A middle-aged woman wearing what looks like Princess Diana’s infamous ‘revenge dress’ and a balaclava from an IRA funeral approaches the hole in the floor. The raccoon that lives there, clearly used to her presence, looks up expectantly. Sure enough, the woman empties a bag of dry food into the hole. The scene is framed by the intricate fluted wainscotting of the room’s door frame. I am not exaggerating when I say I believe it to be one of the great scenes of modern cinema.

The vignette comes from Grey Gardens , the Maysles brothers’ cult documentary, which turns 50 this autumn. Like many great documentaries – from Tiger King to The Imposter to The Queen of Versailles – the film’s purpose changed over the course of filming. Its original premise was to track down the Bouvier Beale

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