Thursday, June 4, 2009

A Maysles Scrapbook by Albert Maysles

This fairly recently published monograph features beautiful "photographs/cinemagraphs/documents" (or so the subtitle goes) from the Maysles' illustrious and influential career. Mostly film stills, also included are production notes, ads, interviews, and other bits of ephemera.


I love the film canister endpapers, and how there is a different photo for the beginning and end.

"Albert behind his custom engineered 16mm camera" (per the caption in the book).

Scenes from Salesman: "Selling door to door in Florida"

An ad for Salesman, and a congratulatory letter from the Mid-American Bible Company, 1969: "From an entertainment point of view, housewives should find much fun in viewing it."

Stills from Gimme Shelter: "Audience at Madison Square Garden"

From Christo's Valley Curtain

And now we come to one of my favorite movies of all time: Grey Gardens. The New York Times recently posted a slideshow of the interior of the house when it was sold, and they are incredible.

Little Edie with David Maysles, as Big Edie looks on (see the mirror).

Still and press pack quotes from Grey Gardens (I love this scene!).

While I've showcased their more well-known films in this post, their whole oeuvre is covered in the book. Here, for instance, are stills from Russian Closeup, a short 16mm film chronicling the people and places encountered on a cross country motor scooter ride through the Soviet Union in the late 1950s.

This book is a great, well-assembled tribute to the Maysles' films, right down to the feel of the pages and the smell of the ink.

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