The death of documentary filmmaker Albert Maysles comes at a coincidental moment almost too good to be believed: The famous 1975 documentary he co-directed with his brother David, Grey Gardens, is – at least in New York – starting a theatrical run at the Film Forum in a brand-new restoration. (Grey Gardens was released by The Criterion Collection in 2001.) Albert Maysles also has a new documentary, Iris, which played at the New York Film Festival last fall and is being released in theaters on April 29. So Maysles’ name has been everywhere recently. But his name is always everywhere. Grey Gardens, like the Maysles’ other documentary, Gimme Shelter (documenting the Rolling Stones’ 1969 U.S. tour, ending with the debacle of Altamont, all caught on film, including the murder that occurred right next to the stage), are films that are never far from any given cultural conversation. Seriously, if you find yourself talking with a group of people about film or culture or music, more often than not, Grey Gardens or Gimme Shelter will be brought in as reference points.
These films aren’t just part of our culture, they helped create our culture.
It’s rare that there is a “talking head” in a Maysles documentary, an outside voice reflecting on the events, or giving us differing sides of any issue. A Maysles documentary is a free-fall. No net. Interpretation is entirely up to the audience. Interpretation may be beside the point, though, with these films.
The first time I saw Grey Gardens was with my friend Ted and his now-husband Michael. We were in Michael’s apartment, if I recall correctly, and we had ordered takeout Chinese. I had just moved to New York so I was in a bit of a daze, in general. I had seen Gimme Shelter in high school but for whatever reason Grey Gardens I had missed. Ted and Michael could practically recite the film, so it was a great experience watching it with them, but I do remember feeling extremely uneasy as I watched the film. I took it personally. I wondered if these women were being made fun of. I worried that I would “end up” like Little Edie. This, I do not think, is a bad or a negative reaction. It may be a naive reaction, but I was a young woman, uprooted from familiar stuff, in a bit of a free-fall, wondering if everything would “work out.” In a big way: like “will life be okay for me? Will I be okay?” Grey Gardens got under my skin. I think it’s meant to do so. Little Edie so blossomed any time the camera was on her, flirting and whispering and dancing, that it was a film-watching experience like no other I had ever had. I honestly can’t think of an equivalent. It was deeply funny, and touching, and terrifying. It was a mirror. It was also a portrait. I found Grey Gardens incredibly unnerving. It truly rattled me. I took the subway home, worried that I wouldn’t be able to sleep that night. I have seen the film many times since, and my relationship with it is ongoing, and has changed quite a bit, with age and experience, but I have never forgotten the intensity of that first viewing.
Please read Kim Morgan’s beautiful essay on Grey Gardens. Kim writes:
Like many great dramas, it’s a magnification of of our own strained bonds, it speaks to those of us who have chosen a less traditional path in life and it’s strangely comforting–these gals may be old but they’re certainly not over. And they’re anything but boring.
While Grey Gardens and Gimme Shelter are the most well-known films of the Maysles brothers, there are many more, including the fascinating Salesman, documentaries about The Beatles, Marlon Brando. David Maysles died in 1987. Albert Maysles continued to work, there are a handful of films about the artist Christo (which I have not seen) and a heartbreaking entry in ESPN’s great 30 for 30 series, Muhammad and Larry (it is currently streaming on Netflix. Don’t miss it.)
Albert Maysles was 88 years old. He lived a long life, doing exactly what he wanted to do with it. He believed in the medium in which he worked. He believed in the power of documentaries and his approach (along with his brother) is legendary. He has inspired, what, four generations of filmmakers now? You know that when you watch Grey Gardens and Gimme Shelter you are watching something different, something unvarnished and raw. In Gimme Shelter, unforgettably (and controversially), they insert themselves and their film-making into the film. The various Stones sit in the editing room, watching the footage of the concert, the concert-goer getting stabbed, caught on camera. It remains a nearly indescribable moment, even though it has been described so many times by writers far more gifted than I am.
Watching Jagger watch that moment on the monitor, the moment that he lived through, the violence of that day, pressing in on the stage from all sides, is one of the most unique moments in the history of celebrity. There really is nothing else quite like it.
It’s extremely unsettling. Stacie Ponder, who runs the great site The Final Girl, saw Gimme Shelter for the first time this past year (she mentioned it on Facebook), and she remarked (accurately) that the entire film is filled with such a sense of dread that it plays like a horror movie. No joke. Gimme Shelter ends, famously, on Jagger freeze-framed, as he walks out of the editing room.
His expression says it all, his expression says nothing. It’s a void. An entire decade falls into that void. Or maybe that’s not what I see at all. Maybe I’m just projecting. You never know with the Maysles.
(Godfrey Cheshire’s essay on the film for the Criterion release is good, but there’s a lot more where that came from.)
Hilton Als provided an essay on Grey Gardens for the Criterion release, and he closes it with:
The Maysleses’ deeply felt approach to these extraordinary women makes most other documentaries by their peers seem foolish, an embarrassment disguised as the truth.
Still true.
Grey Gardens and Gimme Shelter are not just great films. They were (and still are) total game-changers.
Rare is the person who actually changes his own profession. The N.Y. Times obituary for Albert Maysles is here.
I had the pleasure of being in the front row of the viewing of Gimme Shelter-at of course, the TCM festival-and he did a wonderful talk, along with a Q&A with the audience. An amazing man, and I was very sad to hear of his passing.
Maureen – Wonderful! Any nuggets you remember of the QA that you care to share?
I should have mentioned that he also has a new documentary coming out – I think it opens next week? I’ll have to check – it’s called Iris. I have not seen it yet. It’s so strange: in the last 2 weeks alone, Maysles’ name has been everywhere because of the restoration of Grey Gardens and the upcoming release of Iris.
One film made 40 years ago, one film made last year. Not too shabby for an 88 year old guy.
Still: a huge loss.
and what an amazing experience to see that movie on the big screen. It must have been overwhelming. It’s overwhelming on the small screen!
Some great collected quotes from a talk Maysles gave a couple years ago at the Sheffield Documentary Fest:
http://www.indiewire.com/article/maysles_sheffield
Also wanted to share this wonderful piece by Richard Brody in The New Yorker:
http://www.newyorker.com/culture/richard-brody/postscript-albert-maysles-1926-2015
Sheila, I had never seen Gimme Shelter before-and it was harrowing. I was a bundle of nerves watching it! I’m sorry I can’t remember any specific nuggets, except my sister asked a question like “didn’t you just want to get out of there?” and he said something like “no, it was our job-we never thought of leaving.”. Talk about nerves of steel!
I also find Grey Gardens absolutely fascinating-I have seen it maybe 3 times-the dynamic between the mother and daughter is something I don’t think I have ever seen on film before.
Maureen –
As Gimme Shelter went on, as the location moved to Altamont – I started feeling so trapped – know what I mean?? And I wondered where the port a potties were. And I wondered how long it would take for everyone to get out of there. The various first-person descriptions of what that day felt like – just drove the point home that it was NOT well-organized – so much so that people were at risk! So frightening.
Those long overhead shots of the road to Altamont with the parked cars …
and Jagger getting punched in the face immediately upon arrival.
Total chaos.
Another really good piece on Maysles, by my pal Matt Seitz.
http://www.rogerebert.com/mzs/eight-things-about-albert-maysles
That’s an interesting question Maureen’s sister asked. Every time I watch Gimme Shelter(couple times a year) I wonder if the Stones feared just getting completely overrun by the audience. But I’d never given much thought to the filmmakers putting themselves in harm’s way. And there he says we never gave a thought to leaving. Great stuff.
Dg – right??
I mean, those long shots of the road into Altamont – I can’t get past it in my mind, and maybe it’s because I don’t like crowd scenes at all – but I look at that road and I think: Okay, all of those people are going to have to somehow turn around and come on OUT, at a certain point … and how is THAT going to happen? Never mind how chaotic the day eventually got.
The footage is just so extraordinary, so many memorable images. Being in the thick of the audience – but then up onstage, and you can just feel that crowd getting more and more out of control, and the Stones reacting to it …
Gives me goosebumps just thinking about it.
I noticed one of the essays on the Criterion site was titled Rock n Roll Zapruder and that is right on the money.
Sheila
Oh! the great Albert Maysles who made it all seem so easy that all you have to do is point a camera. Grey Gardens! I think I saw it twice and a long time ago. I felt how you did and white knuckled my way through it. I, however, was always trying to rent it again and each time my husband would say, “oh no not that one”. haha! He couldn’t take it much either. With that said how can I explain how much I love it. Maybe I’ll make it over to Film Forum!
Salesman. I only saw it once and years ago and it had almost the same effect. Like Grey Gardens it’s etched on my brain. When I saw your post I watched Salesman on youtube again for the first time. It came at me sideways because I wasn’t quite sure why it was cutting so deep for me. Right in the middle these men have a chance to jump in a pool as they are in Florida for a change. They way they jump in, like the sweet boys they really are made me weep. The ending devastates me. Also, these were the adults in my life, both the salesmen and the housewives and all they sell to. I also remember them coming door to door as a little kid, talking to my Ma who would even sit and have coffee with them. A time long gone now with the internet and all. But in this age of celebrities these are the people I want to see. These people are my heroes.
How did the Maysles do it? Why am I riveted on these people? You explain it well, as does Kim Morgan.
Regina –
// I, however, was always trying to rent it again and each time my husband would say, “oh no not that one”. haha! //
hahaha I love the comments you have shared from your husband on various topics. So funny.
I kind of felt that way myself after that first viewing. Like: well, I don’t want to see THAT again. But I kept returning to it, I kept going back. I am glad I did.
I had a similar reaction to Salesman that you did – and I really need to re-watch that one.
// But in this age of celebrities these are the people I want to see. These people are my heroes. //
A beautiful thought. I feel the same way.
I have been reading so many pieces out there about the Maysles and how helpful they were to others, how enthusiastic they were about young film-makers (if they were into their ideas, that is), how nitty-gritty Maysles remained to the end. I am very much looking forward to Iris!
I just saw Grey Gardens yesterday. What a time in my life to be seeing it! I’m wrapping up 10 years in Asia to go back and live with my mother who is in poor health. I’m shaking. Woke up last night every two hours to check that I still had hair. But then, there’s this other part of me that was beguiled by the Beales.
Oh Bybee. Wow. Very intense!!
I am also drawn in to the Beales, and love them both.
My best wishes to you as you make this huge transition.
Sheila!
I can’t tell you how many times I have tried to rent Grey Gardens again!
But also, we both never heard of Muhammed and Larry (thanks for this!) and we found it on Youtube. It’s great! Again, I realized at the end I’m not thinking during it what a great filmmaker Maysles is, it’s that caught up into it, can’t take your eyes off it feeling. For Muhammed Ali and both Larry Holmes they share an innocence and an honesty that I thought about later that the Beales and the men in Salesman have. Watching Muhammed Ali literally destroy himself is harrowing. Larry Holmes love for Ali is so touching too as is his life in the present. I’m looking forward to Iris too!
Regina – So excited that you watched Muhammad and Larry! God, so heartbreaking – and I agree: you don’t think about Maysles’ film-making at all during the process – it is only afterwards that I start to realize: My God, the intimacy of that footage that they got. Him doing the card tricks for the kids. The beauty of his energy, its openness, but also the self-knowledge … which you really can sense … that he’s getting too old for this thing now.
Larry Holmes is an extremely touching figure – both during the fight and then in the current interviews.
I get so nervous when I interview people – beforehand. But once the interview starts going, I loosen up and forget that I’m interviewing and just submit to having a conversation. It happened just the other night – interview to be posted in a couple of days – very excited about this one!
But I was thinking about Muhammad and Larry: something about the Maysles’ presence was so … soothing, maybe? I don’t know … that their subjects felt no inhibitions about presenting themselves to the camera. They all just open up. That is due largely to who the Maysels’ were, I imagine. Like the guy who was hostile to the camera in Muhammad and Larry – a neighbor, I think? Who was suspicious of why they were filming him, and wanted to know what their angle was …
They just freely included all of that, including the questions from behind the camera – so you get a real sense of the event of that conversation.
It’s a fascinating approach.
I love Matt Seitz’s observation that so many documentaries now take their visual cues from feature films – montages and cool music and quick cuts … the Maysles don’t do any of that.
Sheila
Yes to all the details you point out here! Muhammed Ali talking to all those kids, the card tricks and the look of pure joy on their faces. He’s so naturally funny! I nearly died when he said he grew that mustache so he could be the “dark Gable”. And all the more sad as you can see all this fading. And that hostile guy! The one time I was slightly pulled out of the film because I thought, Wow! they kept that in, that’s amazing! And Larry Holmes so honest even saying as much as he loves Ali, Ali would always have to be on top, number one, in every way.
And again, Maysles is making it look like anyone can do it.
P.S. Just saw who you interviewed! What??!! How great! I’m going to read it now!
Regina – Yes, Thelma!! Amazing to talk to this woman whose work I have studied obsessively for almost my whole life.