| Salesman | |
|---|---|
Theatrical release poster |
|
| Directed by | Albert Maysles David Maysles Charlotte Zwerin |
| Produced by | Albert Maysles David Maysles |
| Cinematography | Albert Maysles |
| Editing by | David Maysles Charlotte Zwerin |
| Distributed by | Maysles Films |
| Release date(s) | April 17, 1969 |
| Running time | 85 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Salesman is a 1969 direct cinema documentary film directed by brothers Albert and David Maysles, and Charlotte Zwerin.[1]
Contents |
The documentary follows four salesmen as they travel across New England and Southeast Florida trying to sell expensive Bibles door-to-door in low-income neighborhoods and attend a meeting in Chicago. The film focuses in particular on the struggles of salesman Paul Brennan, a middle-aged Irish-American Roman Catholic from Jamaica Plain, Boston, who struggles to keep up his sales.
Just short of seven minutes into the film, one of the two cameras used is shown being operated, in a shot from the other. The handheld microphone used to record the film's sound is visible in some shots.
Elements of popular culture that appear as backdrops to the main story include the song "If I Were a Rich Man", from Fiddler on the Roof; a recorded orchestral performance of The Beatles' song "Yesterday"; The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson; and televised boxing matches.
In the scene beginning about one hour and four minutes into the documentary, the film has been flipped horizontally, as evidenced by the parts in the men's hair, the breast pockets on their shirts and jackets, and the collar button behind Brennan's tie, as well as the layout of their motel room.
As stated in the closing credits,
Salesman was filmed in January 1967 (perhaps also late December 1966) and bears a copyright date of 1968.
When the film was first released, Vincent Canby, film critic for The New York Times, lauded the film and wrote, "...[the] documentary feature about four door-to-door Bible salesmen who move horizontally through the capitalistic dream. It's such a fine, pure picture of a small section of American life that I can't imagine its ever seeming irrelevant, either as a social document or as one of the best examples of what's called cinema vérité or direct cinema...It is fact, photographed and recorded with extraordinarily mobile camera and sound equipment, and then edited and carefully shaped into a kind of cinematic mural of faces, words, motel rooms, parlors, kitchens, streets, television images, radio music—even weather."[2]
In 1992, Salesman was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."