Grey Gardens
Albert and David Maysles, pioneers in the cinéma vérité movement of documentary filmmaking, chose for their subjects of this film a mother and daughter with celebrity connections. Edith Bouvier Beale and her daughter Edie (or, as they are called by the brothers, Big Edie and Little Edie) are aunt and cousin to Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. In the early ’70s, their 28 – room mansion in Long Island’s tony community of East Hampton was found to be a health hazard, and the two women, in their seventies and fifties, were threatened with eviction. Jacqueline Onassis paid for the house to be put in good order, and two years later, the Maysles paid the ladies a series of follow-up visits. This is not fly-on-the-wall filmmaking; the brother are sometimes shown on camera, and both women talk directly to them.
Big Edie reminisces about her husband (from whom she has long been separated) and her youthful singing career, Little Edie ruminates over memories of her thwarted romances and confides that she has to get out of Grey Gardens (the name of their estate), although she has been living there since 1952, and the two women pick at each other for transgressions past and present. (Barnes & Noble)
Watch the full documentary now – Grey Gardens (1975)
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I though this documentary was very heartbreaking.It should how smothering love can be so destructive.I don’t doubt that
these two women loved each other,but the mother was so selfish and controlling and denied her daughter a life even thou she herself would allow no one to control her. I hope
that they have both found peace in the big stage in the sky
and that Little Edie is finally free!!!
where were her sons in all this. why didn’t they help. i think that that sons should have made to be ashame of themselves. this wouldn’t not happened to no money hundrysob.
I recently watched this doc on the Movie Network along with the new HBO film “Grey Gardens”. Shocking! Unbelievable! Deeply Touching! Such stories are probably not totally uncommon in the world, but we may only hear about them if the individuals are, like these two were, connected to a famous name. Sad! Sad! Very Sad Indeed!
I’ve tried numerous times to view this film to no avail. I have the divx player insstalled, but whether I click download or play nothing works. What’s up with thwt?
This is one of my favorites. Strange to see how little Edie’s style carried over into the outside world. She used any piece of clothing she could to make her outfits. It reminds me of playing ‘dress up’ with my little sister a long long time ago =)
what an awful mother
I don’t see why people blame the mother. I see two equally mentally ill women.
Sad.
Hi all! It’s been quite some time ago I watched the movie “Grey Gardens” on HBO I think it was. Sometime after that I watched maybe 5 videos of the documentary on youtube before it unfortunately got removed from youtube. I was thrilled to find it on this site. I just fell so “in love” with this story. I could personally relate to this story especially the relationship bet the mother and the daughter. Before you make judgmental comments especially about the mother you must try to have a deeper understanding of the mother. She wasn’t awful. And I’m not sure you should call them mentally ill either. They do not seem severely mentally ill anyways. They certainly do not appear dangerous as most mentally ill people are probably not. I think both of them seem like pretty cool people. They seem very nice and down-to-earth. I would have liked to have met them though they were before my time. More so the mother then the daughter. The mother passed away in the seventies I think and the daughter passed away in the 90′s if I’m correct. I was happy that Little Edie was finally able to escape that Grey Garden’s prison, get to live some different places and have a happier life. I suppose it’s not hard to believe that the neighborhood folk in the area didn’t offer to help them. I have to wonder why none of the local churches did anything once news had gotten out of their poor circumstances. At long last their relative finally came to help them. Better late then never. The newspapers said she (Jacqueline) turned a blind eye to it. But why was that I wonder. (?) Why do people just not care about the misfortune of others. It’s beyond sad that no one came to their rescue until within a couple years of Big Eddie’s passing. They had only $150 per month to live on for 30 years or more. Well it would be like 20 years or more for Little Edie. Anyhow I found (still find) the story intriguing.
To goober, you have to click download for the player. But then you must close all your windows except the little one showing the ___.exe I think it is. Then you have to click that for the player to install. You might have to restart your computer for it to work. Anyways I hope I helped you. I hope you’ll be able to watch this wonderful Grey Gardens documentary. I’ve only watched a little of it so far; I’m going to watch it all the way through but probably not in one night. I think it’s kind of long.
A really interesting documentary. Sure there were many unanswered questions or details or segments left out but it was still an interesting documentary. What I hate, is when certain people in the world are offered better living arrangements/potentially better lives; they stubbornly refuse; inevitably making their lives even more difficult, harsh, sad and poor. I’ve learned that many of the people like these two women that refuse better living arrangements, usually have mental issues as well and that’s the main reason they make such bad decisions regarding their well being. I saw the film as well starring Drew Barrymore. It was a typical Hollywood bio but it did fill in a few unanswered questions/important details the documentary makers left out.
I’d like to point out to LR that Little Edie wanted to move out of Grey Gardens and out of state like her brothers suggested. But her mother adamantly refused to let her sons sell the property. The property was in the mothers name so the daughter was kind of stuck since she didn’t want to go out and work. Like her father said she was more then capable of doing secretarial work. It was the mother using very bad judgment not the daughter. Big Eddie loved her home and thought there was no other place better then that. You have to understand if you love something it’s hard to give up even if it would be the best thing. If it would have been me I wouldn’t have had to think twice about selling. Little Edie should have put up more of a fit and maybe her mom would have given in. I guess Big Eddie just wasn’t looking down the line at the impossibility of their situation. She’s lived on $150. per month for 10 years and then for another over 20 years (I think) the $150 wasn’t near enough for even basic bills like groceries, utilities and the upkeep of the house and property.
neither of them seem terribly unhappy to me. they sing and drink and smoke and lay about in the sun…yes, the house is filthy, but they could clean and they don’t. yes, they are undoubtedly mentally ill, but i just don’t see how everyone thinks this is sad. i found it quite entertaining.