BFI London Film Festival: Salesman

BFI Film Festival: 243 features. 67 countries. 15 cinemas. 12 days. One Festival.

One of the world’s great documentary films – an unforgettable journey into the dark heart of the American Dream.

Four door-to-door Bible salesmen traverse New England and Florida, plying their wares on the doorsteps of blue-collar households. The Maysles Brothers and Charlotte Zwerin observe them with calm, candour and compassion.

Considered a classic of world documentary—in particular, the groundbreaking American style known as Direct Cinema—Salesman is much more than that. It’s an entertaining road movie, a compelling character study and a searing meditation on capitalism, America and the vastness of midlife hope and disappointment. This restoration does justice to the sun-baked atmosphere of a movie full of images, dialogue and people that will burn themselves into your memory. 

(Notes by Patrick Russell)

Salesman, dirs Albert Maysles, David Maysles and Charlotte Zwerin, USA 1968, 91min

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