 | The Cavalier daily Wednesday, February 10, 1971 |  |
Press Release
After the film, I was rummaging
through the press releases when I
discovered several references to
what the Maysles / Zwerin team call
"direct cinema." Was this a fancy
term for documentary? I asked Miss
Zwerin how she'd distinguish
"Salesman" and "Gimme Shelter"
from a documentary by Fred
Wiseman. "Oh, Fred's more of a
photo-journalist." That told me
nothing, so I asked what she meant
by "Direct cinema." I couldn't hear
all of her answer, but it was
something about showing real
events in real life. That still wasn't
much help, so I returned to the
press releases.
It was with "Salesman" that
Maysles/Zwerin made a
contribution developing the art of
film with their concepts of
filmmaking by (1) filming ordinary
people and creating a dramatic,
nonfiction feature film entirely out
of raw material of their lives. (2)
portraying life as it is lived rather
than re-invented by the traditional
cinema, and (3) broadening the
limits of what constitutes a
dramatic feature film.
"Gimme Shelter" exemplifies a
further development in the art of
film through "direct cinema."
| The Cavalier daily Wednesday, February 10, 1971 | |