Product Description
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Grey Gardens (DVD)
Based on the life stories of the eccentric aunt and first cousin
of Jackie Kennedy, starring Drew Barrymore and Jessica Lange,
GREY GARDENS tells the tender, story of an eccentric
mother and daughter (both named Edith Bouvier Beale aka "Big and
Little Edie"). They were raised as Park Avenue débutantes but
withdrew from New York society, taking shelter at their Long
Island summer home, "Grey Gardens ." As their wealth and contact
with the outside world dwindled, so did their grasp on reality.
They were reintroduced to the world when international tabloids
learned of a department raid on their home, and Jackie
swooped in to save her relatives. Based on the lives that
inspired the Maysles Brothers' classic documentary.
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It's hard to imagine a feature film that could improve upon the
classic 1975 Hamptons-gothic documentary Grey Gardens,
co-directed by Albert and David Maysles. Yet this Grey Gardens,
directed by Michael Sucsy for HBO Films, captures not only the
pathos and peculiarity of Edith Beale, mère et fille--aristocrats
who were aunt and cousin to former first lady Jacqueline Bouvier
Kennedy--but it provides something deeper and richer: the
background story of the glamorous Beale ladies, and a glimpse at
how they slid from gay 1930s high society to sharing rotting
living quarters with litters of cats and raccoons.
Drew Barrymore, the Grey Gardens standout, rises to the
particular challenge of playing "Little Edie" Beale, whose
accent, carriage, and mannerisms have developed their own camp
following over the years. Barrymore's performance is a
revelation: she captures the weirdness of Edie, but she knows
what the documentary fans know--the reality of what Edie once had
been, and what she was becoming. Barrymore's performance is
delicate and strong, with a hint of sadness underneath the fading
ingénue's brave face. Jessica Lange plays "Big Edie," the mother
who made more concrete choices to wall herself off from the
outside world. Lange is excellent, though Big Edie is a less
nuanced character than her daughter, and she seems more content
with her lot, perched in her teeming twin bed surrounded by
mounds of cats and t.
The filmmakers pay deep homage to the documentary, and carefully
recreate the third lead character of the drama--the East Hampton,
N.Y., mansion Grey Gardens itself. The making-of featurette is a
must-have for fans of either film, as the filmmakers and actors
talk about how they built a three-story facsimile of the home
near Toronto (which also stands in for the Manhattan scenes).
Also fascinating is the story of how certain beloved sets from
the documentary were painstakingly re-created, including the
Beales’ yellow bedroom, the entryway that played stage to the
dancing aspirations of Little Edie, and the crumbling porch and
yard where Edie would pose and prance, decked out in tights,
shorts, a pinned-up skirt, and her signature sweater-snood,
fastened with a brooch just so. "Well, Mother and I are very
entertaining, that's true," says Little Edie, when the Maysles
first approach her about cooperating in their documentary. And,
happily, viewers of HBO's Grey Gardens could not agree more.
--A.T. Hurley
Stills from Grey Gardens (click for larger image)
( https://images-na.ssl-images-.com/images/G/01/dvd/warner/GreyGardens_1.jpg )
( https://images-na.ssl-images-.com/images/G/01/dvd/sony/CadillacRecords/CadillacRecords_5.jpg )