Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Grey Gardens
Having seen Grey Gardens numerous times I have to stay that not only is it by far one of my favorite documentaries but it is one of those films that gets better every time you watch it. The Edies are eccentric people who have fallen out of the limelight and live in squalor in their East Hampton home. If you are looking for a documentary that follows real people in their real lives then this is it. The grittiness of the situation that the Edies are living in is truly shocking. Little Edie feeds the cats and the raccoons who inhabit their home as if there is no risk of catching disease. This documentary has gained a cult following and has lead to the creation of a Broadway musical of the same name and storyline as well as an HBO Docudrama which recreates much of the documentary but also adds in new scenes about the Edies in their younger years. These two women are truly staunch women. And although Little Edie mocks the idea of a staunch woman, she and her mother are the epitome of just that. Living in recluse and unsanitary situations seems to take over the minds of the Edies as they constantly hold on to the past and their fondest memories. David and Albert Maysles (the filmmakers) are two of very few people who were offered a voyeuristic look into the lives of these two fascinating women. When on camera Little Edie enjoys boasting about her younger years as a debutante to which her mother Big Edie comically chimes in to slap her daughter back into reality and out of her fantastical memories. Things such as Little Edie's revolutionary costume and her odd relationship with her mother show the audience that she is longing for more in her life but is afraid to leave her mother and the familiar life she has lived for years now. Perhaps some of the most heartfelt lines spoken by Little Edie comment on her life in Grey Gardens. "We better check on mother and the cats. She's a lot of fun, I hope she
doesn't die. I hate to spend another winter here though. Oh God, another
winter" I could watch this film over and over again and always find something new and interesting about the Edies. What do you think about these two infamous women?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Grey Gardens seems like it would have had more impact on people in the 70s when it was filmed because people hadn't been exposed to the "hoarders" phenomenon yet. Today, we have shows like Clean House, Hoarders, My Crazy Obsession, etc which show us how many people live in the filth and clutter of all their stuff. On another hand though, the Edies didn't really have all that much stuff as just garbage. How hard is it to throw out the dirty newspapers from their cats, or the empty cat food containers, or the old soda cans? A lot of the stuff they were holding onto had sentimental value, but that was the only stuff that was actually sort of organized, or at least put away, or in one pile in the corner.
ReplyDeleteThe cats and racoons are another story. There are stray cats outside of my apartment, but my neighbors feed them and they just hang out on the deck. I have to say though, that if nobody fed them, I probably would and then I would be the crazy cat lady. I don't really blame them for having all those cats, since its just the two of them in the house all the time.
I think that the most interesting part of the film is the two Edies. They are just so ridiculous at times. Little Edie is self conscious about her looks, yet she always finds a way to put herself in front of the camera and tries to perform like she did while butchering Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken." Big Edie is less of a performer, but she just says things sometimes that make you laugh. I think that even if these two didn't live in all that garbage, I would still find them entertaining just because of their relationship with each other.
The question of where the rest of their family was one that stuck with me. These people used to be rich and at the top of society, how hard would it have been for Big Edie's sons to pay someone to at least cut back the gardens and paint the house? Then at least it would have looked good from the outside. I guess during that time, though, anybody who wasn't mentally stable was deemed unfit for society and basically shunned by everyone. I think that the fact that these were relatives of Jackie Kennedy made the Edies even more undesirable to their relatives because they were all in the public eye, and the way the Edies lived was just embarrassing to the people trying to seem perfect.
The difference between modern day hoarders and the way the Edies lived is that hoarders seem to accumulate more and more "new" stuff, whereas the Edies had none of their valuable stuff anymore, they seemed to only have plastic silverware, and they just accumulated more and more garbage. Like I said though, the way they lived was just one of the reasons the film was interesting. I think that their relationship and their eccentricity was really what made the film.
Something that really struck me about the film was the fact that the Edies in their own heads had these images of themselves being these glamorous, prestigious women. They have these makeshift outfits and accessories that are all thrown together and pinned on to them. In their heads, it seems as though they are reliving their glory days, but in reality they look like actual crazy people. I was surprised to see the dynamic between little Edie and big Edie. One never let the other one be seen as superior. Whenever one has a moment of reflection on the good old days, and how glorified they used to be, the other one shuts her down and puts her right back in her place. However, behind eachothers backs they never fail to compliment the other, which I think shows that the mother-daughter loving dynamic still exists.
ReplyDeleteHonestly i found these woman to be slightly annoying. I understand the importance of there relationship and the possibility of Little Eddie being slightly mentally disabled. But i was kind of taken back by the disrespect she showed her mother. I found there inability to recognize that there living conditions were not good a little unsettling. I think that it was a good documentary about the lives of two disillusioned woman but im not sure if i can see past just that.
ReplyDeleteThink about what makes this film a milestone of documentary. What was unique about the approach of the filmmakers? What techniques did they use to make the film compelling or memorable?
ReplyDeleteI thought the fact that the filmmakers were able to get the women to really compete for attention was pretty unique. I have never seen a mother and daughter fight for the attention of a camera like this before. Big Edie really only seemed to try to get attention when little Edie was present. She would tell her that she was terrible at dancing and singing to make herself seem superior and therefore stealing the attention of the camera. However when little Edie was in another room big Edie had nothing but nice things to say about her daughter. I found this strange and interesting. Little Edie was desperate for attention 100% of the time. It was clear that her mother has not given her the attention she desires throughout her life because once she becomes comfortable around the filmmakers she never shuts up. She is always dancing and singing and telling stories about how great she used to be. It was actually really sad to see someone that desperate for someone to listen to her. The way the filmmakers were able to show how pathetic the two women had become without being mean or rude to them was impressive. I was surprised that I ended up feeling bad for the women because usually when people have insane amounts of money and they lose it all because they just stop trying I don't really care. But the way the filmmakers portray the women makes me feel bad for them.
ReplyDeleteLike you said Stephen, if anyone is interested in viewing a documentary that depicts real people being followed around in their daily lives, Grey Gardens is the film to watch. At first I didn't understand the purpose of this film because I thought it was just another documentary, but it's not. When the Maysles brothers were producing this film, I thought their goal was to catch the audience by showing how two troubled women can live under unsanitary circumstances. While it may be one of their goals, I don't think the Maysles brothers were aiming to show what has happened to Grey Gardens, but rather the two women who have made a home from the scraps that still remain.
ReplyDeleteWatching the way big Edie and little Edie were living was upsetting because no one would ever expect someone to end up so low on the totem pole like they did. The two scenes that stuck in my mind were watching big Edie trying to sleep in her bed covered in trash, and little Edie randomly dancing in the hallway. I felt that these scenes were what portrayed how unstable the two women truly were. Overall Grey Gardens shows what it means to reach one's lowest point in life, and that is something I don't think people really see.
There is much to be taken from 'Grey Gardens'. When a film can make you feel as anxious and unsettled as this and is also a true story, you know that the material is significant and deserves some analysis. This film peaks into the lives of people that had it all and lost their minds. There is a handful of quotes that I should be able to think of, although I can't recall any at the moment, about the effects on humans of not working for anything. Maybe the class "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger" is applicable, declaring that the Edies were perhaps some of the weakest people alive. Having not truly struggled for anything throughout their entire lives left them with nothing but complaints and naivety to accompany them to their privileged death beds. The central message that I took away from the film is that there is a peak that can be reached in life that should never be reached. You should never have it all for then there is nothing more. The Edies did not recognized complex pleasures such as the value of a good book, and so could not tap into the greater opportunities in life.
ReplyDeleteThe success and popularity of the film also disturbs me, however. And this gut-twisting anxiety that convoys the disturbance is identical to that that overwhelms me when I ponder the fame and fortune of the Kardashians and related figures. People are desperate to escape their own minds and consequently dive into the problems and dramas of others. People should not acquire social or financial value as a result of their ability to shock millions of viewers. The world would be a far less confusing, globalized, and prejudiced place if reality television wasn't so prominent in contemporary culture.
Grey Gardens just had this overwhelming feeling when i watched it that kind made me feel like i was in an awkward situation by watching these two women's lives on a daily basis. i think the film element that really captured that feeling most viewers get when they watch this film is the maysles brother's use of direct cinema. direct cinema is the filmmakers' desire to directly capture reality and represent it truthfully, and to question the relationship of reality with cinema.and i think they really did a concrete example of that. other things that stood out in the movie to me was how the mother and daughter kind of treated this experience as a struggle for the spotlight. this sets up an interesting struggle for power between characters, especially between a mother and daughter. she would sometimes verbally bash her daughter, and then in the blink of an eye say nice things about her. this element of the story kind of made it weird to see because usually mothers aren't like that to their daughters, and knowing how delusional both characters were it was strange to see them beg for attention almost. this certainly can be considered a milestone in documentary because of its cult status and general guilty pleasure interest. these women were related to Jackie Kennedy and seeing how different they are to her is just like delving into the secret life of a celebrity almost. but the cult status of this film and the huge interest around it has promoted it as a very talked about movie for its direct film style approach and unique storyline
ReplyDelete-mike crocker
Grey Gardens is one of the more bizarre films I've seen. It seemed like the directors were trying to make a documentary version of John Waters' Pink Flamingos; they found the most bizarre subject they could find, and pointed a camera at it. There wasn't really much happening in the Edies' lives, but I couldn't wait to see what happened next. Grey Gardens was so interesting to me because it is, paradoxically, both boring and hypnotizing in content. I suppose it was interesting to see how differently they acted while they were in front of the camera. This film could be seen as a precursor to reality television shows, which generally follow a group of people with unremarkable lives, and makes their antics seem interesting and/or important. In general, Grey Gardens is a pretty interesting portrait of the two Edies, and if nothing else, it's definitely unique.
ReplyDeleteI felt a little uncomfortable watching Grey Gardens. I felt as if the filmmakers took advantage of the deteriorated mental states of these two women. They don't normally have other people to interact with, so they seemed to be putting on a show for the filmmakers. I don't think they were aware of how foolish they seemed. It felt like taking advantage of mentally disturbed people.
ReplyDeleteAlso just kind of a random thought: I noticed in the beginning of the film when they were showing all of those newspaper clippings, they showed one where Jackie Kennedy was cleaning up the house. So I was just left wondering what exactly did she do? Why did the house fall into such disrepair again? Why didn't she actually do something to really help them?