Grey Gardens (1975)

An old mother and her middle-aged daughter, the aunt and cousin of Jacqueline Kennedy, live their eccentric lives in a filthy, decaying mansion in East Hampton.

Directors:

Ellen Hovde, Albert Maysles

Stars:

Edith Bouvier Beale, Edith 'Little Edie' Bouvier Beale, Brooks Hyers

5 wins & 1 nomination.

Cast

Credited cast:
Edith 'Little Edie' Bouvier Beale	...	Herself
Edith Bouvier Beale	...	Herself
Brooks Hyers	...	Himself - Gardener
Norman Vincent Peale	...	Himself (voice)

Storyline

The Maysles brothers pay visits to Edith Bouvier Beale, nearing 80, and her daughter Edie. Reclusive, the pair live with cats and raccoons in Grey Gardens, a crumbling mansion in East Hampton. Edith is dry and quick-witted - a singer, married but later separated, a member of high society. Edie is voluble, dresses - as she puts it - for combat in tight ensembles that include scarves wrapped around her head. There are hints that Edie came home 24 years before to be cared for rather than to care for her mother. The women address the camera, talking over each other, moving from the present to events years before. They're odd, with flinty affection for each other.

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Plot Keywords:

mansion | cat | garden | singer | raccoon | 

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Taglines:

She was the girl who had everything - Money, good looks and social position. her mother - a classic Bouvier beauty. Now they are living amongst the souvenirs of their lives. In Grey Gardens. This is their story. A love story. Sort of. Hailed as one of the oddest, most beautiful films ever.

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Genres:

Documentary | Comedy | Drama

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Certificate:

PG

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

27 September 1975 (USA)

Also Known As:

Grey Gardens

Filming Locations:

East Hampton, Long Island, New York, USA

Box Office

Opening Weekend USA:

$13,845, 8 March 2015, Limited Release

Gross USA:

$30,966, 15 March 2015

Company Credits

Production Co:

Portrait Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

95 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

A musical version was produced as "Grey Gardens" and opened at the Walter Kerr Theater in New York on November 2, 2006, ran for 308 performances and was nominated for the 2007 Tony Awards for Best Musical, Book and Score.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Edith 'Little Edie' Bouvier Beale: What're you doing down there? You staying there?

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Connections

Spoofed in Documentary Now!: Sandy Passage (2015)

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Soundtracks

You and the Night and the Music
(uncredited)
Music by Arthur Schwartz
Lyrics by Howard Dietz
Performed by Edith Bouvier Beale

User Reviews

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.