Maysles Films: Five Decades
December 1–31, 2005

In 1955, Albert Maysles traveled by motorcycle throughout Russia. During this trip, he made his first film, Psychiatry in Russia, an unprecedented view into Soviet mental healthcare. This short film, along with Showman (1963), the first Albert and David Maysles collaboration, were catalysts for five decades of powerful and innovative documentary filmmaking. Over the years, the Maysles worked in partnership on more than a dozen films, pioneering the methodology of Direct Cinema—filmmaking without intervention. By making documentaries in an aleatory manner, the Maysles captured the unpredictability of life on film, providing audiences with the exhilaration of the Rolling Stones in Gimme Shelter (1970), the loss of the American dream in Salesman (1968), and the endearing eccentricities of Grey Gardens (1976). In 1987, David Maysles died; following his death, Maysles Films entered a second phase, in which Albert Maysles continued to make compelling films true to the brothers’ original intent, but with a variety of collaborators. This exhibition explores the career trajectory of these influential filmmakers, their substantial contribution to nonfiction film, and the “power of truth” that their cameras have captured for fifty years.

Organized by Anne Morra, Assistant Curator, Department of Film and Media.

Psychiatry in Russia. 1955. USA. Directed by Albert Maysles. An unprecedented look into mental healthcare in the former Soviet Union. 15 min. Grey Gardens. 1976. USA. Directed by David Maysles, Albert Maysles, Ellen Hovde, Muffie Meyer, Susan Froemke. Behind the walls of a once-grand East Hampton home, we meet Edith Bouvier Beale and her daughter, “Little Edie.” Truly living in a world of their own making, this eccentric mother and daughter hold on to a genteel way of life now long gone. 94 min.
Thursday, December 1, 6:30. T1; Saturday, December 24, 2:00. T2

Salesman. 1968. USA. Directed by Albert Maysles, David Maysles, Charlotte Zwerin. The door-to-door salesman was a commonplace phenomenon in post–World War II America. These merchants brought essential and, occasionally, impractical goods to housewives unable to travel to the shops. Salesman traces the dogged efforts of four Bible peddlers who walk neighborhoods from Massachusetts to Florida. Salesman vividly develops along the lines of a drama, but this is real life. Selected for the Library of Congress National Film Registry in 1992. 90 min.
Thursday, December 1, 8:45. T1; Saturday, December 29, 5:15. T2

What’s Happening! The Beatles in the USA. 1964. USA. Directed by Albert Maysles, David Maysles. The concepts of celebrity and fame were radically altered when the Beatles burst onto the pop culture scene, with thousands of screaming fans dogging their movements. The Maysles are trapped in the Plaza Hotel with John, Paul, George, and Ringo while obsessed fans await the band’s departure. A dynamic film chronicling the 1964 arrival of the Beatles in an already besotted America. Presented courtesy of Apple Corp. 55 min.
Friday, December 2, 7:00; Wednesday, December 28, 8:30. T2

Gimme Shelter. 1970. USA. Directed by David Maysles, Albert Maysles, Charlotte Zwerin. A free concert at the Altamont Raceway in California featuring the Rolling Stones spirals tragically out of control. The film unfolds with footage shot from the stage, and documents the murder of a concertgoer by a member of the Hell’s Angels, who were enlisted as security for the event. A twenty-something Mick Jagger pleads with the audience for calm as the melee ensues. 90 min.
Friday, December 2, 9:00; Wednesday, December 28, 6:30. T2

Showman. 1963. USA. Directed by Albert Maysles, David Maysles. Joseph E. Levine, one of Hollywood’s most prolific movie producers, was associated with such iconic films as The Graduate (1967) and Carnal Knowledge (1971). Showman documents the life of Levine and the press hysteria surrounding La Ciociara (Two Women, 1960) as Sophia Loren wins an Oscar. 53 min.
Ozawa. 1985. USA. Directed by David Maysles, Albert Maysles, Susan Froemke, Deborah Dickson. Seiji Ozawa, conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, confronts his East vs. West professional and personal life. 57 min.
Saturday, December 3, 6:30; Friday, December 30, 8:45. T2

Jessye Norman Sings Carmen. 1989. USA. Directed by Susan Froemke, Albert Maysles. Known principally for her German-language singing roles, Jessye Norman, under the direction of the spirited Seiji Ozawa, prepares a rare performance of Georges Bizet’s opera Carmen. 57 min.
Accent on the Offbeat. 1994. USA. Directed by Susan Froemke, Deborah Dickson, Albert Maysles. What happens when Peter Martins and the New York City Ballet commission an original score by Wynton Marsalis? Their collaboration, though anything but smooth, is always feisty. 56 min.
Saturday, December 3, 8:45; Friday, December 30, 6:30. T2

Christo’s Valley Curtain. 1974. USA. Directed by Albert Maysles, David Maysles, Ellen Hovde. On August 10, 1972, workers hung 142,000 square feet of orange nylon fabric across a valley in Rifle, Colorado. The next day, gale force winds necessitated the removal of the curtain. 28 min.
Running Fence. 1978. USA. Directed by David Maysles, Albert Maysles, Charlotte Zwerin. Completed in September 1976, the fabric fence, with openings for cars and cattle, ran twenty-four miles across private and public land in California’s Sonoma and Marin Counties. 58 min.
Sunday, December 4, 1:00; Monday, December 26, 6:30. T2

Umbrellas. 1995. USA. Directed by Henry Corra, Grahame Weinbren, Albert Maysles. To date, there have been five Maysles films about Christo and Jeanne-Claude and their installations. Umbrellas chronicles the troubled monumental art project to install 3,100 blue and yellow umbrellas in selected Japanese and American landscapes. The investigation of the creative process is a standard component of the Maysles technique. In 2005, Albert Maysles led a team to document the artists’ long-planned Gates project for Central Park. 81 min.
Sunday, December 4, 3:00; Monday, December 26, 8:30. T2

Concert of Wills: Making the Getty Center. 1997. USA. Directed by Bob Eisenhardt, Susan Froemke, Albert Maysles. A film about architect Richard Meier’s Herculean struggle to design and build the Getty Center in Los Angeles. With formidable client the Getty Trust, activist homeowners, and an anxious museum director, Meier is confronted with numerous design restrictions that could significantly modify his mountaintop vision. This lively documentary studies the life of a celebrity architect and one of the most coveted architectural commissions of the late twentieth century. 100 min.
Sunday, December 4, 5:00; Thursday, December 29, 7:00. T2

Vladimir Horowitz: The Last Romantic. 1985. USA. Directed by Albert Maysles, David Maysles, Susan Froemke, Deborah Dickson, Pat Jaffe. If music is the language of love, then Vladimir Horowitz is both a maestro and a hopeless romantic. The virtuoso pianist prepares for a private recital in his Manhattan town house and serenades his wife with passionate music. The film is interspersed with conversation and observation of Horowitz at work and in love. 88 min.
Monday, December 5, 6:30; Saturday, December 31, 2:00. T2

Soldiers of Music: Rostropovich Returns to Russia. 1991. USA. Directed by Bob Eisenhardt, Susan Froemke, Albert Maysles. The 1990 homecoming of virtuoso cellist Mstislav Rostropovich and his wife, opera singer Galina Vishnevskaya. As dedicated supporters of the banned novelist Alexandr Solzhenitsyn, Rostropovich and Vishnevskaya had their concerts, foreign tours, and recording projects cancelled. In 1974, after five years of artistic neglect, they were granted exit visas and left Russia. Their homecoming is bittersweet, with renewed friendships and the realization of what had been lost during their exile. 88 min.
Monday, December 5, 8:30; Saturday, December 31, 4:00. T2

Lalee’s Kin: The Legacy of Cotton. 2000. USA. Directed by Susan Froemke, Deborah Dickson, Albert Maysles. Life on the Mississippi Delta for Lalee and her grandchildren is a daily struggle against crushing poverty. Their small, government-subsidized trailer home is ramshackle, but Lalee refuses to be defeated. Like Lalee, the local school superintendent will not accept his district’s failing standardized test scores without a fight. Academy Award–nominee for Best Feature-Length Documentary in 2001. 88 min.
Wednesday, December 7, 6:30; Saturday, December 24, 4:30. T2

top