FILMMAKER IN THE SPOTLIGHT: ALBERT MAYSLES
DOCUMENTARY FILM STUDIO IN THE SPOTLIGHT: MAYSLES FILMS

GREY GARDENS



Albert and David Maysles

Country of production: USA
Year: 1976
Language: English
Mins: 94

Production company: Maysles Films, Inc.
Cinematography: Albert Maysles
Editing: Ellen Hovde, Muffie Meyers

Source: Maysles Film Inc.
250 West 54 Street, Penthouse
New York, NY 10019
Tel: 212.582.6050
Fax: 212.582.2057
e-mail: tanja@mayslesfilms.com
www.mayslesfilms.com


The unbelievable but true story of Mrs. Edith Bouvier Beale and her daughter Edie, aunt and first cousin of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, recluses who live in the decaying 28-room East Hampton mansion known as "Grey Gardens," a place so derelict that the local authorities once threatened to evict them for violating building and sanitation codes. The incident made national headlines -- American royalty, living in squalor! "Little Edie", once an aspiring actress of striking beauty, put her New York life on hold to care for her mother, but then 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 and tape recorder. Little Edie -- a still-attractive woman at 56 -- parades about coquettishly in her trademark improvised turbans, reminisces about her brilliant past, still hoping that her Big Chance and Big Romance are just around the corner. Big Edie, a trained soprano in her bohemian days, trills romantic songs of yesteryear. As the women bicker, prattle, and flirt, the film documents a bittersweet love story, a record of the powerful and complex relationship between mother and daughter.

MONDAY, APRIL 4, 2005 AT 9.30 PM. / FACET CINEMATHEQUE