Grey Gardens

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For other uses, see Grey Gardens (disambiguation).

Grey Gardens

Directed by	Albert Maysles David Maysles Ellen Hovde Muffie Meyer
Produced by	Albert Maysles David Maysles Susan Froemke
Starring	Edith Bouvier Beale
Cinematography	Albert Maysles
Editing by	Susan Froemke Ellen Hovde Muffie Meyer
Distributed by	The Criterion Collection (region 1 DVD)
Release date(s)	27 September 1975 (premiere at NYFF) 19 February 1976 (limited release)
Running time	100 min.
Language	English
IMDb profile

Grey Gardens is a 1975 documentary by the direction/cinematography/editing team of Albert and David Maysles, Susan Froemke, Ellen Hovde, and Muffie Meyer. The film depicts the everyday lives of two women who lived at Grey Gardens, a decrepit 28-room mansion in the Georgica Pond neighborhood of East Hampton, New York.

1 Subject matter
2 Aftermath
3 Adaptations
4 References in other works
5 External links

[edit] Subject matter

The subjects of the film are Edith Bouvier Beale and her mother (also named Edith), who are the aunt and the first cousin of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. The two women lived together at Grey Gardens for over twenty years in squalor and almost total isolation. In 1972, their living conditions were exposed due to an article in the National Enquirer and a series of raids by the Suffolk County Health Department. Jackie Onassis convinced her husband Aristotle to pay for a cleaning and partial repair job on the house. It was during the restoration that Grey Gardens was made.

[edit] Aftermath

Subsequent to the making of the documentary, "Big Edie" died and "Little Edie" sold the house in 1979 to former Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee and his wife, Sally Quinn. According to a 2003 article in Town & Country, the building and grounds have been completely restored. Philanthropist Frances Hayward currently rents the home 11 months out of the year from the Bradlees.

The gardener shown in the documentary, Jerry Torre, was sought by the filmmakers for years afterward, and was found by chance driving a New York City taxicab. [1] One of the two birthday party guests in the film, Lois Wright, has hosted a public television show in East Hampton since the 1980s, and has written a book about her experiences at the house with the Beales. [2]

In 2006, Albert Maysles made available previously unreleased footage for a special 2-disc edition for the Criterion Collection, including a new feature entitled The Beales of Grey Gardens which also received a limited theatrical release.

[edit] Adaptations

The documentary has been adapted into a full-length musical, Grey Gardens, with book by Doug Wright, music by Scott Frankel and lyrics by Michael Korie. Starring Christine Ebersole and Mary Louise Wilson, the show premiered at Playwrights Horizons in New York City in February 2006 to generally good reviews. The musical reopened on Broadway in November 2006 at the Walter Kerr Theatre.

A feature film based on the documentary, starring Drew Barrymore and Jessica Lange, and written and directed by director Michael Sucsy, is also being planned. [3]

[edit] References in other works

Musician Rufus Wainwright wrote a song entitled "Grey Gardens", which appears on his 2001 album Poses. The song's narrative is partly comprised of references to both the 1975 documentary Grey Gardens, and to Thomas Mann's novella Death in Venice (or to Luchino Visconti's film of the same title). Wainwright has said that Grey Gardens is his favorite film.^{[citation needed]}

On the third season of Gilmore Girls, the title characters are seen watching and commenting on Grey Gardens, and refer to it through the remainder of the episode.

In the second season of the Showtime series The L Word, Mark and Jenny mention the film upon first meeting. Mark is an aspiring director of documentaries and names Grey Gardens as one of his favorite films.

Canadian indie pop group Stars sample dialogue from the film in the song "The Woods" on their 2003 release Heart.

In the second season of Rugrats, Tommy is accidentally taken from Grandpa Lou and is put under the care of two sisters named Edith and Clarice in their crumbling estate called Grey Gardens.