Not a pretty picture. Big Edie is obese and bedridden, with trash and filth strewn about. She emotionally manipulates her daughter to keep her around. Little Edie isn’t all there. At 56 she thinks of herself as a child. She wears pinned bathrobes and imagines it the latest fashion, talks about someday getting married, and puts on song and dance numbers. It’s hard to watch.
So we have two codependent people, talking over each other, living in squalor, remembering life of high society while flies and raccoons slowly take over the house. They are not well. It's hard not to feel sorry for them but at the same token, they had everything and became a product of their choices. Raccoons have gotten into the attic and Little Edie goes up there and dumps an entire loaf of white bread and a whole box of cat food right on the floor. These are not wise decisions.
Little Edie attended the film’s premiere (wearing her dress backwards) and was reportedly quite proud of it. But I wonder how it was received by their society kin. Certainly they knew the situation. I have not found an interview that discusses that.
Grey Gardens is not easy to watch. There is no real narrative here. Just, “look at these people”. There is a cringe factor at work, but it feels nothing but authentic. And that authenticity makes all the cringier. Still, this is what happens to some people, be they from rich and fancy families or not. I saw a sizable piece of it a few years ago and knew I wanted to cover it, but I had a hard time convincing myself to actually watch it. It is a landmark of documentary filmmaking and truly remarkable, but I know I will never be watching it again. AMRU 3.
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