"Actor: Albert Maysles"

• Grey Gardens | DVD | (30/04/2007) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  From the filmmakers behind Salesman (1968) and The Rolling Stones' Gimme Shelter (1969) the Maysles Brothers present another of their 'non-fiction features' this time an offbeat voyeuristic and absorbing insight into the lives of two eccentric and reclusive women: Edith Bouvier Beale and her daughter Edie. As aunt and cousin to the more famous Jackie Onassis 'Big Edie' and 'Little Edie' (as they became to be known) lived together in what had become a squalid mansion in the wealthy East Hampton area. What was once a grand summer residence had been reduced to a fortress of fleas feral cats and filth the gardens long gone to seed and Big Edie and Little Edie confined to just a few of the 28 rooms. For the previous twenty years they had perfected their mother/daughter act complete with song-and-dance routines. Her head mysteriously wrapped in scarves and towels Little Edie's modern dances punctuate her interpretations of life which primarily take the form of a litany of complaints against her mother. This routine seems to be old material lines well rehearsed through repeated use usually with Mrs. Beale as the foil together they invent a world with their house as a stage on which lifes disappointments and pleasures are recycled into riveting performances. This cult classic which has inspired a current Broadway show a centre page fashion spread in both Vogue and Harpers Bazaar and a forthcoming Hollywood 'remake' prompted the intervention of Jackie O. to save the couple from a hazardous health eviction order and any further `embarrassment for the family.