The Real Estate of Grey Gardens

In the powder room of the Zeigfeld just before the opening night screening of the new HBO movie of the original Maysles Brothers documentary, “Grey Gardens,” Drew Barrymore patted down her blond finger waves snugly held together under a veiled cloche. In a flesh toned beaded gown, she looked radiant and so Hollywood. Jessica Lange, her blond curls tumbling around her face, looked equally glamorous in lavender. Back in the 90's when the Maysles' classic cinema verite was revived downtown at Film Forum, the economy was fine and revelers at the opening night after party acted out the roles of the Edie Beales, mother and daughter, in full Little Edie regalia: head swathed in sweater held together by a single brooch. Hips adorned in fabric held together by safety pins, improvised, and famously fashioned for this now iconic tale of riches to rags. With the new dramatization-superb for the acting, costuming and makeup--to air on April 18, Grey Gardens has come uptown. No one at the posh opening party at the Pierre was done up Edie style. No one, including Stanley Tucci, Steve Buscemi, Jimmy Fallon, Deborah Harry, Ben Bradlee, had that bohemian edge-excepting Albert Maysles. That may be because the narrative has shifted as it did in the musical play, to include the backstory of their lives as rich debutantes related to the Kennedy's through Jacqueline Bouvier (played wonderfully by Jeanne Tripplehorn who also attended, attired in off the shoulder polka dots). The economy has shifted too: it is all too easy to see one self in the not so remote reality of the Edie Beales-- the image of their Grey Gardens as a metaphor of our culture-- embedded a dilapidated, cat feces encrusted mansion, questionably salable, even if it is south of the highway in East Hampton, a testament to former glory.

Regina Weinreich

Graphic Design: Salpeter Ventura