FILMMAKER IN THE SPOTLIGHT: ALBERT MAYSLES
DOCUMENTARY FILM STUDIO IN THE SPOTLIGHT: MAYSLES FILMS

SALESMAN



David Maysles, Albert Maysles

Country of production: USA
Year: 1968
Language: English
Mins: 90

Production company: Maysles Films, Inc.
Cinematography: Albert Maysles, Robert Leacock, Antonio Ferrera
Editing: Charlotte Zwerin

Source: Maysles Film Inc.
250 West 54 Street, Penthouse
New York, NY 10019
Tel: 212.582.6050
Fax: 212.582.2057
e-mail: tanja@mayslesfilms.com
www.mayslesfilms.com


Perhaps the classic American documentary, Salesman follows four door-to-door Bible salesmen as they walk the line between hype and despair. Paul "The Badger" Brennan, Charles "The Gipper" McDewitt, James "The Rabbit" Baker, and Raymond "The Bull" Martos are first shown making calls in and around Boston, where the company is based, then in Chicago at a sales conference, and finally in the promising new "territory" of Miami and vicinity. Their mission is simple: to convince people to buy what one of them calls "still the best seller in the world."

But although their customers are mostly middle- and worker-class Catholics recommended by the local church, the Bible is a hard sell. In action, the salesmen rely on trusty catch phrases: "Could you say if this would help the family? Could you see where this would be of value in the home?" Talking, pushing, cajoling, telling jokes and stories, throwing out compliments, the salesmen make their "pitches" to a wide range of customers -- lonely widows, married couples, Cuban immigrants, bored housewives -- from those who clearly cannot afford the $50 book to those who, in the end, are convinced by the salesman's somewhat too-cheerful patter.

SATURDAY, APRIL 2, 2005 AT 4.00 PM. / FACET CINEMATHEQUE