Albert Maysles (Contemporary Film Directors) [Paperback]

Joe McElhaney (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 13, 2009 | Series: Contemporary Film Directors

Albert Maysles has created some of the most influential documentaries of the postwar period. Such films as Salesman, Gimme Shelter, and Grey Gardens continue to generate intense debate about the ethics and aesthetics of the documentary form. In this in-depth study, Joe McElhaney offers a novel understanding of the historical relevance of Maysles. By closely focusing on Maysles's expressive use of his camera, particularly in relation to the filming of the human figure, this book situates Maysles's films within not only documentary film history but film history in general, arguing for their broad-ranging importance to both narrative film and documentary cinema. Complete with an engaging interview with Maysles and a detailed comparison of the variant releases of his documentary on the Beatles (What's Happening: The Beatles in the U.S.A. and The Beatles: The First U.S. Visit), this work is a pivotal study of a significant filmmaker.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

With such films as Salesman, Gimme Shelter, and Grey Gardens, Maysles, usually in collaboration with brother David, helped launch the documentary movement that came to be known as cinema vérité or Direct Cinema, which used hand-held cameras and natural sound to present a naturalistic view of its subjects. The brothers were inspired in the early 1960s by In Cold Blood, the “nonfiction novel” by Truman Capote (himself the subject of an early Maysles film), to create works of art from factual material and make feature-length documentaries as compelling as commercial films. McElhaney shows how Maysles’ Jewish working-class origins and training in psychology inform his work and contrasts his collaborative methods with the one-man-show approach of Maysles’ great contemporary, Frederick Wiseman. Detailed, insightful readings of individual films and overall assessment of Maysles’ career welcomely emphasize aesthetic aspects, and a revealing interview with Maysles, who has devoted recent decades largely to commercials and other commissioned projects, conclude. Ironically yet appropriately, the interview was filmed by a crew making a documentary on the director. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"A detailed and insightful study of the work of the pioneering documentary filmmaker Albert Maysles."--Screening The Past

 

"Detailed, insightful readings of individual films and overall assessment of Maysles' career welcomely emphasize aesthetic aspects, and a revealing interview with Maysles . . . concludes."--Booklist

"McElhaney's biography runs like a classic Maysles brother film, sticking to the facts, letting personal back story slip in here and there, and presenting an end-of-the-book Q&A as a sort of DVD commentary track."--Los Angeles Times

“Joe McElhaney makes a persuasive case that [Albert Maysles] belongs among the likes of Joel and Ethan Coen, Roman Polanski and Neil Jordan.”--PopMatters

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: University of Illinois Press; 1st Edition edition (March 13, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0252076214
• ISBN-13: 978-0252076213
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,328,580 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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