Artist Grey Gardens
Arguably the greatest film by legendary vérité documentarians the Maysles Brothers, Grey Gardens focuses on Big Edie Beale and her daughter, Little Edie. Having achieved a little tabloid notoriety as Jackie Onassis' aunt and first cousin respectively, the duo—trapped in their squalid, decaying Hamptons mansion for all time—came under the Maysles peering, sympathetic lens. Far more than a freak show (though charges of exploitation continue), Grey Gardens is an elegant, intricately edited portrait of two people trapped in a house they haunt themselves, running through the same memories and accusations over and over; it's equal parts The Shining and Celine And Julie Go Boating. Its reputation as a gay camp classic only scratches the surface; this is as true a narrative masterpiece as any "fiction."
Updated 10/14/2009
