{"id":9509,"date":"2010-07-13T17:37:58","date_gmt":"2010-07-14T01:37:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/?p=9509"},"modified":"2010-07-13T18:04:04","modified_gmt":"2010-07-14T02:04:04","slug":"the-beales-of-grey-gardens-albert-and-david-maysles-2006-usa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/?p=9509","title":{"rendered":"The Beales of Grey Gardens (Albert and David Maysles, 2006): USA"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reviewed by Kathleen Amboy<\/a>.\u00a0 Viewed on DVD.<\/p>\n

\"\"\u00a0 The Beales of Grey Gardens<\/a><\/em>\u00a0 return, in Albert Maysles’ 2006 release\u00a0of\u00a0previous unseen\u00a0footage\u00a0from the 1975 cult classic\u00a0documentary Grey Gardens<\/em>.<\/p>\n

While Grey Gardens<\/em>\u00a0takes a voyeuristic\u00a0look\u00a0into the degraded lives of the\u00a0notorious co-enablers (it’s sort of a\u00a0pre-cursor to present day reality shows),\u00a0The Beales of Grey Gardens<\/em> instead pays homage to the iconic socialites of East Hampton.<\/p>\n

The Beales rose to fame\u00a0when the community of East Hampton\u00a0attempted to\u00a0have the ladies evicted from their filthy and\u00a0dilapidated multi-room mansion back in the early 1970’s, after having lived there for over\u00a0four decades.\u00a0 What made these ladies so newsworthy is that they were\u00a0aunt and first cousin to Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, and everyone seemed to wonder how she could allow her family to live in such\u00a0sqaulor.<\/p>\n

Existing on a limited income,\u00a0and sharing their house with wild animals,\u00a0surrounded by feces and decay, Big Edie and her daughter Little Edie were oblivious to their plight and called Grey Gardens home.\u00a0 Once the press got ahold of the story, \u00a0Jackie O\u00a0appeared on the scene and\u00a0helped to\u00a0clean up and\u00a0repair the Beale home.\u00a0 The brother\u00a0team of Albert and David Maysles\u00a0originally intended to make a documentary on Jackie’s roots in East Hampton, but switched the focus onto the Beales and Grey Gardens.<\/p>\n

The Maysles camera follows Little Edie around, recording her song and dance numbers as well as numerous costume changes and her verbal sparring with mom.\u00a0 As a\u00a0bevy of felines cluster around Big Edie’s twin beds,\u00a0 it’s the filth and disarray, the cat vomit and feces, which inebriate the senses and induce guilt in the viewer, making one want to turn away in disgust, yet drawing your attention back – to Little Edie in her headgarb and mink coat with the loose stitching,\u00a0 and Big Edie with her Coke-bottle glasses and ever present pint of ice cream.<\/p>\n

The two films are bookends, whereas Grey Gardens<\/em> is a bit of a trainwreck, The Beales of Grey Gardens\u00a0<\/em>has more\u00a0verbal sparring, more song and dance routines, but\u00a0a reflective glance\u00a0into the strengths and weaknesses of these two women.\u00a0 Once beautiful women, they turned frumpy, each strong enough to endure the humiliation of the loss of financial independence, yet too weak to part company.<\/p>\n

While it is difficult to imagine anyone living in these conditions, it’s mesmerizing\u00a0to witness these two\u00a0gallant women, who were\u00a0born into high society and\u00a0lost everything, but managed to hold onto their own ideals and co-exist for\u00a0years on very little sustenance.<\/p>\n

Grey Gardens <\/em>and the Beales ultimately inspired a Broadway musical, a fashion trend, and a\u00a0cable (HBO) film.\u00a0 With both Beales and Jackie O long departed, along with David Maysles,\u00a0 Albert was free to edit in tidbits of info regarding Jackie’s handling of\u00a0 the restoration of Grey Gardens and Little Edie’s dismissal of it.\u00a0 The updated footage shares Little Edie’s thoughts on faith, astrology and her struggles to flee as well, turning it into a tribute and a lesson in empathy.<\/p>\n

\u00a0“The harsh weather ruined the gardens of the\u00a0previous owner and horticulturist Mrs. Robert C. Hill, and that’s why they named this place\u00a0Grey Gardens.” –\u00a0Little Edie Beale.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reviewed by Kathleen Amboy.\u00a0 Viewed on DVD. \u00a0 The Beales of Grey Gardens\u00a0 return, in Albert Maysles’ 2006 release\u00a0of\u00a0previous unseen\u00a0footage\u00a0from the 1975 cult classic\u00a0documentary Grey Gardens. While Grey Gardens\u00a0takes a voyeuristic\u00a0look\u00a0into the degraded lives of the\u00a0notorious co-enablers (it’s sort of a\u00a0pre-cursor to present day reality shows),\u00a0The Beales of Grey Gardens instead pays homage to the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[75,67,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-documentary","category-dvd","category-films"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9509"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9509\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}