Grey Gardens

For other uses, see Grey Gardens (disambiguation).
Grey Gardens

Theatrical release poster
Directed by Albert Maysles
David Maysles
Ellen Hovde
Muffie Meyer
Produced by Albert Maysles
David Maysles
Associate Producer - Susan Froemke
Starring Edith "Big Edie" Ewing Bouvier Beale
Edith "Little Edie" Bouvier Beale
Cinematography Albert Maysles
David Maysles
Edited by Ellen Hovde
Muffie Meyer
Susan Froemke
Production
company
Portrait Films
Distributed by Portrait Films
Release dates
  • September 27, 1975 (NYFF)
  • February 19, 1976 (United States)
Running time
 95 minutes[1]
Country United States
Language English

Grey Gardens is a 1975 American documentary film by Albert and David Maysles. The film depicts the everyday lives of two reclusive socialites, a mother and daughter both named Edith Beale, who lived at Grey Gardens, a derelict mansion at 3 West End Road in the wealthy Georgica Pond neighborhood of East Hampton, New York. The film was screened at the 1976 Cannes Film Festival but was not entered into the main competition.[2]

Ellen Hovde and Muffie Meyer also directed, and Susan Froemke was the associate producer. Although Susan Froemke is often credited as being one of the editors (and was featured for this in Vanity Fair magazine) she did not take any part in the original editing of the film. The film was edited by Ellen Hovde (editor of Gimme Shelter and Salesman) and Muffie Meyer.

In 2010 the film was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the United States National Film Registry as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". In a 2014 Sight and Sound poll, film critics voted Grey Gardens the joint ninth best documentary film of all time.[3]

Cast

Background

Edith Ewing Bouvier Beale (1895–1977), known as "Big Edie", and her daughter Edith Bouvier Beale (1917–2002), known as "Little Edie", were the aunt and the first cousin, respectively, of former US First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. The two women lived together at the Grey Gardens estate, for decades with limited funds in increasing squalor and isolation.[4]

The house was designed in 1897 by Joseph Greenleaf Thorpe and purchased in 1923 by "Big Edie" and her husband Phelan Beale. After Phelan left his wife, "Big Edie" and "Little Edie" lived there for more than 50 years. The house was called Grey Gardens because of the color of the dunes, the cement garden walls, and the sea mist.[5]

Throughout the fall of 1971 and into 1972, their living conditions—their house was infested by fleas, inhabited by numerous cats and raccoons, deprived of running water, and filled with garbage and decay—were exposed as the result of an article in the National Enquirer and a cover story in New York Magazine[6] after a series of inspections (which the Beales called "raids") by the Suffolk County Health Department. With the Beale women facing eviction and the razing of their house, in the summer of 1972 Jacqueline Onassis and her sister Lee Radziwill provided the necessary funds to stabilize and repair the dilapidated house so that it would meet village codes.

Albert and David Maysles became interested in their story and received permission to film a documentary about the women, which was released in 1976 to wide critical acclaim. Their direct cinema technique left the women to tell their own stories.

Soundtrack

Aftermath

"Big Edie" died in 1977 and "Little Edie" sold the house in 1979 for $220,000 to Sally Quinn and her husband, former Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee,[7] who promised to restore the dilapidated structure (the sale agreement forbade razing the house). "Little Edie" died in Florida in 2002 at the age of 84. According to a 2003 article in Town & Country, after their purchase, Quinn and Bradlee completely restored the house and grounds.

Jerry Torre, the handyman shown in the documentary, was sought by the filmmakers for years afterward, and was found by chance driving a New York City taxicab.[8] He is now a sculptor at The Art Students League of New York and a documentary is being made about his life by Jason Hay and Steve Pelizza of Aggregate Pictures.[9][10]

Lois Wright, one of the two birthday party guests in the film, has hosted a public television show in East Hampton since the 1980s. She wrote a book about her experiences at the house with the Beales.[11]

In 2006, Maysles made available previously unreleased footage for a special two-disc edition for The Criterion Collection. It included a new feature titled The Beales of Grey Gardens, which also received a limited theatrical release.

Adaptations

Musical theatre

The documentary, and the women's story, were adapted as 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.[12] The musical re-opened on Broadway in November 2006 at the Walter Kerr Theatre, and was included in more than 25 "Best of 2006" lists in newspapers and magazines.[13] The production won a Tony Award for Best Costume Design, and Ebersole and Wilson each won Tony Awards for their performances.[14] The Broadway production closed on July 29, 2007.[15] It was the first musical on Broadway ever to be adapted from a documentary.[16]

Television film

Grey Gardens, an HBO film, stars Jessica Lange and Drew Barrymore as the Edies, with Jeanne Tripplehorn as Jacqueline Kennedy, and Daniel Baldwin as Julius Krug. Directed and co-written (with Patricia Rozema) by filmmaker Michael Sucsy, filming began on October 22, 2007, in Toronto.[17] It flashes back and forth between Little Edie's life as a young woman and the actual filming/premiere of the 1975 documentary. First aired on HBO on April 18, 2009, the film won six Primetime Emmys[18] and two Golden Globes.[19]

References in other works

Grey Gardens has been referenced on television, in songs and even in the fashion world.[20] In 1999, fashion photographer Steven Meisel shot an editorial, with the same name, featuring Amber Valletta, for Vogue Italia.[21] Rufus Wainwright's song "Grey Gardens" appears on his 2001 album Poses.[22] Canadian rock band Stars' song "The Woods" from their album Heart contains samples of dialogue from the film.[23][24]

On NBC's The New Normal, season 1, episode #2: "Sofa's Choice" (2012), a character impersonates Little Edie.[25][26] Grey Gardens has been mentioned on RuPaul's Drag Race more than once: in season 4, contestant Sharon Needles dressed as Edie for a cat-themed magazine cover; and in season 5, episode 5: "Snatch Game", contestant Jinkx Monsoon participated in a Match Game-style challenge impersonating Little Edie.[27]

On The L Word, season 2, episode 4 "Lynch Pin" (2005), character Mark Wayland refers Grey Gardens as one of his favorite documentaries and character Jenny Schecter also talks highly about it.


References

  1. ↑ "GREY GARDENS (A)". Mainline Pictures. British Board of Film Classification. January 29, 1980. Retrieved October 15, 2013.
  2. ↑ "Festival de Cannes: Grey Gardens". festival-cannes.com. Retrieved 2009-05-10.
  3. ↑ "Silent film tops documentary poll". BBC News. Retrieved August 1, 2014.
  4. ↑ "The top houses from the movies". Daily Telegraph (London). May 2, 2012.
  5. ↑ A Return to Grey Gardens, retrieved October 13, 2013
  6. ↑ Sheehy, Gail. "The Secret Of Grey Gardens". New York Magazine. Retrieved on 20 May 2014.
  7. ↑ Joan Acocella, "Let it Go", The New Yorker, December 15, 2014 issue.
  8. ↑ Green, Adam (March 6, 2006). "The Marble Faun". The New Yorker.
  9. ↑ Jerry Torre. "About". The Marble Faun.
  10. ↑ Jerry Torre. "In Production". The Marble Faun.
  11. ↑ Wright, Lois (2007). My Life at Grey Gardens: 13 Months and Beyond, A True and Factual Book. ISBN 9780977746217.
  12. ↑ Jones, Kenneth. "'Grey Gardens' Takes Root on Broadway Beginning Oct. 3", playbill.com, October 3, 2006.
  13. ↑ "Grey Gardens: The Musical", PS Classics.
  14. ↑ Jones, Kenneth. Will Grey Gardens Grow in London? Creative Team Has Hope, playbill.com, November 21, 2007.
  15. ↑ "Grey Gardens", Internet Broadway Database, accessed December 6, 2014.
  16. ↑ Andrew Gans and Kenneth Jones, "Grey Gardens Will Close on Broadway July 29", Playbill, July 2, 2007.
  17. ↑ Fleming, Michael (February 21, 2006). "Thesps tend to 'Gardens'". Variety.
  18. ↑ IMDB. "Grey Gardens".
  19. ↑ Golden Globes. "Grey Gardens".
  20. ↑ "Eccentric socialite's style reincarnated in magazines, film - and a local fashion show", Star News Online, February 9, 2008.
  21. ↑ "Vogue Italia May 1999: Amber Valletta by Steven Meisel", The Fashion Spot, August 24, 2011.
  22. ↑ "'Grey Gardens' by Rufus Wainwright", YouTube video.
  23. ↑ "Stars (band)", Interviewly, october 2014.
  24. ↑ Noel Murray, "Logic Will Break Your Heart" (review of Heart), A.V. Club, January 12, 2004.
  25. ↑ "'The New Normal' Episode 2: Nana Hates Goldie And Bebe's New Apartment (EXCLUSIVE VIDEO)". Huffingtonpost.com. September 11, 2012. Retrieved May 2, 2013.
  26. ↑ Louis Peitzman (September 12, 2012). "'The New Normal' Recap: A 'Grey Gardens' Episode, Already!". NewNowNext. Retrieved May 2, 2013.
  27. ↑ Rich Juzwiak, "This Is the Best-Ever Impression of Little Edie Bouvier Beale", Gawker, February 26, 2013.

External links