Grey Gardens

In the mid-1970s, embarrassing front page headlines revealed that in New York state's tony East Hampton, health department officials had threatened an octogenarian and her daughter with eviction unless they repaired their dilapidated raccoon-infested mansion. What made this story of women living in squalor of national interest was their identity: Edith Bouvier Beale and Edie Beale, the aunt and cousin, respectively, of Jacqueline Onassis. David and Albert Maysles (Gimme Shelter), pioneers of "direct cinema," directed this 1976 documentary that is not so much interested in rattling skeletons in the Kennedy family closet as in chronicling the lives of the Beale women. Vintage photographs and exquisite portraits of these once-stunning women are the only vestiges of their privileged past, offering a hint of what must have been a long, very strange trip from there to here (in fact, the doc plays almost like a real-life version of Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?). The mostly bedridden Edith sings along to demo records she recorded in the 1930s, while Edie, a former debutante, quarrels with her mother, and at one point moans, "when am I going to get out of here?" The DVD features insightful and affectionate newly-recorded audio commentary by Albert and others who worked on the film, as well as a recorded 1976 interview with Edie for Interview magazine. In addition, fashion designers Todd Oldham and John Bartlett discuss the film's influence on them, with Oldham accurately observing that Grey Gardens is "a hypnotic glimpse into a very bizarre human psyche." Highly recommended. (K. Lee Benson)[Blu-ray Review—Dec. 3, 2013—Criterion, 94 min., not rated, $39.95—Making its first appearance on Blu-ray, 1976's Grey Gardens sports a great transfer and uncompressed mono audio. Extras include audio commentary (by director Albert Maysles, co-directors Ellen Hovde and Muffie Meyer, and editor and associate producer Susan Froemke), the 2006 follow-up film The Beales of Grey Gardens, with an intro by Maysles (100 min.), audio excerpts from a 1976 interview with subject Little Edie Beale (41 min.), interviews with fashion designers Todd Oldham (6 min.) and John Bartlett (6 min.), a photo gallery, trailers, and an essay by critic Hilton Als. Bottom line: a landmark documentary makes a welcome debut on Blu-ray.]