DVD Review: Maysles Brothers Documentaries

Now in his eighties, American filmmaker Albert Maysles is most famous for three non-fiction movies that he co-directed with his late brother David.

They notoriously followed the Rolling Stones before, during and after the December 1969 gig at Altamont, California, recording the events building to the murder of a fan by acid-freaked Hells Angels, supposedly acting as security.  With only a few days of the sixties remaining, the shocking events literally and symbolically ended the flower power era, and whilst currently unavailable on DVD in the UK, 'Gimme Shelter' makes riveting viewing if you get a chance to see it.

Perhaps less widely known though, but equally fascinating if you like a non-fiction classic, are Salesman (1969) and Grey Gardens (1976), both now available separately through the Masters of Cinema imprint.

Salesman is a non-narrated account of four Bible hawkers struggling to stay afloat in the Boston door-to-door religion business.  As can be expected, we see the men sweet-talk their way into the homes of bored housewives with ruthless sales patter, but as the pressure of the job takes its toll one of them begins to crack and we see the dark side of the American Dream.

The US Library of Congress deemed the film 'culturally significant' and named it as one of the best 25 American films ever made.

Grey Gardens is the most bizarre tale of all though, and a real cult classic. Edith Bouvier Beale and her daughter Edie were close relations to Jackie Onassis, and inhabited a grand summer residence in the States until, for whatever reason, they dropped-out from high society circles and let the East Hampton mansion descend into squalor.

Inventing their own world, filthy and full of flea-bitten feral cats, the house becomes their stage and life's day-to-day events are transformed into eccentric theatrical performances. The film allegedly prompted Jackie O' to make a last-ditch intervention to save the couple from a hazardous health eviction order, sparing the family any further embarrassment.

Both Salesman and Grey Gardens are available at www.LetterboxDVD.co.uk, with free delivery.