Grey Gardens

Colour, 35 mm
USA, 1976, 94 min
Section: Forum of Independents

Synopsis

Grey Gardens is the unbelievable, but true story of Mrs. Edith Bouvier Beale and her daughter Edie, the aunt and first cousin of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. Mother and daughter live in a world of their own in their nearly condemned 28-room East Hampton mansion known as “Grey Gardens”. Mrs. Beale, a.k.a “Big Edie”, was born an aristocrat, sister of “Black Jack” Bouvier, Jackie Onassis’ father. “Little Edie” was an aspiring actress who put her New York life on hold to care for her mother and never left her side again. Together they descended into a strange life of dependence and eccentricity that no one had ever shared until the Maysles arrived with their camera. The women bicker, prattle, and flirt like characters out of Tennessee Williams or Eugene O’Neill. The film is a record of the powerful and complex relationship between mother and daughter.