grey gardens

last night i went to see grey gardens at the new beverly cinema. It might be the most awesome documentary ever made. it follws the lives of Big edie and Little edie bouvier beale, aunt and cousin of jackie kennedy. It was filmed in 1974 and They live in a 28 room mansion in east hampton that has been over run by cats and racoons and is the filthiest place any one could ever imagine living in. It was raided by the town of east hamptom in 1971 and it failed every single health code on the books. So they were going to raize the house, evicting these co dependent women until jackie swooped in and paid for it to be cleaned. they used 40 gallons of insecticide. you start out laughing at these two woman who seem completely off their rocker, little edie is first introduced wearing a skirt upside down and cinched, and has a sweater on her head, and tied back like a ponytail. She brags about her "costume" asking "isn't it the lovlieest costume?" and says to the camera that her mother wanted her to wanted to wear a kimono and they had an awful fight about it. Little edie says she used to be a great dancer, and in almost every scene twirls in and out of rooms, but all her moves seem oddly the same, so i'm not sure how successful she was before she came back to take care of her mother. over the course of the film, you realize you've stopped laughing at these woman and at some point, realized that this movie and story is just plain tragic. seriously, if you can find this movie, rent it. it's a cult classic, so its really hard to find, but sometimes an art house theater will show if for a night or 2 llike they did here in LA.