An American Tragedy: The Women of 'Grey Gardens'
Source: AOL
Posted: 04/16/09 11:53AM
Filed Under: Film
There's nothing more tragic than watching the fall of what was once the pinnacle of society. Yes, poverty is tragic in itself, but it's all the more poignant when juxtaposed with a life of luxurious excess. Such is the situation in which Edith “Big Edie” Bouvier Beale and Edith “Little Edie” Bouvier Beale, relatives of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis (nee Bouvier), find themselves in the documentary Grey Gardens.
In the 1970s, Lee Radziwill, the First Lady’s sister, toyed with the thought of making a documentary about Jacqueline Kennedy’s childhood in East Hampton. But after being approached with the idea, filmmakers Albert and David Maysles became more interested in her relatives, the Beales.
Famous Socialites |
Born Jacqueline Lee Bouvier in Southampton, New York, she was the daughter of John Vernou Bouvier III, a Wall Street stockbroker, and Janet Norton Lee. She had a younger sister, Caroline Lee Bouvier, born in 1933, and later known as Lee Radziwill. She spent her early years between New York City and Easthampton, New York at the Bouvier family estate. When she made her society debut in 1947, a Hearst columnist dubbed Jacqueline "Debutante of the Year". Jacqueline Bouvier and then-congressman John Kennedy were formally introduced in May 1952. They were married on September 12, 1953 during a ceremony that was considered the social event of the season. When Kennedy was sworn in as president on January 20, 1961, Jacqueline became, at age 31, one of the youngest First Ladies in history. She was one of the most popular First Ladies as she was not only young and attractive, but intelligent and cultivated, and possessed an innate sense of style and elegance. She planned numerous social events that brought the First Couple into the nation's cultural spotlight. |
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The reclusive mother and daughter had received national attention when The National Enquirer and New York Magazine exposed the execrable conditions in which they were living. Their decrepit 14-room mansion in the wealthy Georgica Pond neighbourhood of East Hampton had fallen into disrepair and become overrun with garbage and feral cats. Meanwhile, the Beales obliviously kept on eating ice cream, dancing atop the rubbish and sashaying through cat urine.
Jacqueline Kennedy eventually donated $32,000 to clean up the place and dispose of 1,000 bags of garbage, but the Beales’ bizarre behaviour was there to stay. And so were the Maysles.
In Grey Gardens, the Beales are endlessly captured discussing missed opportunities, singing old show tunes and bickering. While the rest of the world has moved on, these women are relics of the 50s, having holed themselves up in their estate for the better part of 20 years with virtually no running water or electricity. Entering the Beales' home is like travelling back to a time when cucumber sandwiches and curtsies were the order of the day.
Observing the Beales as they constantly wax nostalgic about the good old days, it's hard not to feel like a seedy voyeur. You can almost see the Maysles high-fiving as Big Edie breaks into song with her rickety old voice, asserting that she was once recording-worthy.
Original 1975 ‘Grey Gardens’ Trailer
Whether or not it is exploitative, Grey Gardens has earned cult status, its fans choosing to focus on the Beales' eccentric “charm” over their Faulkner-esque decline. The documentary spawned a Tony-award winning play, shout-outs on various primetime TV shows and a new mini-series on HBO, which stars Drew Barrymore and Jessica Lange.
Barrymore, who plays Little Edie, considers herself one of Grey Gardens' biggest fans. "I fought for the part,” she told ELLE magazine last year. “I just want to prove that I am capable of more."
This makes HBO's movie seem more like Barrymore's personal vanity project than anything else, but does not discount the actress' exceptional performance. Barrymore perfectly balances Little Edie’s accent and exhibitionistic personality with a dollop of her own insight into the character.
Jessica Lange plays controlling matron Edie Beale, who in her old age stopped leaving the house for fear of losing permanent legal access to Grey Gardens. The actress has perfected the quiet but omnipotent control Edie Beale had on her daughter. When Big Edie “asked” Little Edie in 1952 to abandon her career in New York to return home, you have the feeling that the latter had no choice.
Grey Gardens in Photos |
Drew Barrymore plays Edith "Little Edie" Bouvier and Kessica Lange plays Edith "Big Edie" Bouvier in HBO's Grey Gardens. |
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HBO’s treatment of Grey Gardens is a lot less bleak than the documentary upon which it is based. The dingy interiors of the Beales' decrepit mansion are cast aside for the bright lights and big smiles of 50s-era Big and Little Edie. The beautiful young women charm their way through their luxurious East Hampton home and the city of Manhattan followed by maidservants, housekeepers and music teachers.
By illustrating the charmed life the Beales used to lead, one starts to understand why they might be incapable of cleaning up after themselves 20 years later. The past also offers insight into Big Edie’s personality - overshadowed by her daughter's in the documentary - as a manipulative woman who is wrongly dismissed in her old age as a bed-ridden crackpot.
Surprisingly, Barrymore believes the relationship between the Beales is full of love. "You know, love stories can come in so many different forms," she says. "I love Harold and Maude and Paper Moon. I even think that Big Edie and Little Edie have a kind of love story. It is a love story. It is."
Well, no, it isn’t.
Little Edie’s reluctance to leave her mother is not borne of devotion but out of a sense of duty to the woman who ruled her childhood with an iron fist. Big Edie herself was borne to a man who enjoyed being called Major and who often pronounced: “The hallmark of aristocracy is responsibility.” After briefly pursuing a singing career, Big Edie succumbed to her father's edict and married a lawyer to whom she bore three children, including the oldest, Little Edie, born in 1917.
The Beales purchased Grey Gardens in 1923 and Edie refused to get rid of it even after her husband left her in 1931. She kept the white elephant despite receiving no alimony and inheriting a tiny trust (her father disowned her when she showed up to one of her son's weddings dressed as an opera star), which reduced her to selling off the family Tiffany to keep up payments. Big Edie became depressed, gained weight and watched apathetically as her house began to crumble around her.
Little Edie never forgave her mother for forcing her to abandon her showbiz career to move back in with her. In fact, after Big Edie's death in 1977, Little Edie picked up her career right where it left off. Unfortunately, she failed to realize the world had moved on. At 60, she pranced across the stage at Manhattan's Reno Sweeney nightclub as though she was still in her 20s. Meanwhile the critics wasted no time calling it "a public display of ineptitude", as the The New York Times crassly described it.
Revisiting her cabaret career wasn’t the only way Little Edie got back at her mother. She eventually sold Grey Gardens in 1979, though her mother had told her not to, and refused to be buried next to Big Edie in East Hampton. Edie had already escaped the town that had destroyed her family and no doubt didn’t want anything more to do with it – that doesn’t sound like much of a love story to me.
HBO’s Grey Gardens premieres on April 18 at 8pm.
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