Watch The Beales of Grey Gardens For Free
The Beales of Grey Gardens
Mother and daughter - Big Edie and Little Edie Beale - live with six cats in a crumbling house in East Hampton. Little Edie, in her 50s, who wears scarves and bright colors, sings, mugs for the camera, and talks to Al and David Maysles, the filmmakers. Big Edie, in her 70s, recites poetry, comments on her daughter's behavior, and sings "If I Loved You" in fine voice. She talks in short sentences; her daughter in volumes. The film is episodic: friends visit, there's a small fire in the house, Little Edie goes to the shore and swims. She talks about the Catholic Church. She's ashamed that local authorities raided the house because of all the cats. She values being different.
| Release : | 2006 |
| Rating : | 7.2 |
| Studio : | Maysles Films, |
| Crew : | Director of Photography, Director, |
| Cast : | Edith Bouvier Beale Albert Maysles David Maysles Jerry Torre Edith Ewing Bouvier Beale |
| Genre : | Drama Documentary |
Watch Trailer
Cast List
Reviews
It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.
A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.
Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.
This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.
The Beales of Grey Gardens (2006)*** (out of 4)Albert Maysles and David Maysles took the unused footage from their 1975 documentary GREY GARDENS and came up with this new film. As with the first, we take a look at Big Edie and Little Edie, the relatives to Jackie Onassis who lived in an estate that was pretty much ran down and which they shared with a various of creatures including cats and raccoons. Having just watched the original film a few weeks before this, I was very familiar and it was still fresh in my mind. I don't think viewing the two so close hampered this film but at the same time I think it's clear that this one here isn't nearly as good. I think you could point to several different factors but for some reason I just kept saying to myself that this footage wasn't included in the original for a reason. That reason was probably that it simply wasn't all that interesting or at least it wasn't as interesting as what we got in the first movie. I thought GREY GARDENS was a pretty weird film because it really didn't seem to have a point other than to show how weird these people were. It at least had a structure to it but that's not the case here. It really does seem like the entire movie was just thrown together for the sake of the filmmakers having another picture for the credits. That's not to say that this is a bad movie but at the same time it really does feel as if you're watching 90-minutes worth of deleted scenes that you'd typically just see on a film's special features. Some of the highlights in this film include a sequence where a fire breaks out and you can see the damage in the original film but there it doesn't have an explanation. Another highlight is hearing the two ladies talk about their thoughts on the Catholic church and men in general. Fans of the first film will probably get the most out of this but the rest should certainly seek out the original first.
Certainly the easiest way to put this is if you liked GREY GARDENS, you'll like this, and if you didn't, it's not going to change your mind. A pastiche of outtakes for those who love Edith and Edie, it's a mellower selection of clips which are all pretty captivating, thanks mostly to Edie's larger than life personality. I think I could listen to her talk and ramble on all day long. This is a less revealing and focused film than its predecessor, however... the scenes are shorter on average, focusing less on the odd family dynamic and history, and more on the amusing. Still, it's a treat for fans of the Beales.7/10
After watching the movie, I really don't understand what the point of it was. We're basically peeking into the lives of two reclusive women (who appear bipolar incidentally), related to Jackie O (which seems to be of more interest to the filmmakers than to us, if you didn't read the notes for the film, you wouldn't know that until halfway) and who live in squalor. Perhaps the dichotomy between their relations and their living conditions is the point but what is done with that? The women's conversations make references to people that we have no idea who they are, they ramble on, sometimes both at the same time, neither listening to the other, like two tape players running simultaneously.They just made a Broadway musical about this subject and I shake my head. I didn't hate the movie, I just don't really know what to make of it.
While watching "The Beales of Grey Gardens" I was simply amazed at the amount of priceless footage that did not make it into the original film! Edie is truly a legend and icon of her time. It is not surprising that her style has been copied by numerous fashion designers; that woman definitely had a sense of style and it seems could make virtually any piece of clothing look good on her. If you are a fan of the original film, the new documentary is a MUST-SEE. Just when you thought you knew the two girls, along comes all the stuff you've never seen before, and you will fall in love with them all over again. The only down side is that at the end you will feel sorry that there will be no more antics of Big and Little Edith Beale to delight you for hours on end, but you be grateful for what we do have, and what these delightful characters provided us with.
