Showing posts with label Maysles. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Maysles. Show all posts

Monday, March 9, 2015

On the Passing of Albert Maysles

by Nomad


Filmmaker Albert Maysles died the other day at the age of 88. You may not have heard of him. I know I hadn't until- thanks to the Internet- I finally stumbled across one of his films.

Albert and his brother, David, became famous in the art house circles for making slightly unconventional (at that time) documentaries.

The jarring film, Gimme Shelter (1970) was one of their most famous films.The subject was the final leg of t The Rolling Stones' 1969 US tour and culminated in the disastrous Altamont Free Concert, in which a member of the audience was murdered. Although the film has been deemed "the greatest rock film ever made," some also have seen the film as an indictment of the hippie culture and the chaos of a world without rules or, as one reviewer said,  a snapshot of a "counterculture experience in its decline."