Grey Gardens Movie

Anyone who sees "Grey Gardens" isn't likely to forget it. The 1976 documentary, directed by Albert and David Maysles, takes us into the strange world of aging debutante Little Edie Beale, who lives with her mother, Big Edie, in a squalid 28-room mansion, the Grey Gardens of the title, in East Hampton, N.Y.

By all laws of art and nature, "Grey Gardens" should be dead by now, a dried-up husk leeched of all creative possibility. The story of Edith Bouvier Beale and her daughter, Edie, a pair of former society fixtures found living in nonpicturesque yet strangely joyful squalor in the 1970s, began as a cover story in New York magazine. It went on to become a cult-worshiped documentary, a Broadway musical, a documentary of the making of that Broadway musical and now a movie on HBO.

By all laws of art and nature, "Grey Gardens" should be dead by now, a dried-up husk leeched of all creative possibility. The story of Edith Bouvier Beale and her daughter, Edie, a pair of former society fixtures found living in nonpicturesque yet strangely joyful squalor in the 1970s, began as a cover story in New York magazine. It went on to become a cult-worshiped documentary, a Broadway musical, a documentary of the making of that Broadway musical and now a movie on HBO.

Anyone who sees "Grey Gardens" isn't likely to forget it. The 1976 documentary, directed by Albert and David Maysles, takes us into the strange world of aging debutante Little Edie Beale, who lives with her mother, Big Edie, in a squalid 28-room mansion, the Grey Gardens of the title, in East Hampton, N.Y.