"Director: Maysles Brothers"

• Salesman | DVD | (30/04/2007) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  From the Maysles brothers (The Rolling Stones' Gimme Shelter (1969) Grey Gardens (1975)) comes this landmark American documentary Salesman - 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. The salesmen each nicknamed according to their different selling style follow up leads of family names from the church. Motivated by the head of the company (who argues that the more sales they generate the stronger the faith) the salesmen sell their gold-embossed expensive Bibles to low-wage families who cannot afford them applying pressure simply by pointing out that 'they come recommended by the church'. Focusing on Paul 'The Badger' Brennan traveling with his colleagues 'The Gipper' 'The Rabbit' and 'The Bull' from their home territory of wintry Boston to the sunshine of Opa-Locka district Florida together they exchange the days highs and (mostly) lows in lonely motel rooms in between calls home. In today's society saturated with reality TV and lame documentaries Salesman stands tall as one of the first non-fiction films to show the lives of ordinary people in-depth without judgement or narration. The Library of Congress honoured Salesman in 1992 as one of the 25 best American films ever made

• Grey Gardens | DVD | (30/04/2007) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  From the filmmakers behind Salesman (1968) and The Rolling Stones' Gimme Shelter (1969) the Maysles Brothers present another of their 'non-fiction features' this time an offbeat voyeuristic and absorbing insight into the lives of two eccentric and reclusive women: Edith Bouvier Beale and her daughter Edie. As aunt and cousin to the more famous Jackie Onassis 'Big Edie' and 'Little Edie' (as they became to be known) lived together in what had become a squalid mansion in the wealthy East Hampton area. What was once a grand summer residence had been reduced to a fortress of fleas feral cats and filth the gardens long gone to seed and Big Edie and Little Edie confined to just a few of the 28 rooms. For the previous twenty years they had perfected their mother/daughter act complete with song-and-dance routines. Her head mysteriously wrapped in scarves and towels Little Edie's modern dances punctuate her interpretations of life which primarily take the form of a litany of complaints against her mother. This routine seems to be old material lines well rehearsed through repeated use usually with Mrs. Beale as the foil together they invent a world with their house as a stage on which lifes disappointments and pleasures are recycled into riveting performances. This cult classic which has inspired a current Broadway show a centre page fashion spread in both Vogue and Harpers Bazaar and a forthcoming Hollywood 'remake' prompted the intervention of Jackie O. to save the couple from a hazardous health eviction order and any further `embarrassment for the family.