Katarzyna Taras
Alchemy. About the Art of Cinematography
Attentive Albert Maysles
Albert Maysles, complimented by such different artists as Martin Scorsese and Jean-Luc Godard, among whom the first one appreciated his “poet's eye", whereas the second one - his mastering of cinematographer's craft (let the fact that Maysles is a certified psychologist serve as a proof of how remarkable and important this compliment is; incidentally, one of his first films is “Psychiatry in Russia" - 1955, and direct cinema is exactly cinematographers' cinema - see M. Przylipiak, “Kino bezpośrednie - 1", in: “KINO" 1/2001), is one of the creators of the so-called “direct cinema", a trend in documentary cinema which influenced feature cinema as well. He inspired, at the very least, John Cassavetes. The assumption of direct cinema was the confidence in the image and the confinement of the role of a word in a documentary. Making such productions became workable owing to technological advancement - as Alicja Helman puts it: “the improvement of Auron Cine-Voice cameras in 1957, and their later adaptation (in 1959) by Leacock-Pennebaker group, rendered the creation of first direct cinema movies possible (“Primary", 1960). These cameras could work synchronously with a light tape-recorder, without a connective cable. The building-in of telephoto lens enabled the recording of scenes taking place in a considerable distance from a camera" (see A. Helman, “1957, Hasło roku: Dekada techniki", in: “Historia kina. Wybrane lata", ed. A. Kołodyński, K.J. Zarębski, Warszawa 1998).

Albert Maysles, courtesy of Maysles Films, Inc.

Maysles' education must have been of use during the making of films considered representative for direct cinema, since the most important features for this trend were attentive and discreet observation, the ability to improvise and bond with one's own character, and the capability of fast reactions to what was going on in front of the camera. The author was disappearing, the staging stopped existing, there was neither music nor any voice-over. The image was the most significant factor. And the character. Well, both the character and the image, to be precise. And it should not be surprising that such ascetic, and sometimes even coarse poetics worked perfectly while documenting the civil unrest of the 60s. Still, as Mirosław Przylipiak, an expert in this issue, opines: “the members of the movement were not going to portray the revolution. [...] If there is something from the atmosphere of the 60s. preserved in their films, then it appeared by accident, on the margin of conscious endeavours" (see “Kino bezpośrednie - 2", "KINO" 2/1001).

The Maysles brothers (from 1962 Albert co-worked with now deceased David, the first one was a cinematographer, the second one - a sound designer) made a few films rated among - as Mirosław Przylipiak evaluates it - “the most important achievements of direct cinema" (see an entry “Albert Maysles" in “Encyklopedia kina", ed. Tadeusz Lubelski, Kraków 2003). Nevertheless, no matter whether they monitored critically the American media - "Meet Marlon Brando" (1965) - or the American province - “Salesman" (1969), portrayed the ups and downs of countercultural movement - “Gimme Shelter" (1970), or dealt with rock stars - “Jimi Hendrix at Monterey Festival" (1986) - they have always been attentive. That is, focused mainly on their character. Attention is an essential feature for a documentary film-maker. Frequently a documentary hero is a private person, somebody who has a first name, a surname, friends, a job, a family, and who only for a second shares with us intimate, often painful and rankling, or extraordinary experiences; and not a character impersonated more or less successfully by an actor. Attention enables to prevent a flesh-and-blood character from being ill-constructed. Krzysztof Kieślowski was writing and speaking of it beautifully. Kieślowski was ultra-attentive in his films, he often sacrificed the final result in the name of the comfort of his character, just to mention the shots of giving birth from the best documentary in the world - “First Love" (1974). Both Jadźka, the bearing girl, and the young father, who is so confused out of emotions that he has problems with passing information about the child's health condition to her grandmother, were treated so respectfully, tenderly and attentively. The creators of modern documentaries seem all too often to forget about attention.

Still from "Salesman", courtesy of Maysles Films, Inc.

Attention was a characteristic particularly desired with a direct cinema creator, thus - let us refer again to the observations made by the excellent scholar: “The basic motto of film-makers [...] was the removal of all barriers between the creator and the reality. [...] An equally valid ingredient of the method was a special bond with reality, with filmed people, set up by a film-maker. The essential but quite often disregarded condition of success was utmost and bilateral opening: the crew to the reality and the filmed people to the camera" (“Kino bezpośrednie - 1").

The attention of <b.the Maysles brothers is most visible in “Grey Gardens" (1975), probably their best movie, and for sure my favourite one. This time they got interested in a mysterious manor on Long Island, inhabited by Little and Big Edie, the daughter and the mother related to the First Lady of the USA, Jacqueline Kennedy. The Maysles brothers didn't depict them as freaks or victims, although they were very eccentric and badly suffering women. They let them only or as much as express themselves. The uniqueness of the heroines interested the creators as deeply as the reasons of a total failure they had to suffer, the causes of their withdrawal or renunciation of life in favour of dreams (the daughter) and memories (the mother). On the basis of a very concrete and extremely painful story another tale was successfully told, the one about a difficult, because apparently unbreakable, relation between a mother and a daughter, a love-and-hate, regret-and-pride story full of remorse and hope, that maybe something will go off, at least at the end of life. This film really gives hope and the Maysles brothers touched the great cinema with it.

Still from "Grey Gardens", courtesy of Maysles Films, Inc.

The documentary “Grey Gardens" have their continuation, a feature one. In 2009 Micheal Sucsy directed “Grey Gardens" and Albert Maysles became one of the executive producers. We have a chance to experience great cinema again, because although we are speaking of a television production, it is an immensely awarded one. This time its greatness follows from the roles of Jessica Lange (Big Edie) and, above all, Drew Barrymore (Little Edie) who made credible the metamorphosis of a promising American beauty into a mutilated, embittered woman, still able to rise, because her strength comes out of ... the cinema.

Albert Maysles has been confirming his attention till the present day, in spite of the passing time he is still professionally active which can be proved with his films on topics destroying good mood, like such productions as “Coffee Beans for a Life" (2005) or “Lalee's Kin: The Legacy of Cotton" (2001).

What we owe to Albert Maysles is also one of the first film portraits of the Polish youth living in the times of the Khrushchev Thaw (!) - “Youth in Poland" (1957).