Grey Gardens (1975)

Directors:

Ellen Hovde
Albert Maysles

Genre:

Documentary | Comedy

Plot:

The Maysles brothers pay visits to Edith Bouvier Beale, nearing 80, and her daughter Edie. Reclusive...

Plot Keywords:

Dancing | Mother Daughter Relationship | Birthday Party | Cat | Head Scarf

Cast

(in alphabetical order)

Edith Bouvier Beale	...	Herself (uncredited)
Edith 'Little Edie' Bouvier Beale	...	Herself (uncredited)
Jack Helmuth	...	Birthday guest (uncredited)
Brooks Hyers	...	Gardener (uncredited)
Albert Maysles	...	Himself (uncredited)
David Maysles	...	Himself (uncredited)
Norman Vincent Peale	...	Himself (voice) (uncredited)
Jerry Torre	...	Handyman (uncredited)
Lois Wright	...	Birthday guest (uncredited)

Runtime:

100 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Australia:PG | USA:PG

Filming Locations:

East Hampton, Long Island, New York, USA

Company:

Portrait Films

Trivia:

Edith 'Little Edie' Bouvier Beale claimed that the house was haunted by the ghost of a sea captain, who used to climb a ladder into her room for midnight trysts. She also claimed the house was haunted by the ghosts of a woman and her daughter, who were the original residents of the house. However, the first resident of the house was Mrs. F. Stanhope Phillips, the daughter of the first editor of the Detroit Free Press, and she had no children.

Quotes:

Edith 'Little Edie' Bouvier Beale: It's very difficult to keep the line between the past and the present. You know what I mean? It's awfully difficult.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The Beales of Grey Gardens (2006)

Recommended

I saw this film a couple of weeks ago, and it's been stuck in my head ever since. It stars two spellbinding characters in what is unfortunately a mediocre documentary. To get the true story of the Beales, I had to wade through all of the DVD's bonus material and commentaries and search the web.

Although the Maysles and their fans (not to mention Edith and Edie themselves) bristle at the suggestion that this film is exploitative, this is exploitation in the truest sense of the word. Very little effort is every made to explain the Beales or how they came to the condition they were in - the Maysles approach seems to be to just turn the camera on and wait for Edith and Edie to say something outrageous. The sound, even on the Criterion re-release is poor and difficult to follow. Although I appreciate this film was made somewhat early in the history of documentary film, it's ironic to compare it to Geraldo Rivera's (!) far superior series on the sexual abuse of mentally retarded patients at Willowbrook State School in Staten Island from 1972, four years before Grey Gardens was shot.

To paraphrase a review in the New Yorker, there were many things Edith and Edie needed in their lives, and a documentary wasn't one of them.

As for Edith and Edie, the thing I kept thinking while watching the film was "where the hell is their family"? They were living in dangerous, unhealthy, unsafe conditions. How is it that Jackie O, married to one of the richest men on Earth (or the wealthy Bouvier family themselves) couldn't afford to get Edith and Edie a decent home? Or at the very least hire a part-time housekeeper or caregiver to come in and keep an eye on them both? It's shameful and a lasting disgrace to the entire Bouvier family.

Although this review may sound negative I would strongly recommend Grey Gardens to anyone who enjoys documentaries. Perhaps someday someone will come along and do a documentary about this documentary - bringing in the rich backstory (and afterstory) of the Beales and the whole subsection of Hamptons society in the 1970's.