Grey Gardens
Director: Albert and David Maysles
Starring: Edith and Edie Beale
This is one of the strangest documentaries I have ever seen. It is so frantic and disjointed and real. It was fascinating to watch, but gave me a headache at the same time.
Edith Bouvier Beale and her daughter Edie live in an old mansion called Grey Gardens that is falling apart. Edith was a wealthy young singer who married a millionaire who left her. Edie was an intelligent young debutant girl who was courted by many rich young men for marriage. Both women have now ended up living a codependent live in a huge estate overrun with cats and even a raccoon.
This was a very eerie movie. You get the feeling that these two are full of regret and denial. They have painted their own pictures of their past lives. Edie is constantly talking about how she hates living in the country and wants to write. Edith is left laying in bed singing her old songs over and over again. They almost never see any other living souls besides each other.
Throwing a camera crew in this mess of a home seems to bring out some very interesting feelings for these women. Edith is constantly trying to impress everyone with her singing. Edie dances around and gabs non stop. Both of them want to make sire that their own side of every story is heard. They are talking on top of each other, fighting over how things real happened throughout the entire movie.
This was really a sort of sad movie. It was recently made into an HBO movie that Kaylen enjoyed (which is why we watched this). I would be interested to see how this could be turned into a cohesive film. This one was pretty rough to watch.
Lesson learned: Raccoons make ok pets.
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