During the hype of Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s Central Park Gates project, I was reading quite a bit about the Maysles Brothers’ series of documentaries about previous landscape transformations by the pair. Over the past couple of weeks, I finally had a chance to see them and I can’t recommend them highly enough. David and Albert Maysles developed a very close friendship with Christo and Jeanne-Claude over the course of their many collaborations. Their love for their subject comes through in the films – even when their subjects are bickering and yelling at each other, worn down by the logistics and lack of sleep demanded by massive installation projects.
The first film in the series documents the Valley Curtain installation in Colorado. Christo and Jean-Claude are very young and there are a number of amusing/endearing moments between them and the rugged cowboy construction workers of Colorado in the 1970′s. When a chain-smoking Jeanne-Claude laying in the grass lifts her head to yell “Does anybody know what is going on now?” we start to wonder what her role is in these collaborations (later films clarify her role well). This first film is not as well-rounded because the Maysles’ were not brought in until the final week of the project. The film does not even mention the failed first attempt at installing Valley Curtain some years prior.
Later films Running Fence, Islands, Christo in Paris, and Umbrellas have more well-rounded plotlines and offer more insights on the art duo. Christo in Paris has the most biographical content (the duo rifle through boxes of old photos and reminisce about the fascinating courtship between the Romanian refugee artist and the wealthy daughter of a French General). The projects in these films are more accessible than Valley Curtain as well. Both because they were installed in more populous areas and because they were all installed not by construction workers but by armies of local artworkers hired by Christo and Jeanne-Claude. The long process of gaining approval formally (from government committees) and informally (from neighbors and landholders) is what most of Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s time goes into during these projects, and the Maysles’ films provide this essential documentation alongside gorgeous views of these temporary works.
Related: Albert Maysles’ concise advice for documentary filmmakers | In-depth summary and trailer for The Gates (mayslesfilms.com) | The Gates at imdb | My take on The Gates.
