Grey Gardens

I watched Grey Gardens last night.

Starred my fav actresses, Drew Barrymore and Jessica Lange. Barrymore is one great actor. And I admire her for pulling herself out of the hell she descended into at such a young age. Heck, I'm even starting to admire Britney and the way she came back. People built her up and then ravaged her like vultures when she f stemming from envy, watching them crumble. Well, I wouldn't want to lead the same lives as some of the rich, famous and clueless, whose only aim is life is to get rich and then stupidly drunk, but I loathed seeing the way Britney was hammered by the our hypocritical society.

Anyway, the movie revolves around a reclusive once socialite mum and daughter, Edith "Big Edie" Bouvier Beale and Edith "Little Edie" Beale, (they shared the same name), the aunt and first cousin of Jackie Bouvier Kennedy. They lived in a crumbling 28-room mansion in the wealthy postal code of East Hampton, New York. After the older Edith's husband left her for another woman (same cause always), mother and daughter continued to live in the mansion which mum refused to give up in squalor and isolation as their trust fund dried up.

The younger Edith first went to New York to pursue her dreams of becoming an actress, fell in love with a married man who then dumped her (it was only sex! are you trying to sabotage my marriage?! he snarled at her when she naively thought she meant more and dropped by his hotel unannounced, not knowing wifey was there...). I find it hilarious. That men always play the victim in this game. You can't win either way. You become a loyal wife, full-time mum, your life revolves around him and kids...he still strays, looking for something more. You are an independent careerwoman, not a fulltime homemaker, which some men look for too, and then he still strays and looks for a submissive one. And then you have the cowardly ones...who want to stray, but still keep their marriage. And fuck everyone else up with their games and deceit. As long as they don't get burned, that's fine. Everything else is collateral damage. Never mind that the goods very already damaged by someone elses' game.

Men sure played a huge part in the descent of these two ladies. The mum refuses to give up her memories and life she shared with the ex-husband in the mansion, and the daughter , manipulated by the lonely mum, and newly broken-hearted by the married cad, gives in to her mum's pleading to come home and give up her dreams.

And so, they live for decades together. A strange, mutually dependent relationship.

A story of love, sacrifice, duty and broken dreams.

At the end of the story, based on a 1975 documovie on this "couple's" life,"Little" Edie who finally manages to lead her life after mum dies, selling the house and peforming in cabarets and living in different cities, had this to say, "my mother gave a me a priceless life". Go figure.

Watch the unbearable filth the two lived in...and know that people actually DO live in such conditions all over the western "developed" world...

Depressing, yet heartwarming at the same time. Especially how "Little" Edie keeps her faith and joy of living under such conditions and her mother keeps her pillar of strength persona despite her needing her daughter.

A MUST WATCH film about life. And read this fascinating encounter and interview HERE with Little Edie by Gail Sheehy.