Maysles Turns His Camera on Filmmakers

Award-winning documentary filmmaker Albert Maysles (“Gimme Shelter,” “Salesman”) captures the personal visions of four very different filmmakers in the new Independent Film Channel series “With the Filmmaker: Portraits by Albert Maysles.” Armed with a small video camera, Maysles offers an intimate look at these four directors--Martin Scorsese, Wes Anderson, Robert Duvall and Jane Campion--both on and off the set.

The series kicks off with a look at Scorsese, as he completes his documentary “My Voyage to Italy” and prepares for his upcoming film “Gangs of New York” at Cinecitta Studios in Rome. The 30-minute installment follows Scorsese around the set as he discusses the film with his longtime crew, which includes cinematographer Michael Ballhaus. Scorsese also gives Roberto Benigni a tour of the set.

Maysles introduces viewers to Anderson (Dec. 17) while he is in production on his latest film, “The Royal Tenenbaums.” Maysles travels to Argentina to visit with actor-director Duvall as he directs his latest movie “Assassination Tango” (Dec. 24) and then visits Campion (Dec. 31) in Australia as she prepares for her latest film, “In the Cut.”

Says Maysles: “My camera attempts to capture the distinguishing characteristics of each artist and how the performer informs the art. The method is so experiential that the viewer may feel they are personally living through the filmmaking and artistic process.”

Question: Watching the Scorsese portrait you can’t help but notice he has the most expressive eyebrows since Groucho Marx.

Answer: I know exactly what you mean. It makes the focusing easier!

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Q: Did the IFC approach you to do this series or did you come up with the idea?

A: I hadn’t really thought about it. The two guys I ended up working with very closely, [producer-co-director] Antonio Ferrera and [executive producer-co-director] Larry Kamerman, they came up with the idea. But what really made it so appealing is that once we proposed it, the man who heads up IFC, Jonathan Sehring, he said, “It’s all yours.” We were given complete control, and you never get that. This is a dream come true. They pay for it and they show it, and there are no commercials.

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Q: Did you pick the directors to be profiled?

A: Yes.

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Q: Did you decide on these four because each has such a different vision and background?

A: Different, yes. We were very keen on presenting one woman, Jane Campion, which is great. Robert Duvall is a real special treat because not only is he a great actor, but also a director. We caught him at a time when he was directing his next film. Wes Anderson is kind of a fluke. We knew he had a special appeal to the younger generation and probably would be a little more difficult to get to because he is kind of shy. But that is a welcome challenge.

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Q: Of course, Scorsese is anything but shy.

A: Not shy at all. Can I tell you a funny story? I met Scorsese 30-some years ago--whenever it was when he graduated from film school. He came to my studio, and no sooner had he walked in than he went into this kind of intense sort of heavy breathing and said, “You know, all I need is $13,000 and I can make a feature film. I know where I can get 35-millimeter short ends.” I had seen him maybe once or twice over the years. When one of my colleagues calls him up and asks for an appointment [regarding the documentary], no sooner did I walk into his office [than] I said: “Look, I am not an actor, but I would like to put on this little act for you.” I went through the rounds of “I need only 13,000 bucks” and playing his part. He smiled because here he was with a $100-million project. That is the budget for “The Gangs of New York.”

Wasn’t that a charming moment in the Scorsese film when Roberto Benigni stops by? He would love us to do [a documentary] with him, but that could be a problem--the language being all in Italian, that would make it difficult.

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Q: Was it difficult to profile Anderson because he is so low-keyed?

A: Because of his shyness that took a little more time. That was a little more challenging. He always wanted to do it, and then once it was over, I got this little note from him saying how much he respected me as a filmmaker. Isn’t that funny? We got along great with all of them, but he was the only one who went out of his way to thank us.

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Q: How long did you follow each director?

A: It varied--sometimes as little as a week or so and maybe as much as two weeks.

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Q: Did all the directors allow you complete access to them?

A: Yeah. There were a couple of moments that were private I didn’t want to be in, but nothing to hold us back from getting an intimate picture of each one.

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Q: Did any of the directors surprise you with their personalities or the way that they worked?

A: Jane. I don’t know how far we were into it--that piece with her is all about her planning for the next film and preparing for it--but at one point, she asked if maybe I would be interested in doing the cinematography. It is interesting because I am not that kind of a filmmaker. I don’t know the first thing about lights, and I am happy that I don’t especially know now that I am using this little video camera. It is all shot with one small video camera and so with that kind of a camera you don’t need any lights. I don’t want to use lights if at all possible anyway because it is my belief in a documentary that the lighting that exists is the true lighting and it is less obtrusive for the people you are filming.

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Q: It must have been difficult to edit down all the material to half-hour documentaries.

A: Well, I had to credit Antonio for supervising the editing and for working so very, very hard. It is difficult to [edit the films] and not violate the authenticity of the material. When you look at each of these films, [everything in them] is all true.

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Q: Would you like to do more installments of the series?

A: I would like to very, very much. Already I am thinking of several possibilities. Wouldn’t it be great to do Roman Polanski? Wouldn’t it be great to do Mike Leigh or Jim Jarmusch?

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“With the Filmmaker: Portraits by Albert Maysles” airs on IFC Mondays at 8 p.m. through Dec. 31. The network has rated it TV-PG (may be unsuitable for young audiences).