It is a slippery item to define and delimit. Among many other things -- fact, fiction, quasi-fact, quasi-fiction -- Salesman is a reasonably satisfying story about one of the salesmen, Paul Brennan.

"Salesman" presents an archetype of America, epitomized by Brennan's face - shot in candid close-up, blank with desperation, wizened with sardonic glee, or twisted with terror and rage, it is as close to reality as cinema can get.

Salesman's milieu of motels and pork-pie hats may have passed, but its broader diagnosis has lost none of its truth.

Boldly depicts a long gone America, Brennan’s weathered features expressing a weariness and despair even as he perfectly imitates the lilting brogue of an Irish grandmother declining to purchase his wares.