Grey Gardens (2009)

I tried to watch all of the original Grey Gardens a few weeks ago, but couldn’t get through it. I thought maybe there was something wrong with me – this was supposed to be one of those seminal, amazing, cult-audience-having sort of films. A documentary that changed the face of documentaries.

The fact is there was too much yelling in the original – I couldn’t hear what either of the Edies was saying most of the time because of the talking at the same time/yelling at each other setup. I did enjoy the fashion and the accents, though.

I watched the new version of this story last night. It recreates some of the original footage as well as presenting much of the lead up to the documentary – how the Edies got to where they were. It was fascinating, and I was totally flabbergasted with how well both Drew Barrymore and Jessica Lange embodied the Beales – the mannerisms, the tics, the accents, everything! It was uncanny. And awesome.

The costumes were what got me, though. I couldn’t stop staring. The getups that Little Edie came up with when she had just a few pieces of clothing were so clever – it’s not surprising to learn she was a fashion plate when she had more at her disposal. Apparently the director did all sorts of research on the ladies and learned a lot of their back story based on “clues” dropped in the documentary. Fascinating.

So I guess I’ll be one of those unhip folk who like the remake more than the original. I’m sure the former is a better piece of film work and I’m sure it did change the face of documentary making. However, the latter was more fun to watch and suited my mood.