A newly struck print of the [Maysles] brothers' 1976 classic Grey Gardens proves that their work is still plenty provocative--and especially so in this era of shallow celebrity docs.
Grey Gardens (1976)
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Reviews Counted:14
Fresh:14
Rotten:0
Average Rating:8.2/10
Runtime: 3 hrs 5 mins
Genre: Education/General Interest
Synopsis: Out in East Hampton, behind a cloud of overgrown foliage and weeds, there is a large decaying mansion which is home to Edith Bouvier Beale and her grown-up daughter Little Edie. Big and Little Edie... Out in East Hampton, behind a cloud of overgrown foliage and weeds, there is a large decaying mansion which is home to Edith Bouvier Beale and her grown-up daughter Little Edie. Big and Little Edie are the aunt and first cousin of Jacquelyn Kennedy Onassis, and this documentary is a portrait of their unusual life together. When Little Edie left New York, she left behind her dreams of stardom to take care of her aging mother, and together they developed a unique relationship, cloistered away in their fading glory. A stirring portrait by the pioneers of documentary filmmaking, the Maysles Brothers. [More]
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Release:
Apr 25, 2006
DVD Features:
- 2-Disc Set
- Box Set
- Full Frame - 1.33
Audio:
- Mono - English
Additional Release Material:
- Trailers
- Disc 1: Grey Gardens
Additional Release Material:
- Audio Commentary: Albert Maysles, Director; Ellen Hovde, Filmmaker; Muffie Meyer, Filmmaker, Susan Froemke, Filmmaker
Interviews:
- 1. Little Edie Beale by Kathryn G. Graham - Interview Magazine 1976
- 2. Todd Oldham / John Bartlett - Fashion Designers
Text/Photo Galleries:
- Filmographies
- Stills/Photos: Behind The Scenes - Photographs
- Additional Text: Essay - Hilton Als, Critic
- Disc 2: The Beales of Grey Gardens
Additional Release Material:
- Introduction: Maysles Introduction
Text/Photo Galleries:
- Additional Text: Essay - Michael Musto, Critic
Reviews for Grey Gardens
Borderline exploitative. But the stark power of the dual portrait can't be denied.
An editor's exercise: take footage shot 30 years ago for another film, and edit it into a new movie
Grey Gardens became a cult film in the '70s, when mavericks and outsiders were the heroes and heroines and the Beales were valued for their alternative world and their priceless eccentricity.
No film – no Tennessee Williams adaptation, nothing by Guy Maddin or Lynch, no genre-exploding Japanese horror flick – has ever had a stranger pair of characters at its core.
The film's real fascination, however, does not come through some morbid freak show angle but in its study of this strangely symbiotic relationship.
At first blush, the film may seem like an invitation to mockery, but the more one uncovers of the vast history of the Beales at Grey Gardens, the more the film becomes a monument to the fiercely independent nature of these two staunch characters.
There's an undeniable skill on The film feels pretty exploitative, even as the Beales insist that it's not exploiting them at all.
Latest News for Grey Gardens
November 07, 2007:
Jeanne Tripplehorn Tending Grey Gardens
Long a cult classic among the morbidly curious, 1975's Grey Gardens -- a documentary about two down-on-their-luck members of the Bouvier family -- has become a hip source of... More...
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