grey gardens

In honor of the GE's birthday last night, we all trekked over to see Grey Gardens. For GG virgins (which I was until yesterday), it's a documentary made in 1976 about a mother and a daugher living together in a huge old house in East Hampton. The film shows them at their worst and best, talking directly to the filmmakers/audience about each other, showing off, eating, accidentally flashing the camera, letting their cats use any corner as a bathroom, feeding their raccoons. It's all a bit crazy and yet you can completely understand what's going on, why they're where they are and their great dependence upon and love for one another. The film was introduced by Albert Maysle, one of the filmmakers, and he stuck around afterwards for a half hour of questions. He was so interesting--I wanted to stay and listen to him longer but those danged seats were so uncomfortable that all I could think about was getting home and lying down. He talked about the dvd which has an extra hour and a half of footage.

There's much more to say about this film, so I think I'll add to this in another entry later.