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Salesman



From the Maysles brothers [The Rolling Stones' Gimme Shelter (1970), Grey Gardens (1975)], comes this landmark American documentary – a fascinating, non-narrated account of four Boston bible hawkers as they struggle to stay afloat in the cutthroat world of door-to-door sales. Capturing the remarkable detail of a bygone era, the film documents their carefully delivered spiel to bored housewives, widows, immigrants, and distracted blue-collar workers. The salesmen wheedle, connive, and cajole their way toward the Holy Grail, but as the pressure of the job bears down, one of the salesmen begins to crack, exposing the dark and lonely underside of the American Dream.

In a society saturated with reality TV, soundbite analysis, and slickly produced docu-tainment, Salesman stands tall as one of the first non-fiction films to show the lives of ordinary people indepth, without judgement or narration.

The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present this direct cinema classic deemed "culturally significant" by the United States Library of Congress; honoured as one of the 25 best American films ever made; and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.

SPECIAL FEATURES

• New restored transfer licenced from Maysles Films
• ALBERT MAYSLES ON SALESMAN – An exclusive new interview filmed in 2006 [34 minutes]
• KENNIE TURNER & ALBERT MAYSLES Q&A – Filmed in Chicago in 2005 [19 minutes]
• Original theatrical trailer
• 36-PAGE BOOKLET containing rare vintage photography; a 1969 article by Howard Junker; and a rundown of the Maysles’ equipment
• RSDL DVD9 optimum image quality

Ooh, the Criterion edition will take some beating! But a UK home video release has been long overdue.

Just saw this on BBC4; it must be one of the best arguments for documentary as an artform to rival fiction. Scenes and dialogue as sharp as the well-known plays by Arthur Miller and David Mamet, but all real and unscripted. It's probably a cliche to mention this by now, but Paul Brennan is as tragic a figure as Willy Loman or Shelley Levene.

Shall I quote from the Criterion essay which accompanies the DVD?

"The key sales characters each have animal nicknames—the Rabbit, the Gipper, the Bull, and the one we hear from the most, the Badger (Paul Brennan). Alongside the others, the Badger is hardly a go-getter. He becomes Willy Loman, but self-consciously so. His sales figures are down, and so is his confidence. As he compensates by telling his co-workers and his boss various stories about the people he meets and the impossibility of closing sales with them, his projections of inadequacy become overpowering and compelling. "

What a film. Willy Loman is a fictional character of course (although probably a composite of several real people) but Brennan reminds me of my own father-in-law. It's a difficult film to get through, especially if you know someone caught in one of those dead-end professions. I feel, for example, for the Kirby guy who has to come at you from every possible angle to sell his stuff. It would grind my spirit into the dirt to have to do that. This film captures ALL of that. Amazing.

Although I appreciate how amazing MoC are at their silents and early cinema, it's nice to know they will come out with great little seen 60s and 70s gems like this, Punishment Park, etc.

What are the specs for this release? Are they out?

I saw Salesman recently with the film society and found it fascinating. One reviewer said that Paul Brennan was a "natural-born film actor", and I'd have to agree - the guy is such a character it's hard to believe he's not acting.

any word on when this is expected to be out, and what the specs will be? debating picking up the criterion disc during the dvdplanet sale or waiting for this

The picture in openings post doesn`t seem to work

We've filmed a nice, long, new interview with Albert Mayles. Currently working out whether to put this all on the GREY GARDENS release or all on the SALESMAN release, or split across both...

Both our Maysles releases will be released in March 2007.

How about a Mayles Vol. 1 box? (ask brain to insert wink emoticon here)

That's some nice artwork there for "Salesman." I don't have the CC release so looking forward to confirmation on the MOC supplements before buying.

Is there any release-date on this yet?

Available for pre-order at amazon.co.uk with release date for 19 March 2007.

According to amazon.co.uk the release date is now 23 April 2007.

The latest edition of EMPIRE magazine (UK) reviews the MoC edition of SALESMAN and refers to the Al Maysles interview as: "exclusive but unremarkable".

So far, only three MoC staff have seen the Al interview, and finished discs are not ready. Bless Sight & Sound's policy of only reviewing finished product!

EMPIRE did give it 5 stars though (full marks).

When do we get the full specs on this and Grey Gardens?

As the Criterion Gardens is apparently non-progressive, and I can rent it anytime to check out the extras, I'm ready to go with your edition of that...but Salesman, well, since I already own the Criterion...so far, my pre-order is based only on the cover and the promise of a lengthy interview and a booklet.

peerpee wrote:In a shocking piece of lazy journalism, the latest edition of EMPIRE magazine (UK) reviews our edition of SALESMAN and refers to the Al Maysles interview as: "exclusive but unremarkable".

I once confronted a respected national critic who had written a review of a film that I knew with absolute certainty he hadn't seen (since I'd overseen all its press shows and would certainly have spotted him).

He admitted he hadn't, but said "Maybe if I had, it wouldn't have been a positive review"?

Actually, it wasn't "positive" so much as a bland crib from the press release - obviously, since he hadn't seen it, he wasn't about to incriminate himself by posting anything in the way of a forceful opinion!

So make of that what you will, and bless Sight & Sound's policy of only reviewing finished product!

...though of course the downside to that is that the F For Fake review won't be appearing till mid-April - even though I watched the whole thing, extras and all, within 48 hours of receiving it. And similarly, my reviews of the Keaton and Naruse sets, released before Christmas, didn't appear until mid-February. But there's no real way round that aside from delaying the release until the reviews have a chance to appear, which I imagine wouldn't be too popular round these (or most other) parts.

There has been a post on the Empire Online forums, which explains the situation:

Helen OHara at Empire Online forum wrote:OK, I've been looking into this and here's what happened. We got the check disc in, and it turned out not to have the extra interview on it. But our reviewer, David Parkinson, who is involved in the Oxford Documentary Festival and knows the Maysles Brothers backwards, thought he knew which interview (which hadn't been on a DVD before and therefore would have been exclusive) they were using, so we went ahead on that basis, in order to get a (glowing) review in the magazine in time for release. It's not normal practice, but it was a film we really believed in and I wanted to get it into the mag.

Apologies to anyone who feels they were inconvenienced by this premature assessment, and if the DVD makers ever contact me I'd be happy to offer my apologies to them too, but if it's any consolation to you or them, an extras menu that consists only of a single interview wouldn't have received more than two stars, so that much is undoubtedly correct.

Play.com finally has the full specs.

- Director-approved transfer
- New and improved English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- ALBERT MAYSLES ON SALESMAN An exclusive interview filmed in 2006 by Mark Rance with Al in NY. (30 minutes)
- KENNIE TURNER & ALBERT MAYSLES Q&A, 2005 Filmed at Facets, Chicago, after a screening of the film.
- VINTAGE TRAILER
- 40-page booklet with vintage articles, interviews, rare photography and new writing

Helen OHara at Empire Online forum wrote:but if it's any consolation to you or them, an extras menu that consists only of a single interview wouldn't have received more than two stars, so that much is undoubtedly correct.

It's interesting how the marking system is based on quantity not quality.

We're in luck with SALESMAN though, as far as extras go, we have a 40-page book, a Q&A session with Kennie Turner and Al, a vintage trailer, and our specially-shot 30 minute Mark Rance video interview with Al.

That's 1, 2, 3, 4 things... "4-stars" then!

Say, Nick, how long is the Kennie Turner Q&A?

19 minutes

I guess that means I could already send in my DVD review for Diary of a Lost Girl since I've seen it before.

I notice the NFT have a Maysles retrospective coming up in May: are the MoC releases deliberately timed to coincide with this, or is it merely fortuitous?

Entirely our good fortune.

According to Amazon, these have both been delayed, though they have yet to offer a new date, and I can't find a new date elsewhere.

Can we assume that these are merely shipment delays? Or is Amazon just being goofy?