Year: 1975
Director(s): Maysles Brothers
Country: US
Language: English
Edith Beale, born in 1895, was an American socialite who pursued a singing career in her youth. A mother of two sons and a daughter, she was abandoned by her husband at age 35 and received Grey Gardens, a 28-room mansion in affluent East Hampton, New York, as a divorce settlement. Edie , her daughter, was a teenager when her parents divorced. She lived by herself in New York to pursue a career as a dancer; however at 35 she would return to her mother in Grey Gardens, and live there for 37 Years. It was in the 1960's that their palace transitioned into a decrepit state, overrun by cats, racoons and thousands of pounds of trash.
A landmark documentary by the Maysles Brothers, Grey Gardens is about the aunt and cousin of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, who live their eccentric lives in a filthy, decaying mansion in East Hampton.
The origins of this film came about when Lee Radziwell, Jacqueline Onassis's sister, commissioned the Maysles (Gimme Shelter) to film a family history. However after the Directors met the Beales, they decided to make the film solely about them. Using portable cameras to follow the Beales in their daily routines, the Maysles capture two quite fascinating and mysterious lives. Edie dresses up in strange costumes, which are different everyday. Whereas her mother Edith always seems to be wearing the same thing. According to her she hasn't bathed in over ten years, considering the house doesn't have any running water it seems like her claim could very likely be true.
Does their lifestyle come from a place of rebellion, or a place of insanity? Considering the elderly Beale finds it amusing when her cats go to the bathroom on her pictures, I'd say the latter. Both characters are rather dramatic in their presentation; Edie in particular especially seems to be fit for the theatre. The past seems to plague their minds, it is on the topic of almost every conversation. "France fell, but Edie didn't". Luckily, after the film became a hit, Jackie Onassis helped the Beales renovate and sell the house. However I doubt their personalities changed following.
Technically, Gardens is considered a masterpiece that transformed documentary cinema by expediting a more direct cinema; objective filmmaking without voiceovers, explanations or narrative structure. It was the first documentary that just observed without bias. From an ethical perspective the picture is on shaky ground, one wonders if this is explorative or exploitative. I'd say a mix of both; the subjects are a train-wreck, but you can't help but watch. Praise it! 4/5
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