The Beales of Grey Gardens (2006)

Utilizing hours of unseen archival footage, The Beales is a new take on the women of Grey Gardens.

Directors:

Albert Maysles, David Maysles

Stars:

Edith 'Little Edie' Bouvier Beale, Edith Bouvier Beale, Albert Maysles

Cast

Credited cast:
Edith 'Little Edie' Bouvier Beale	...	Self
Edith Bouvier Beale	...	Self
Albert Maysles	...	Self
David Maysles	...	Self
Jerry Torre	...	Self
Lois Wright	...	Self

Storyline

Mother and daughter - Big Edie and Little Edie Beale - live with six cats in a crumbling house in East Hampton. Little Edie, in her 50s, who wears scarves and bright colors, sings, mugs for the camera, and talks to Al and David Maysles, the filmmakers. Big Edie, in her 70s, recites poetry, comments on her daughter's behavior, and sings "If I Loved You" in fine voice. She talks in short sentences; her daughter in volumes. The film is episodic: friends visit, there's a small fire in the house, Little Edie goes to the shore and swims. She talks about the Catholic Church. She's ashamed that local authorities raided the house because of all the cats. She values being different.

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Plot Keywords:

zodiac sign | reference to a zodiac sign | reference to scorpio the astrological sign | reference to scorpio the constellation | astrology believer | 

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Genres:

Documentary

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Did You Know?

Trivia

This film is part of the Criterion Collection, spine #361.

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Quotes

Edith 'Big Edie' Bouvier Beale: I went to Mass up until the time I was 28 years old!
Edith 'Little Edie' Bouvier Beale: That's how she got so fat, not getting up on Sunday to go to Mass.
Edith 'Big Edie' Bouvier Beale: Oh! What a whopper!
Edith 'Little Edie' Bouvier Beale: It keeps you very thin!
Edith 'Big Edie' Bouvier Beale: I'm not going to church to keep thin! I'm going to go because I love the Lord!

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Connections

Referenced in Peace, Love & Misunderstanding (2011)

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Soundtracks

Around the World
Music by Victor Young
Lyrics by Harold Adamson and Stella Unger
Published by Liza Music Corp.
Performed by Edith 'Little Edie' Bouvier Beale and Edith Bouvier Beale

User Reviews

A Step Down from the Original

The Beales of Grey Gardens (2006)

*** (out of 4)

Albert Maysles and David Maysles took the unused footage from their 1975 documentary GREY GARDENS and came up with this new film. As with the first, we take a look at Big Edie and Little Edie, the relatives to Jackie Onassis who lived in an estate that was pretty much ran down and which they shared with a various of creatures including cats and raccoons. Having just watched the original film a few weeks before this, I was very familiar and it was still fresh in my mind. I don't think viewing the two so close hampered this film but at the same time I think it's clear that this one here isn't nearly as good. I think you could point to several different factors but for some reason I just kept saying to myself that this footage wasn't included in the original for a reason. That reason was probably that it simply wasn't all that interesting or at least it wasn't as interesting as what we got in the first movie. I thought GREY GARDENS was a pretty weird film because it really didn't seem to have a point other than to show how weird these people were. It at least had a structure to it but that's not the case here. It really does seem like the entire movie was just thrown together for the sake of the filmmakers having another picture for the credits. That's not to say that this is a bad movie but at the same time it really does feel as if you're watching 90-minutes worth of deleted scenes that you'd typically just see on a film's special features. Some of the highlights in this film include a sequence where a fire breaks out and you can see the damage in the original film but there it doesn't have an explanation. Another highlight is hearing the two ladies talk about their thoughts on the Catholic church and men in general. Fans of the first film will probably get the most out of this but the rest should certainly seek out the original first.

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

21 July 2006 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Beales of Grey Gardens

Filming Locations:

57 Buell Lane, East Hampton, New York, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$400,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Maysles Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

91 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1