Salesmen

Creo que se debe advertir no ver este documental en periodos de depresión, ya que lo agudizará.

Es un retrato de la sociedad en Estados Unidos, me parece que entre los hermanos Maysles y Wiseman le dan un golpe bajo al país al representar dos tristes realidades y muy diferentes.

En Salesman, estos vendedores de Biblias son personas grises y frías, no les importa en lo mas mínimo la situación de las familias a las que manipulan hasta vender su producto.

Los cuatro personajes, son Paul “The Badger” Brennan, Charles “The Gipper” McDevit, James “The Rabbit” Baker, y Raymond “The bull” Martos, cada uno lleva el sobrenombre de acuerdo a su mejor estrategia y estilo de vendedor. El personaje principal es “The Badger”, pero todos los demás tienen un papel muy importante porque van develando historias o anécdotas que ensalzan la relación, y que les alegra al final del día mientras comparten los cuartos de hotel, sin embargo también sobresalen los momentos de dolor y decepción al hablar sobre lo duro que es tener poco éxito debido a las escasas ventas.

Albert Maysles himself stopped by Silverdocs this afternoon for a question and answer session following the screening of his classic documentary "Salesman." As festival director Sky Sitney pointed out before the screening, "Salesman" is the first feature documentary: Mr. Maysles and his brother, David, followed the travails of a team of Bible salesmen, taking an intimate look at their livelihood and a slice of American life rarely seen on the big screen.

The inspiration for a feature length documentary came from Truman Capote, who Mr. Maysles had filmed during the publicity tour of "In Cold Blood" and had himself created a new genre: the nonfiction novel. At one time a door-to-door salesman, Mr. Maysles told the audience that no less an eminence than Norman Mailer had told him that "Salesman" said "more about America than any other movie." He also said that he stayed in touch with the salesmen after shooting - "We got very close to people," he said, adding that his ethic is "completely different from Michael Moore, who doesn't take much care" with his subjects.

Struck by the graininess of the film, I asked Mr. Maysles for his take on the "grainstorm" debate rolling around the movie blogs. "I'm not a grain lover," he told me. "When I was starting out, I was hoping to use film stock that wasn't grainy. Some people think when you use video you're losing grain, but I don't see that." When asked about his collaboration with the Criterion Collection on their DVD version of "Salesman," Mr. Maysles said that he "was surprised at how much grain there was," and isn't committed to maintaining the integrity of the grain. "If anything, I want them to tune it down," he said.