatles: The First U.S. Visitmight be more culturally important, submitting a fly-on-the-wall look at the genesis of The British Invasion. Albert utilized his chops as camera operator forMonterey Popto set up the duo’s crucial document of The Beatlescultural Big Bang, culminating with their legendary performance onThe Ed Sullivan Show, which served as template for American rock ‘n’ roll superstardom.
Another half-engineering/half-creative accomplishment of the Maysles' most-covered subjects: Christo and Jeanne-Claude,Islandsis the more important of these films, showing the delicate balance of the couple’s dance between being lovers and collaborators. For a time, these artworks only bore the name of Christo, as a misogynistic art world left no place for the his better half to receive her due credit in the ’70s.
Still, this film helped elevate our understanding of her integral contributions to these land works, giving due credence to a woman who has moved the needle of these civil engineering masterpieces as much as her partner. The shocking pink hues of these sea-borne wraps helped the duo receive the iconic status that they continue to hold posthumously, and helped them break from the drab reputation of the land artists, like Robert Smithson and Michael Heizer — who preceded their rise.
Salesmanis the Maysles' most “slice-of-life” film, examining the magic inherent to a group of traveling salesmen at a time when that trade was still integral to American commerce. The film subverts capitalism by examining the personal lives of these corporately-brainwashed company henchmen, as a handful of careering door-knockers utilize their gift of gab, born of an ‘old tyme’ American, carnival-barker presence. Were these con men or purveyors of products they believed in? The Maysles opt not to take a stance, but never shy their camera away from conversations that might steer their audiences' opinions of the trade. In the process, we are treated to a film that is at-once personal and unabashedly business-oriented in its scope.
3Muhammed and Larry
Ok, soMuhammed and Larrymight not be considered a “film” by purists of the form, having been a product of Disney/ESPN’s serial sports documentary tv series,30 for 30 —but Albert Maysles managed to distinguish it from the rest of these short-form documentaries thanks to his inside track as cinematographer of Leon Gast’s earlier Ali documentary,When We Were Kings. That gave the surviving Maysles brother unique access to Ali’s film archives, and a more unbiased perspective of the American icon as the seasoned filmmaker dealt with this American treasure’s darkest days as a professional boxer.
Gast’s film (along with Albert’s enormous contribution) secured the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature, butthischapter of Ali’s life was far more intriguing — as the fighter became a late-career whipping post willing to leave a portion of his brilliant mind in the ring to continue accruing much-overdue paydays in the twilight of his boxing marketability. His fight against bruiser Larry Holmes was either his reckoning with hubris — or his most-heroic act, depending on how you view these differing accounts — and the effect of this fight on the rest of Ali’s life.
2Gimme Shelter
Plenty of ink had been spilled on the topic of the Altamont Free Concert, even before the Maysles' film,Gimme Shelter, put audiences close to the action of an American tragedy. While today’s routine gun violence in America may make the fatal tragedies of The Rolling Stones' most infamous concert seem tame, by comparison, this concert-gone-disastrous was as much of a landmark atrocity in The U.S. as the Kent State shootings or the Selma to Montgomery marches.
Two young amateurs, these sibling documentarians, were suddenly forced to pivot from a feel-good concert film to a document self-embedded in American identity. That a British band was so instrumental in this Yankee reckoning is what lands this film squarely inside it’s ’60s provenance, a decade when America looked beyond its shores for an amphetamine-like boost of its creative ambition — and found it in Britain. If The British Invasion was the honeymoon of that demand,Gimme Shelterwas the sloppy divorce of hippie ideology and rock ‘n’ roll reality.
1Grey Gardens
Grey Gardensmay not be the most expansive, nor humble documentary ever made, but year-after-year it’s relevance is renewed, whether by its adaptation into a streaming series, the continued spotlight of popular culture on the Kennedy’s American Camelot, or simply for its exploration of the Bouvier mother and daughter’s uniquely bizzare relationship to one another.
Never before was an important American lineage so reduced and contained in a way that benefited its audiences' perspective of the human beings that inhabit iconoclasm — as one can’t help but giggle at Big and Little Edie’s undermining of their family’s importance. Once a sidenote in the enormity of the Kennedy’s presence in film,Grey Gardensnow stands testament (in an inside-out manner) to the family’s enormous influence on 20th Century America, by reducing it through the prism of decay.
