The Beales of Grey Gardens

We saw the Canadian premiere screening of "The Beales of Grey Gardens" on the afternoon of Monday Sept. 11, 2006 at the Al Green Theatre during the 2006 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). Also on the program was Albert Maysles' very first film, "Psychiatry In Russia" from 1955, in what may have been its World Premiere screening in a theatre, as it had previously only been shown on American Public TV as far as Maysles himself could remember. Albert Maysles was introduced briefly at the start by TIFF programmer Nicholas Davies and was interviewed at the end by fellow director Barbara Kopple (dir. "Harlan County USA", "Dixie Chicks -Shut Up And Sing") and answered several questions from the audience.

"The Beales of Grey Gardens" is an entirely new film that has been assembled from the extra footage that Albert Maysles (camera) shot with his brother David Maysles (sound) in 1972-74 for the film released in 1975 called "Grey Gardens". Both films will be issued in a new 2 disc Criterion DVD set in December 2006. (You'll also be able to purchase them separately, in case you already have the 1st one.)

"Beales" does seem to be assembled on the assumption that anyone seeing it has already seen the original "Grey Gardens". There is no introduction or newspaper montage such as the first film has to give you any context or information about who these women are and why are they living in only a few rooms of a once imposing mansion that seems to be slowly going back to nature. Only late in the film there is a mention of Jackie Kennedy Onassis convincing her 2nd husband Ari (Aristotle Onassis) to help out the Beales with funding for renovations and upkeep of the Grey Gardens estate.

I felt overall that "Beales" perhaps showed more of a needy side to Little Edie that wasn't shown quite so overtly in the first film. Her flirtatious manner towards both of the Maysles brothers is more apparent and her questioning of their choice of the first film's title as "Grey Gardens" seems to hint at some disappointment that the film isn't titled after herself or her family, but rather the house (Maysles is obviously making up for this in the title of this 2nd film). The first film has more of a defiant pride where even the apparent desolate circumstances cannot undo her. Big Edie gives the same mother of all she surveys portrayal in both films.

The afternoon was even more enhanced by getting a chance to hear Albert Maysles tell anecdotes about the film and just speak in general about life and documentary film. Barbara Kopple did try to direct questions his way but it seemed that Maysles was simply more interested in getting certain views out and he actually seemed to be ignoring what he was asked and just using it as a springboard to carry on telling us a continuing story. Kopple wasn't in the least offended by this and seemed to be quite happy just to be there to act as a prompter for Maysles.

Among the tidbits that came out from Maysles was a quote of Little Edie's reaction after the Beales were given a private screening of the first film: "The Maysles have created a masterpiece!", and that Albert Maysles had recently re-connected with the neighbour's gardener Jerry Torres who as a young man was a frequent guest to Grey Gardens and who appears in both films and now drives a cab in New York City. Maysles also had some impassioned things to say about how documentary film was important in the world as a means to promote our understanding of each other and to act as a deterrent to anger and hate. An interesting comment made about the Beales but also about people in general was that "People want to tell the truth about themselves. They don't like to keep secrets".

All in all a great afternoon of documentary film. Kudos to TIFF for organizing it.

David Maysles, the primary editor of the brilliantly edited "Grey Gardens" died in 1987 and was therefore not involved with this project.

According to his brother and cameraman Albert (his interview is the only extra on the DVD), he and David filmed for about 6 weeks for several hours a day in the early autumn of 1973. Presumably, this film was culled from the best of what remained of that material.

It's disjointed to the point of really just being a roughly assembled collection of outtakes. We see much more of the Marble Faun as well as quirky artist friend Lois who only appeared in the birthday party scenes in "Grey Gardens". Little Edie in particular comes across as both more rational as well as more flirtatious with the Maysles brothers, especially the younger David. And the extent to which the brothers engaged with and encouraged the Beales becomes much more obvious in these segments.

Still, this is a must-see for fans of the Beales, if only for a view of all of Little Edie's amazing costumes of the day as well as her general philosophies of life. Little Edie was a true free-thinking early feminist, trapped by the circumstances of her time and social status, but I'm sure it would please her endlessly to know she has so many admirers more than a decade after her death.

The 75-year film focused on the relationship between mother and daughter and themselves, and this one focused more on their relationship with their surroundings, more showing their friends and even interacting with the director. It is further supplemented with content about swimming, Catholicism, costumes and constellations, and Mrs. Bell mentioned poetry.

While watching "The Beales of Grey Gardens" I was simply amazed at the amount of priceless footage that did not make it into the original film! Edie is truly a legend and icon of her time. It is not surprising that her style has been copied by numerous fashion designers; that woman definitely had a sense of style and it seems could make virtually any piece of clothing look good on her. If you are a fan of the original film, the new documentary is a MUST-SEE. Just when you thought you knew the two girls, along comes all the stuff you've never seen before, and you will fall in love with them all over again. The only down side is that at the end you will feel sorry that there will be no more antics of Big and Little Edith Beale to delight you for hours on end, but you be grateful for what we do have, and what these delightful characters provided us with.

If you ever wonder how loses look you should definitely watch this documentary which is actually a sequel on the same documentary re-ment 25 years earlier about the same sort of low-lives as the ones you get the sea in the movie which is pretty sad there is no evolution and stability remains down pointing to the lack of class and so we can definitely say that anybody liking this movie definitely proves that they don't have any dignity whatsoever and this is really bad is wrong with Western world and because of this Allah knows the great change needs to happen. There is no might no power then with Allah. Allahu Akbar!!