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Grey Gardens

United States

1976

94 Min
Color
1.33:1
English
  • Currently 4.1/5 Stars.
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DIR Albert Maysles, David Maysles, Ellen Hovde, Muffie Meyer

DP Albert Maysles, David Maysles

CAST Edith Bouvier Beale, Little Edie Bouvier Beale

ED Ellen Hovde, Susan Froemke, Muffie Meyer

SOUND Lee Dichter/Photo-Mag

Synopsis

Meet Big and Little Edie Beale—high-society dropouts, mother and daughter, reclusive cousins of Jackie O.—thriving together amid the decay and disorder of their ramshackle East Hampton mansion. An impossibly intimate portrait and an eerie echo of the Kennedy Camelot, Albert and David Maysles’s 1976 Grey Gardens quickly became a cult classic and established Little Edie as a fashion icon and philosopher queen. —The Criterion Collection

Director

Original

Albert Maysles

With his brother David, Albert Maysles became one of the chief exponents of the “direct cinema” school of documentary filmmaking. The brothers began working as a team in 1957, each having previously been involved in film in very different ways—Albert making a documentary on Soviet mental institutions and David working as production assistant on two Marilyn Monroe movies. The Maysles brothers designed their own portable equipment to help in their goal of capturing the raw, spontaneous flow of experience, without intruding into the situations being filmed and were influenced by Robert Drew and Richard Leacock, with whom they had worked on “Primary” (1960).

Born and raised in Massachusetts, this son of Russian Jewish immigrants developed a childhood interest in photography. After receiving his MA in psychology, Maysles traveled to Russia and shot photographs inside mental hospitals. Although he was unsuccessful in selling those pictures, he did manage to obtain a movie camera from… read more

Original

David Maysles

Documentary filmmaker David Maysles and his brother, Albert Maysles, played important roles in the development of cinema verité, designing highly portable cameras and sound equipment that gave filmmakers minimal intrusion while documenting their subjects. Before teaming up with his brother in 1957, Maysles worked as a production assistant on two Marilyn Monroe features. The Maysles brothers formed their own production company in 1962 and went on to make many documentary films for both the big screen and television. Their best-known documentaries are Salesman (1969) and Gimme Shelter (1970); the latter was a disturbing, controversial chronicle of a Rolling Stones concert during which four people were killed by the Hell’s Angels hired by the band to keep fans off the stage. The Maysles captured one of those brutal murders on film, repeatedly showing it throughout the documentary. In 1974, David Maysles was nominated for an Academy Award for Valley Curtain, the first of three documentaries… read more

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Sinziana Medvetchi

12Apr12

Beautifully bittersweet tale of two very memorable Edies.

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Max

21Aug11

Crazy Cat Ladies

cmuela likes this

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Shelley

25Jul11

this was a beautifully filmed documentary (not sure why anyone would want to remake it) but it was terribly boring. the idea was interesting/good but nothing happened. nothing interesting was talked about. I mean I'll try to watch it again in a few years but I just wasn't impressed besides the cinematography (which was beautiful).

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Little Edie's Head

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HBO's Grey Gardens

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DVD

Buy the DVD from The Criterion Collection.