Trailer for Cat Ladies documentary

Although not specifically Grey Gardens-related, this documentary may be of interest to Grey Gardens fans. This raccoon is certainly going to keep an eye out for it!

From YouTube, by HotDocsFest, on March 25, 2009

Hot Docs 2009 Trailers: CAT LADIES

Hello kitty! Whether they dote on one cat or hoard hundreds, women can be unjustly derided as "crazy cat ladies." With humour and compassion, this film delves into the feelings of love, loss and loneliness behind these very real attachments.

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Grey Gardens the documentary and HBO film, side by side

Very interesting! The HBO film (from the filming to the performance to the sets and costumes) almost perfectly duplicates the original documentary.

From YouTube, by FandeLuxe, on June 19, 2009

Grey Gardens vs Grey Gardens

original vs. movie

That said, what makes the HBO film so amazing are the scenes that weren't a part of the original documentary, that seem like they very well could have been a part of it!

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Grey Gardens the Musical comes to Birmingham, AL next year

The musical is really getting around! Alabama residents, put this on your calendars for next year!

Dane Peterson’s Theatre Series
presents
Kristi Tingle Higginbotham
in

GREY GARDENS

with
Carole Armistead and Leah Luker
and featuring Brad Simmons

Book by Doug Wright Music by Scott Frankel Lyrics by Michael Korie
Based on the film "Grey Gardens"
by David Maysles, Albert Maysles, Ellen Hovde, Muffie Mayer and Susan Froemke
Originally produced on Broadway by East of Doheny
Staunch Entertainment Randall L. Wreghitt/Mort Swinsky
Michael Alden Edwin W. Schloss
in association with Playwrights Horizons
Playwrights Horizons, Inc., New York City, produced the World Premiere of
GREY GARDENS Off-Broadway on March 7, 2006.
Developed with the assistance of The Sundance Institute.

April 29 - May 1, 2010 at 7:30PM
May 2, 2010 at 2:30PM
May 6 - 8, 2010 at 7:30PM
May 9, 2010 at 2:30PM

The Virginia Samford Theatre
in Caldwall Park
1116 26th Street South
Birmingham, AL 35205

www.dptheatreseries.org
www.virginiasamfordtheatre.org

Jessica Lange on Grey Gardens and Emmys

It would be wonderful if somehow Barrymore and Lange could both win Emmys, sort of like how Disney's Snow White won a special award in 1939 that included one full-size Oscar statuette and seven small ones!

From Variety, by Peter Knegt, on June 12, 2009

Grey Gardens

HBO

You can't have your cake and eat it, too, in life," Edith "Big Edie" Bouvier Beale quips to her daughter in Albert and David Maysles' documentary "Grey Gardens." But in portraying Beale in the HBO narrative adaptation of the film, Jessica Lange is defying her character's words.

"It's one of those parts that doesn't come along very often and that I feel so blessed to have a chance to do," Lange says. "It's also one of those parts where I really fell in love with her. She's such a unique character, and the fact that we had that documentary. It was like a treasure-trove."

Lange ages 20 years in both directions to play "Big Edie," the aunt of Jackie Kennedy who spent her twilight years living in impoverished isolation with her daughter, played by Drew Barrymore in the mini. While the documentary focused only on the Beales' later years, HBO's adaptation also traces the path that led these women from a life of wealth and privilege to one of poverty and eccentricity.

"The idea of taking this woman who has become an iconic figure and to provide an imagining of who she was 40 years earlier—that was what made the work really exciting to do," Lange says. "But the possibility for failure was great. One of the reasons it worked is the connection that Drew and I had."

With both thesps eligible in the lead actress category, Lange (no stranger to awards—she's won two Oscars) shoots down any suggestion there might be any rivalry come Emmy night.

"It's too bad there has to be a singular award," she says. "They were two great roles, and it really is a two-handed piece. One can't exist without the other. They are two halves of the same equation."

Source

Director Michael Sucsy on making Grey Gardens

Wow! I didn't know this whole story, and it's good to hear it straight from Sucsy himself!

And, by the way, it's less than a month until it comes out on DVD!

Grey Gardens HBO Films DVD

From The Huffington Post, by Michael Sucsy, on June 18, 2009

Inspiration in Squalor: How I "Rebuilt" Grey Gardens

Last weekend, I was at home in Los Angeles and got a call from Jessica Lange. "Michael, I can't find the house," she confessed. "I'm out in East Hampton with Sam, and I want to show him the garden, but I can't find the damn house!" She was referring to Grey Gardens, the former home of "Big Edie" Bouvier Beale, whom Jessica played in the recent film that I produced, co-wrote, and directed. I laughed, told Jessica where she had taken a wrong turn, and assured her that Big Edie would be pleased that she was checking up on things. I spent six years making Grey Gardens, and, although I'm thrilled with the results, I'm also glad I didn't know how long it was going to take when I first started...

Having grown up spending summers in Long Island, for years I was aware of the lore surrounding Jackie O's eccentric relatives living in squalor in their Long Island summer home, and had even biked past the house, but it wasn't until February 2003, a year after "Little Edie" (played in the film by Drew Barrymore) died, that I finally watched the Maysles' 1975 documentary for the first time.

The documentary lulled me into a kind of trance. Like so many other viewers before and after me, I couldn't turn away from this fascinating mother-daughter duo. The film had ended but the spell wasn't broken. I wanted more. I wanted to know how they fell from grace and why. There was another movie in just that story—I knew it. I was inspired.

I immediately re-watched the documentary, this time armed with a yellow legal pad on which I jotted dozens of questions: who was "Gould"? What happened to Mr. Beale? What about the sons, where did they go, and why didn't they help? Why did Edie come back from NYC, and how long was she gone? It was these questions and others that would form the basis of my extensive research.

I quickly exhausted the limits of the internet (at the time, there were only a few articles on GG, only a smattering of interviews with Edie and only one or two fan sites) and soon turned to library archives, digging through old microfilm and microfiche as well as books on the Bouvier family, but it was the discovery, by way of public records, of Little Edie's death certificate that lead to the real jackpot.

Through Edie's estate attorney, I tracked down her nephew, Bouvier Beale, to whom I wrote a passionate letter about my plans for a biopic about his aunt and grandmother and why I was the man to tell it. Bouv, in turn, referred me to his then sister-in-law, Pamela Beale, as she had recently unearthed a cardboard box containing years of Edie's journals, piles of her poetry, scores of family photographs, and dozens of typed and hand-written letters including correspondence between her mother and her father, between Gould and Edie, and between her cousin Jackie and Edie's brothers, as well as a first-hand description of how Big Edie had decorated Grey Gardens in its heyday. I flipped out. This was a truly incredible find. I now had access to Edie's most inner thoughts!

After an initial meeting with Pam in Los Angeles, I packed up my life and headed north to San Francisco for the summer where the descendants now lived and where Edie's papers were being sorted. I hadn't yet worked out a formal agreement with the family and was, therefore, unable to remove any of the papers from the archives. So by day, I would dictate certain diary entries, letters, or poems into a tape recorder and then faithfully transcribe them by night.

One of the most stunning discoveries that I made while pouring through Edie's papers was an affair she had with a married man. The name "Cap" appeared in many places such as in a short poem in which she wrote, "Ah, my angel, Cap. I won the thorn but not the rose," along with a death date: March 26, 1970. When interviewing a friend of the Beales' deceased attorney, I inquired about this mysterious "Cap." This person said that it could perhaps be a man named Julius Krug. I searched online and was directed to the historical website for the Truman administration. Matching the death date in the poem with that of one of Truman's cabinet members, I discovered that Edie had carried on an affair with the former Secretary of the Interior from about 1948 to 1952! I knew this had to be part of the reason Edie was forced home by her mother. Big Edie refers to him in the documentary ("That married man was not going to give you any chance at all.") and Little Edie specifically cites July 29, 1952 as that day she "checked out, got on the train, came back, and was never able to get back [to New York.]" These letters, poems, and journals were becoming the Rosetta Stone to the mysteries of what happened to the Beales. I was committed to uncovering their story and weaving it into a narrative script.

Eventually, I worked out a life-rights agreement with the heirs to exclusively option Edie's archives and then spent the next month or so interviewing other family and friends (including a cherished "pen-pal" relationship with Little Edie's elderly, best childhood friend, Eleanor, and Big Edie's friends Lois and Doris), all of whose anecdotes became extraordinarily helpful in painting a picture of their lives both before and after the Maysles shot their documentary.

While I had considered optioning the rights to the documentary, I didn't have the requisite funds, nor the clout to do so, so I was determined to write a script that didn't structurally or dramatically hinge on the documentary. A few months into actually writing the script for Grey Gardens, I learned of plans to make the documentary into a Broadway musical. Panic set in. How could two people more or less simultaneously have the idea to re-imagine a 30-year old cult film? Once the fear subsided, I realized that there was "enough story to go around" and decided to just keep my nose to the grindstone and work on my version of the story.

Upon returning from San Francisco, another kind of panic set it—financial. I was pretty much hemorrhaging money not having worked all summer save some odd jobs cobbled together from friends and acquaintances; commercial directing had slowed down to a mere trickle, and freelance production jobs offered no security. Forced to face reality, I took a position working for an entertainment attorney. The hours were predictable, the pay was stable, and the job offered much needed health insurance, which allowed me to have the peace of mind not to fret about making the rent each month and the opportunity to concentrate on writing my script. Every morning I would wake up at 5am, write for three hours, then head to my "day job." Since being lucid at such an early hour was important, I skipped the Hollywood nightlife and just worked and worked and worked.

In early summer 2005, a script for Grey Gardens was ready to make the rounds (I think the very first draft had been some 203 pages—over-length by about 40-50%. This one was the appropriate 105-120 pages.) With a quirky, renowned, illuminating, dark, inspiring, and captivating story, the script, luckily, immediately became a "hot summer read." Soon I was sheepishly making excuses to my boss about why I needed a two-hour lunch or why I had been in the conference room on my cell phone for thirty minutes and not answering his calls. It was everything I had wanted to happen, but a surprise, nonetheless. My producer warned me that things were happening "lightning fast" by Hollywood standards and not to expect things to necessarily continue at this pace.

Jessica Lange agreed to play the role of the reclusive mother, Big Edie, and several months later, Drew Barrymore signed on to play her daughter, Little Edie. With two amazing producers, Lucy Barzun Donnelly and Rachael Horovitz, at my side, a front-page announcement in Variety (February 21, 2006), the rights to the documentary now under option in addition to the life-rights, and with me attached to direct, it was time to seek financing.

HBO, excited by the subject matter and the casting, stepped up. While we were all set to begin shooting that fall, HBO wanted to do further script development both to hone the scope of the story and to whittle down the budget (which is when co-writer Patricia Rozema was brought on), so instead of shooting that fall, it wasn't until late October 2007 that principle photography finally began in Canada.

In the intervening year, I intermittently rewrote, supervised rewrites, worked with the prosthetic designer on perfecting the old-age make-ups (both Edies age 40 years in the film), and built a virtual replica of the house using the original blue prints for Grey Gardens and a computer architectural program—all of which was enormously helpful as the official "prep" for the film was eventually a mere seven weeks. The film wrapped just before Christmas 2007 on-time and under-budget. Post-production concluded late the following year, and Grey Gardens debuted on HBO to great acclaim in April 2009, just over six years from my initial conception—truly a passion project through and through.

"Anything worth anything is difficult to achieve," my father used to say in an effort to keep me motivated as a kid when frustration would set in. Looking back on the six years that it took for me to make Grey Gardens, I know now that his advice sunk in because I never gave up. Making a movie takes a lot of things: money, talent, timing, luck, and most of all—patience. There were many, many times when I thought that the project would fall apart, and if it had, I feared I would, too. As much influence as a director has on a movie, there's still so much he can't control. Ultimately, things happened in the right order and on their own schedule.

Tomorrow Jessica Lange and I will be in Sicily where Grey Gardens will be screened at the Taormina Film Festival. It's funny how the "recluses" are getting to travel these days. "Sapphire," Big Edie might call the color of the Mediterranean Sea, which the beautiful outdoor amphitheater in Taormina overlooks. Edie would probably warn us against the advances of Italian men with a flirtatious glint her eye. Making Grey Gardens has truly been the most wonderful experience of my life. I was asked recently what would be my dream project. I paused and then answered, "Honestly? I already made it..."

Source

Coverage of the Maysles Films STAUNCH! event

So we heard about this event, and now we have photos of it! It looks like fun, and seems reminiscent of the performance art piece in Ghosts of Grey Gardens!

From Guest of a Guest, by Mellissa Seecharan, on June 15, 2009; photos by Jonathan Ziegler for PMc

STAUNCH! Welcomes You to the Wacky World of Grey Gardens Fans, and Then Some

It’s no secret that Little and Big Edie were a little, um well, eccentric, and apparently, so are their fans. It was a Grey Gardens extravaganza this weekend as STAUNCH!, a tribute to the documentary film, took over the Maysles Cinema on Malcom X Blvd (a long way from the Hamptons). Fans enjoyed panels with the film’s directors, walk throughs of Little and Big Edie’s recreated bedrooms, prizes, and even a caberet show. Now, we’re not exactly sure who these fans are, but judging from the photos, Trekkers better watch out.

Sadly we don’t know what’s going on in these photos, so as the Latin saying goes “res ipsa loquitur.”

Albert Maysles, Anne Koch, Ryan Compton, Scott Hug, Robert Sumrell

Bambi the Mermaid, Anne Koch, Buster the Raccoon

Laura Coxson, Anne Koch, Whiskers of Grey Gardens

Sara Maysles, Linda Simpson, Austin Kilham, Fran Agnone

A stuffed cat

Jessica Green, Clams Casino

Atmosphere

Albert Maysles, Linda Simpson, Bambi the Mermaid

Chequamegon Bollinger, Ben Brunnemer

Clams Casino

Source

''Grey Gardens'' versus ''Prayers for Bobby''

The author makes some excellent points. Unfortunately, there's not much that we Grey Gardens fans can do, unless we are also Emmy voters!

From LA Times Gold Derby, by Tom O'Neil, on June 12, 2009

Beware: Don't underestimate 'Prayers for Bobby' at the Emmys

If I were the folks behind "Grey Gardens," I'd be saying a few "Hail Marys" that I can get around "Prayers for Bobby" at the Emmys. Many award pundits are making the huge mistake of downplaying the chances of Lifetime's telefilm, based upon a real story, about a religiously conservative mother (Sigourney Weaver) who pays a horrible price for damning her son for being gay. Bobby committed suicide in 1983 and the tragic loss resulted in his mom having an epiphany about this civil rights issue that turned her into a gay-rights crusader.

In recent decades, the Emmys have heaped gold statuettes on many films about gay rights, including AIDS expose "And the Band Played On" (best TV movie, 1994). The best-actress victory by Glenn Close as a lesbian army colonel in "Serving in Silence: The Margarethe Cammermeyer Story" (1995) proves that "Grey Gardens" stars Jessica Lange and Drew Barrymore have much to fear from Sigourney Weaver.

Right now, of course, the issue of intolerance toward gays weighs heavily upon Hollywooders outraged about the passage of Proposition 8 in California. Historically, the Emmys have enthusiastically embraced many films about all civil rights topics, including abuse against Native Americans ("Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee," best film, 2007) and African Americans ("A Lesson Before Dying," "Miss Evers' Boys," best movies in 1999 and 1997, respectively).

Remember, once Emmy nominees are determined, winners are decided by a team of judges who must sign affidavits attesting that they viewed the work of all contenders. The media mega-buzz surrounding HBO's "Grey Gardens" would probably propel it to easy victories in an awards contest determined by popular ballot, but that's not how the Emmys work, at least when choosing winners. "Prayers for Bobby" really tugs at the heartstrings and, contrary to widespread belief (justified in some cases, granted), not all Hollywooders have chests of stone.

"Prayers for Bobby" faces one serious drawback in the initial voting stage, which does utilize a popular ballot to determine nominees. TV academy members didn't receive campaign DVDs, which they are not obliged to watch, until a day or so before voting commenced June 5. (They got DVDs of "Grey Gardens" back in April.) Is it realistic to believe they're rushing to view it now when faced with so many other Emmy DVDs stacked up next to their plasma screens? "Prayers for Bobby" will be telecast again by Lifetime on June 23 at 9 p.m. EDT/PDT. Emmy voting continues until June 26.

Below, Gold Derby chats with "Prayers for Bobby" exec producer David Permut, who launched his own crusade for 12 years to bring this adaptation of the book by Leroy Aarons to the screen. Please pardon a periodic production snafu that occurs in the videos. While recording it, my computer was hooked up to a wireless connection that faded now and then, causing Permut's face to become pixelated.

Source

Sara & Rebekah Maysles have a new blog: A Lady is a Lady

And it's here: A Lady is a Lady!

I don't know where the name comes from... If anyone knows, share some knowledge with a raccoon!

Source

Florida production of Grey Gardens the Musical holds auditions

Floridans, here's your chance to show off your East Hampton accents!

From BroadwayWorld.com, on May 22, 2009

Auditions 'Flora The Red Menace' and 'Grey Gardens'

Rising Action Theatre will hold non-Equity auditions on Monday, June 22nd and Tuesday, June 23rd from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. for two upcoming musicals: "Flora, the Red Menace" and "Grey Gardens."

Auditions will be held at Rising Action Theatre at 840 E. Oakland Park Blvd., Oakland Park. Auditioners should be prepared with a short monologue and a song (16 to 32 bars), along with a headshot and resume. An accompanist will be provided.

"Flora the Red Menace" is scheduled to run October 16 thru November 23 and "Grey Gardens" is tentatively scheduled for February 13 thru March 13, 2010. Both productions will be directed by >Kevin Coughlin. Call backs will be held Wednesday, June 24th. An appointment is not required, but auditioners may call the theatre at 954-561-2225 to schedule one.

Rising Action Theatre 840 E. Oakland Park Blvd. Oakland Park, FL 33334

WWW.RISINGACTIONTHEATRE.COM

Source

Grey Gardens car at Art Car Boot Fair in London, June 14

The driver of this car, Donald Urquhart, sent in these wonderful photos. London residents, be sure to visit London's Art Car Boot Fair!

Your revolutionary costume is absolutely terrific, Donald, honestly!

By Donald Urquhart

It is a car decorated with my Grey Gardens related drawings. I was given a car to decorate for London's Art Car Boot Fair which is on 14th June at the Truman Brewery car park, Brick Lane.

The B Plot interviews Bouvier Beale Jr.

Readers of this blog have already encountered all the stories that Bouvier Beale Jr. tells, but we haven't heard them from his perspective before!

From The B Plot, by Richard, on May 20, 2009

Memorial Day with Little Edie

The premier of summer is a great opportunity to talk about my favorite documentary, "Grey Gardens"—first released in 1976 exposing the lives of aunt and first cousin of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis, "Big Edie" and "Little Edie" respectively who lived in squalor and isolation for decades in the oceanside, formerly golden, 28-room mansion "Grey Gardens" in East Hampton.

It’s an iconic must see for your gay card and is beyond fascinating to any and everyone else.

An overlooked character in the documentary—which served as the basis for the 2006 Broadway musical and last month’s fantastic HBO Film—is the Atlantic Ocean. The ocean and beach play a strong and meaningful part in both ladies’ lives.

As we celebrate the sea, beach, summer and friends this Memorial Day Weekend, first grandson of Big Edie and cherished nephew of Little Edie, Mr. Bouvier Beale Jr., spoke with me in an exclusive and revealing interview. The Coaster and TheBPlot.com are the only outlets in the country in which you can read Bouvier’s comments about his family, right now.

COURTESY OF BEALE ESTATE

TBP: Congrats on the HBO Film.

Bouvier: Thank you. Talking with Jessica (Lange) and Drew (Barrymore) about my family’s life was wonderful.

TBP: Do you think the documentary and film captured the essence of your relatives well?

Bouvier: The documentary, of course, captures the personality of my grandmother but I feel it is one-sided and edited to create a certain image. HBO’s film is wonderful and captures my grandmother perfectly—presenting some of the story from the important years prior to the documentary. I hope now fans are seeing a different perspective of the "Edie’s".

My wife just published a limited edition book "Edith Bouvier Beale of Grey Gardens, A Life in Pictures" that also provides a genuine look inside Grey Gardens and features never before seen photos.

TBP: The coffee table book is just fantastic and I loved the HBO film. One of the questions the film created was regarding Big Edie’s friend and pianist George "Gould" Strong. Set the record straight, was he gay?

Bouvier: People assume he was gay. He was definitely Big Edie’s soul mate. Music and the desire for companionship drew them together. She felt her husband was always absent... working.

At one point, Little Edie’s diary actually expresses a bit of competition between her and Gould, for her mother’s attention. Later, when Gould was sick, Little Edie writes that she sent Gould a note and he replied back thanking her.

TBP: The film ends in 1977 with Little Edie performing in the New York City nightclub Reno Sweeney. What was the backstory there?

Bouvier: I have seen the contract that she had for that club. After modeling as a teen and young adult, it was one of her very first jobs (at 60 years of age) and she decided not to continue it quickly. My father and Jackie (Kennedy Onassis) did not really approve of those performances so everyone was pleased Edie’s show was short-lived. (End)

The amazing picture book is sold at GreyGardensCollections.com, along with a number of other beautiful products inspired by Little Edie and Grey Gardens, including reproductions of their famous jewelry, cast from the originals.

GREYGARDENSCOLLECTIONS.COM

Next week, Bouvier discusses Little Edie’s life after Grey Gardens and how the home got its moniker. In two weeks, secrets revealed about Little Edie and Bill Clinton and what she thought about Asbury Park.

COURTESY OF BEALE ESTATE

From The B Plot, by Richard, on May 28, 2009

Little Edie after "Grey Gardens"

So Major Summer 2009 kick-off continues with Part Two of my exclusive interview with Bouvier Beale Jr., first grandson of iconic Grey Gardens’ Big Edie and nephew of Little Edie—two women who loved the beach and sea as much as any dedicated Asbury Park-er.

This week exclusive only found here, Bouvier discusses the "real" Little Edie and her life post-documentary release in 1976 and her mom’s death the following year.

TBP: There has been so much fiction written and said about your family. What’s true that we do not know about Little Edie?

Bouvier: Mostly, people don’t realize how talented and smart she was. Her poetry, writings and drawings are amazing and her photographs of herself and the family are so important in showing everyone what she was like in her younger days while things were still divine at Grey Gardens. Little Edie is a fashion icon and that was because of her style and creativity when it came to picking that "costume of the day."

My wife’s limited edition book "Edith Bouvier Beale of Grey Gardens, A Life in Pictures" (GreyGardensCollections.com) features many of Edie’s self-portraits and private family photos. There are less than 100 copies of the book available now.

TBP: What is misunderstood about Little Edie?

Bouvier: Many feel that Edie was forced to go and take care of her mother and sacrificed her own life. This is not truly the story, as she had no means of supporting herself. Big Edie was always very generous with Little Edie and paid all her bills while she lived in New York City. When the money was gone, Big Edie insisted that Little Edie come home out of necessity. Little Edie had no choice.

TBP: I hear the love you and your wife, Eva, have for Little Edie. In 1980, she came to your wedding in Montauk.

Bouvier: She was always at family weddings and funerals. I was recently watching movies of my wedding and loved seeing Edie having a great time and dancing with my father. She was always, always the life of the party.

She gave us two wedding gifts. The first was incredibly special—she sang a special song for us at the wedding, "Toujours L’Amour" (I’ll Fly With You). She also gave us a piece of family silver with a "B" engraved on it. We still enjoy the memory of the song and the gift of silver.

(Courtesy Beale Estate)

TBP: What was the latter part of Little Edie’s life like?

Bouvier: Few know all the places she lived after Grey Gardens—New York, Montreal and Florida and for a short period of time in California. Edie’s mother told her not to go to California because of the earthquakes, but she came in the late 1990’s and loved it. She did not experience an earth quake however she always wanted to go back to Florida. I took her back to Florida in 1997 to find an apartment. She continued to be amazing. Aunt Edie knew exactly where she wanted to be—right near the beach. I visited her in Bal Harbor frequently and took her out to "luncheon" as she called it. She was always thrilled.

TBP: By the way, how did Grey Gardens get its name? I have heard so many different stories.

Bouvier: The home was always a seaside garden and its name came from the subdued colors in the originally lush, muted-tone garden. Part of the garden—to the home’s left—was surrounded by a small brick wall to ensure seawater never got to it.

Next week, Little Edie’s connection to President Bill Clinton.

(Courtesy Beale Estate)

For more exclusive insight about two of our favorite ladies visit GreyGardensOnline.com. The site features tons of revealing interviews with other Grey Gardens "players" such as the grocery delivery teen seen in the documentary, Robert Beyer and David Lewis, who briefly served as Little Edie’s accompanist at Reno Sweeney. These are interviews not found anywhere else. The site also features amazingly detailed facts about Grey Gardens and brilliant quotes from Little Edie, such as:

"Jackie was twelve years younger than I, and although I was never jealous of her, I never liked her. You know what Jackie wanted? She wanted the house. Yes darling, that’s the truth, and she did everything she could to get it. Then Jackie sent her sister Lee, who I’ve always been absolutely terrified of—I think she’s a big criminal. Lee and her boyfriend came around and started to tear the house down with axes. Don’t go near any of these people for God’s sake, they’re all insane!"

and

"Of course the house isn’t perfectly normal. The house has to be done over. You know how hard it is to get plumbers in the autumn."

This column is dedicated to the memory of Scott Schechter.

From The B Plot, by Richard, on June 4, 2009

Pride with Little Edie

The final in the Coaster’s exclusive three-part interview with Bouvier Beale—grandson of Big Edie and Nephew of Little Edie of "Grey Gardens"—reveals how gay icon Little Edie remained inspired, prideful and dignified through various obstacles.

TBP: What should we all learn from your Aunt, Little Edie, and the little things she appreciated and enjoyed in life?

Bouvier: Edie loved the ocean…and swimming—a reason she would have loved Asbury Park, had she visited. She was full of passion and loved to dream. She was also crazy about writing. In her journal, she wrote her name and title as "celebrated poet, author and artist."

She constantly wrote letters to friends and Presidents like Bill Clinton…she even wrote to Prince Charles. She approved of them both. Her letters were always amusing—one never knew what topic to expect.

TBP: Cellphones, iPods, environmental pollution—what would she think of the world today?

Bouvier: Edie would not use a cell phone. She rarely answered her phone and changed her phone number often since too many people were trying to contact her—she was very private. Whenever we spoke on the telephone, however, she was charming and always had something current and interesting to talk about.

She read "The New York Times" daily and kept up with what was going on in the world. She would be horrified at ocean pollution and global warming. Edie was always concerned about environmental issues.

TBP: Did she find happiness during the later years of her life?

Bouvier: She seemed to be a happy person. She may not have had all her dreams come true but she handled her life as best as she could. Sometimes I felt that Edie was living "out of this world" because she never held any real job—her first job was at Reno Sweeney singing. She lived a very privileged life and was not really prepared to live in today’s fast paced world.

TBP: Finally, Little Edie radiated a wonderful kindness and had a beautiful sense of elegance and strength—quite appropriate for this weekend here in Asbury Park.

Bouvier: Edie was an artist. She loved New York City because of all the artists and creative types living there. She would have loved Asbury Park and its diverse community. Edie had a very open mind and she always encouraged people to believe in themselves—as she did with her dancing and singing. Sometimes not everyone is going to like what one creates however Edie inspired many to do what they loved doing most, regardless of what others thought.

Both Edies were strong and their integrity and dignity was very important. They were survivors.

Perhaps that is the inspiration for today—as we face challenges, be strong and be who you are, for that is what counts in the end. Edie inspires us to be who we are and to be proud of it—all the time.

(Courtesy Beale Estate)

GreyGardensCollections.com has a beautiful, revealing book and other items inspired by Little Edie.

Happy Gay Pride Month everyone—rainbows and Skittles for all.

Source: here, here, and here

Staunch!: The Ultimate Grey Gardens Festival is this weekend

If you attend, take photos and send them in!

From Maysles Films

UPCOMING SERIES:
STAUNCH!: THE ULTIMATE GREY GARDENS FESTIVAL

FRIDAY, JUNE 12–SUNDAY, JUNE 14

Curated by Rebekah and Sara Maysles

We decided to get in the act and bring it all back to the house that Grey Gardens built. STAUNCH! is a tribute to the documentary film and most of all, to its many, many fans. Hang out in our living, breathing diorama of Big and Little Edie's bedroom as recreated by artists and designers, with ephemera, specialty foods and sound booths with outtakes of dialogue from the two ladies.

Friday, June 12

@ 8:00 pm: Screening of Grey Gardens
Unpacking Grey Gardens Panel

• Gail Sheehy, Author of "Passages"
  
• Michael Henry Adams, Author of "Harlem: Lost and Found"
  
• Jerry Torre, Grey Gardens
  
• Mr. Mickey, Paper Magazine
  
• Albert Maysles, Grey Gardens Dir.
  

Saturday, June 13

@ 1:00 pm: Screening of Grey Gardens
@ 4:00 pm: Book signing of the new Grey Gardens book—authors Rebekah and Sara Maysles along with Albert!
@ 8:00 pm: Live cabaret show, sing along contests, prizes! Come perform, join in or sit on the sidelines.

Sunday, June 14

@ 2:00 pm: Screening of The Beales of Grey Gardens
@ 5:00 pm: Screening of Grey Gardens

Video of the driveway at Grey Gardens

Edie used to complain about people driving by the house just to see it. I hope the current residents don't mind!

From YouTube, by doranpd, on May 16, 2009

Grey Gardens

Drive through the circle drive at Grey Gardens. May 10, 2009

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Review of book about Albert Mayles

Somehow, I missed hearing about this book when it came out in March, but it looks like it could be interesting!

Contemporary Film Directors:
Albert Maysles
by Joe McElhaney

From Cineaste Magazine, by David Sterritt

Albert Maysles

Joe McElhaney took on quite a challenge when he decided to write about Albert Maysles for a series called Contemporary Film Directors, because Maysles is not the kind of auteur in which director books normally traffic. Other filmmakers covered in this series range from Paul Schrader and Atom Egoyan to Edward Yang and Claire Denis, all of whom generally have direct control over their projects. Maysles is different, as McElhaney acknowledges in his opening pages.

Although he is still an active filmmaker, Maysles’s most famous and influential movies—Salesman, Gimme Shelter, and Grey Gardens—were made decades ago (in 1968, 1970, and 1975, respectively) in collaboration with his brother David Maysles, who died in 1987, and additional codirectors. His main hands-on technical work has been cinematography, but on most films he has shared the camera chores with others. He stays completely away from the film-editing process. While he’s been CEO of the production company Maysles Films since its founding in 1962, first with David and then by himself, other managers run the operation day by day. Starting right after Grey Gardens, moreover, Maysles Films has focused almost entirely on commissioned films and commercials, a far cry from the art-minded features on which the Maysles reputation primarily rests. In sum, Al Maysles is an auteur with a difference, if he’s an auteur at all.

All this notwithstanding, McElhaney’s book Albert Maysles makes a persuasive case for Maysles as a filmmaker with a distinctive and personal style. More precisely, McElhaney makes this case for the particular kind of cinema crafted by Maysles and associates, which is inflected by the technical preferences and overall filmmaking philosophy that Maysles has cultivated throughout his career. Among his signatures are an affinity for subjects that reveal the personalities of artists and aspects of the art-making process; a gift for seizing the spirit of the moment with striking accuracy; and a rapport with his subjects that reflects his conviction that all art works, including his movies, are autobiographical at their core.

Maysles started out in the Fifties when he filmed two documentary shorts in the Soviet Union, not expecting to start a career–his education and early work experience were in psychology–but as a way of satisfying his curiosity about the everyday realities of Russian life. Not long afterward he met Richard Leacock and Robert Drew, who were developing new “objective” approaches to direct cinema (a term many Americans preferred to cinema vérité) based on advances in lightweight camera and sound equipment that allowed filmmakers to enter the field of action more unobtrusively (they hoped) than was previously possible. Maysles joined their company, Drew Associates, and did camerawork for seven of their films, starting in 1960 with Primary, their influential direct-cinema account of a Democratic Party election battle.

The tragic Paul Brennan trying to move some scripture in Maysles's account of Bible drummers, Salesman

David Maysles soon joined Al at Drew Associates, but within a couple of years the brothers’ own sensibilities began to emerge in ways that conflicted with the Drew-Leacock approach. While the Drew team gravitated toward political subjects and structured their films around personal and professional crises, Al and David wanted to see what they could do in more intimate documentaries with structures as free and improvisational as their characters’ daily lives. To this end they left Drew Associates, set up Maysles Films, and made Showman, the 1963 portrait of Hollywood producer Joseph E. Levine that launched them as noteworthy independent filmmakers. It also launched the controversy that has often surrounded their movies: French critic Louis Marcorelles deemed Showman one of the “ten or fifteen great films” he’d seen since World War II, but Italian neorealist Robert Rossellini called it “formless and the antithesis of art,” in McElhaney’s paraphrase. Levine didn’t like it either.

The brothers’ next film, What’s Happening! The Beatles in the U.S.A., consolidated their allegiance to a loose, spontaneous style–the Beatles were on exactly that wavelength, needless to say–and it also illustrates the vagaries of documentary distribution, since there have been five different versions of it since its 1964 premiere. (McElhaney devotes a five-page appendix to demonstrating the superiority of Maysles’s favored version to the longer one you can get from Netflix as The Beatles: The First U.S. Visit). After half-hour shorts on Truman Capote and Marlon Brando, the brothers made the feature-length Salesman, which presents the first full flowering of their fascination with what sociologist Erving Goffman calls “the presentation of self in everyday life” and what McElhaney calls “the acting of those who are nonprofessional actors.” This accurately describes the pitching and spieling of the picture’s four Bible peddlers; and as McElhaney observes, the filmmakers’ affection for such “acting” explains why they have likened the movie’s central figure—the woefully unsuccessful Paul Brennan, aka The Badger—not to Willy Loman in Arthur Miller’s middle-class drama Death of a Salesman but rather to the highly theatrical Hickey in Eugene O’Neill’s great tragedy The Iceman Cometh, which shares with the Maysles film a vision of working-class culture “dominated not simply by failure and destructive memory… but by ruin and dirt—a multiethnic, multiracial world of left-wing political disappointment.”

Mick Jagger and the audience in Gimme Shelter

The brothers returned to the world of professional performance via the Rolling Stones in Gimme Shelter, an account of the band’s free post-Woodstock concert in 1969 that devolved into violence and death. I’ve always found a whiff of sensationalism in this film’s editing structure, which uses suspense-movie techniques to build anticipation for a few frames of murder footage at the climax. McElhaney writes about it well, though, with due attention to its Jean Rouch-like device of having two of the Stones view and comment on some of the film’s own material; and it’s fun to picture Mick Jagger instructing the directors not to try “any of that Pennebaker shit,” evidently wishing to avoid the negative vibes that hooked onto Bob Dylan in D.A. Pennebaker’s classic 1967 documentary Don’t Look Back. Five years later came Grey Gardens, the Citizen Kane of amateur performance and a full-fledged cult phenomenon to this day. It was instantly accused of exploiting the eccentric mother and daughter it portrayed—Molly Haskell called it “an ethical and aesthetic abomination”—but I spoke at length about this with Edie Beale in 1975, and her only complaint was that the 100-minute movie should have been a whole lot longer.

Albert Maysles

Acknowledging the comparatively minor status of latter-day Maysles films, McElhaney recognizes that the era of Salesman and Grey Gardens now belongs to “an unreachable and unrepeatable past.” He also sees the contradictions and limitations of direct cinema’s desire to capture so-called reality in “pure” and “objective” ways. His response is to approach the field dialectically, using Maysles cinema to build an argument that “justice cannot be done to the world without the mediating elements of fantasy and seduction, of obsession and fetish, that are not always central to direct-cinema discourses but are part of the reality in which we live.” Jean-Luc Godard, usually no friend of direct cinema, has said that Al Maysles is “a painter in his way of seeing.” The best Maysles movies bear this out, and McElhaney’s sensitive commentaries live fully up to their subject.

David Sterritt, Chair of the National Society of Film Critics, currently writes about film for Tikkun.

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Video of Grey Gardens, before and after and after and after!

Interesting to see it all pasted together like this!

From YouTube, by keithholman2, on June 1, 2009

Grey Gardens - The Transformation

Rare photos of the rooms inside Grey Gardens and the squalid condition that the Beales lived in before and after the raid that threatened eviction from their home. The viewer will see before and after photos of the renovation of Grey Gardens when Ben Bradlee and his wife bought the estate from Edie Beale in 1979. You will also see the transformation of the property into the beautiful gardens that are there today!

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New York Times blog on upcoming Maysles book

I wonder when this book is going to come out! It was promised to us a while back, and yet... my copy still hasn't arrived!

From New York Times: The Moment, by Alix Browne, on June 1, 2009

Grey Gardens | The Perfect Book for the Day

Courtesy of Maysles Films

A new book by Rebekah and Sara Maysles goes behind the scenes of “Grey Gardens.”

Grey Gardens, the East Hampton manse that provided the backdrop for David and Albert Maysles’s 1975 documentary about that madcap mother and daughter duo, Edie and Edie Beale, could have generously been described as a glorious, cat-infested, crumbling wreck. But that was nothing compared to the recent state of Maysles’s own archives. Over the course of making the film and several years afterward, the brothers accumulated untold mounds of photographs, film stills, letters and production notes, not to mention some 150 hours of aptly called “wild sound” or extra audio footage.

And so when Maysles Films moved its offices from Midtown Manhattan up to its current Harlem location, Albert’s daughter Sara took it upon herself to set the records straight. Her efforts are rewarded this month with the publication of “Grey Gardens” (Free News Projects), the book she edited with her sister Rebekah.

Collage by Rebekah Maysles for “Grey Gardens.”

“Grey Gardens” takes its cues directly from the Edies, whose endless banter (painstakingly transcribed and untangled by Sarah) weaves through the densely collaged pages, like vines in the Beale’s ramshackle estate. Among the gems from the archive is a clip of Walter Goodman’s now infamous New York Times review (pdf) and little Edie’s response (below), which was not printed in the paper because, according to Albert, the Arts and Leisure editor at the time had deemed her a schizophrenic. “I’m a psychologist and I know a little about it,” Albert contends today. “Crazy they weren’t. Off beat, non-conformist, eccentric, okay. But in many ways they show the signs of much better good health than their conformist neighbors who made sure that every single blade of grass was cut to the exact same height.”

Like the original film itself, the book gives the irrepressible mother and daughter act voice in more ways than one. A bonus CD features some 60 minutes of that wild sound, including commentary from the Edies as they watched the Maysles documentary for the first time.

Little Edie: I said I never had any time for S-E-X and I didn’t.
Big Edie: Time? Who wants time for that? Wouldn’t you rather eat a lobster any day?
Little Edie: I didn’t have a minute, not a minute to do anything like that. Terribly sad I think.

At one point in the editing process, Rebekah and Sara holed up in a house north east of East Hampton for three months, working non-stop and taking breaks only to feed themselves or walk to the store. “We actually lived in this house on the ocean in the middle of nowhere and we’re like these two crazy sisters,” Rebekah explains. “The house was supposedly haunted,” Sara says, adding, “But we had only one cat.”

But working on the book was not only an opportunity for them to connect with their subjects, but also with their father and their uncle David, who died in 1987. “Sara and I were listening to the sound recordings for eight months straight,” Rebekah says. “My uncle passed away when I was ten and so I don’t really remember him at all. So it was really amazing to hear his voice and to hear my father’s voice at a younger age. I feel like I learned a lot about their lives and the way that they worked.”

In Albert’s view, there’s only one way to judge this book. “Would the Edies love it?” He takes the liberty of answering for them. “They would love every bit of it.”

“Grey Gardens” is out this month from Free News Projects. Staunch! The Ultimate Grey Gardens Festival, curated by Rebekah and Sara Maysles, will run June 12-14 at the Maysles Institute in Harlem. For info go to mayslesinstitute.org

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