Maunderlust

Fans of the original Grey Gardens have something to dress up in a cape and sing about. The [tag]Criterion Collection[/tag] has released a DVD of unused footage that serves a pseudo-sequel to the original called, The Beales of Grey Gardens.

For those of you that haven’t been introduced to the Edies yet, Grey Gardensis a documentary that records the daily doings of two eccentric relatives of Jackie Kennedy.

The Beales, Big Edie and Little Edie, inhabit the titular [tag]Grey Gardens[/tag], a seaside estate in the Hamptons. Like the ladies themselves, the house is sort of falling apart and infested with raccoons.

… No, that’s being unfair. When you first see the Beales, Little Edie in particular, your reaction is something like, “holy crap, these are crazy people!” But, once you get to know them, they’re both really quite enchanting.

The relationship between the mother and daughter is at once sweet and horrifying. It’s the typical struggle of a teenage daughter pulling away from her mother, but unable to live on her own. What’s not typical, is that the struggle has been frozen in time for over 40 years.

It’s clear that the two women need each other, and yet both chafe from the years of reclusion together. They exchange songs and jibes, shout across the building, vie for the attention of a marble fawn, and gorge themselves on ice cream while sprawled out on newspaper lined twin beds.

Based the few hours of snippets in the movies, you get the feeling that their love for one another is genuine, even if it does misfire somewhat in the execution.

Watching either film can be kind of exhausting. Should you be laughing at the Beales? Should you feel sorry for them? Should you be angry Little Edie when she ignores her mother, or Big Edie when she cuts her daughter down?

I suspect that the answer is yes to all of the above, and more.

Toward the end of The Beales of Grey Gardensthere’s a scene where Little Edie, completely alone, goes for a swim in the big Atlantic Ocean. Watching it, I didn’t find myself laughing at her, or feeling sorry for her, or judging her. Instead I felt really really happy for her. Here is someone doing exactly what she wants to be doing, everyone else be damned. And someone like that, regardless of the cats, and the costumes, and dances, is a person to be reckoned with.
[tags]The Beales of Grey Gardens[/tags]