Formerly "A Movie A Day" :/

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Grey Gardens - 1975 - Dir. Maysles

I had been meaning to watch this film for a long while. I knew what it basically consisted of, which was why I was interested... and which is also why it took me a while to sit down and watch it. I need to be in a very particular mood to watch two older ladies traipse around a filthy house, half-clothed, and yell. Lemme start off by saying, there are some beautiful shots in the film. The "sea of leaves" is awesome. And I'm a fan of derelict homes so that only made it all the better. The film is self-conscious in a nice way. The women often speak to/flirt at(?) the Maysles. The brothers even pop up now and then. The women are actually kind of charming in a way. They're loud, argumentative, and opinionated but they, I dunno, they're such big people that they end up being fascinating. Little Edie clearly has/had big dreams and often struggles with her own subconscious drive of being a kind of hermit. It has some feelings of Morris sometimes, people not listening, speaking over each other. I feel like a good deal of time is spent trying to find out how honest these women are being, considering how much they argue about the past, it's difficult to make any headway. The film is easier to get through than it originally seems. It's entertaining without mocking. It's deep without sentimental.

http://charliemccracken.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/grey-gardens.jpg
Little Edie wearing the hip new style: Disembodied Hand on Shoulder

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