Act Three: Gearing Up for ‘Grey Gardens’
(04/07/2009) A mother and daughter sequestered in a decaying 28-room mansion surrounded by cats, filth, and echoes of a radically
 Peter Stranks |
different past are the subject of “Grey Gardens,” a 1973 documentary by Albert and David Maysles. The film’s ever-increasing cult following gave way to a Broadway musical in 2006. Now, a much-anticipated film starring Drew Barrymore and Jessica Lange will debut on HBO at 8 p.m. on April 18.
Cinephiles and bloggers have been buzzing for years about the movie, which explores how and why “Big” and “Little” Edie Beale, an aunt and cousin of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis, make the gradual transformation from high-society debutantes to eccentric shut-ins. At Goose Creek in Wainscott on Saturday, a screening has been organized by Peggy Siegal, the infamous New York film publicist, with a dinner party to follow at Grey Gardens on West End Road in East Hampton.
The Beales made national headlines in 1972 when the East Hampton Village Police Department and Suffolk County Department of Health descended upon the mansion, which has since been bought and restored by Sally Quinn and Ben Bradlee, who will host the screening and dinner. Threats of eviction due to unsanitary conditions went on for months, until the former first lady donated the time and money to bring the decaying building up to code.
By the time the Maysles started their documentary in 1973, the world was well aware of the scandal — it had appeared on the covers of national magazines and the play-by-play was documented for over a year in The East Hampton Star. The cinema verite style of the Maysles, who had filmed the Rolling Stones in 1969 for “Gimme Shelter,” brought the two quirky characters to life. As Little Edie and her mostly bedridden mother clamored for attention before the camera, the intricacies of a complex mother-daughter relationship were revealed.
It is a story that many people near and far have obsessed over and often related to. “My reaction to ‘Grey Gardens’ developed into an irrational fear that my mother and I would end up just like that eccentric duet,” admitted Eleni Zaharopoulos, a filmmaker from Queens who has held the Maysles documentary close to her heart for years.
Like many Grey Gardens enthusiasts, Michael Suscy, who directed and co-produced the film, said that while he was immediately captivated by the story of the Beales, his curiosity about what happened before the six-week snippet featured in the Maysles film was instantly piqued when he first saw the campy classic in 2003. “I just knew there was a bigger movie here, and there were questions I wanted to know the answers to,” he said.
After all, the Beales’ transition from social royalty to social outcasts did not happen overnight. Bolstered by years of painstaking research, Mr. Suscy’s film follows mother and daughter from the 1930s, when Little Edie was a debutante and Big Edie was busy defying convention in upper-crust East Hampton, to the 1970s, when the documentary was made.
“I’ve seen the trailer and I am blown away,” said Robb Brawn, a musician who maintains an elaborate fan Web site, www.mygreygardens.com, from his home in Philadelphia. “Just what I saw of Drew . . . my God, she nails it, she just nails it,” said Mr. Brawn of Ms. Barrymore.
He said he plans to have about 30 people over to watch the movie on April 18. He had heard rumors of a screening in Philadelphia but so far hasn’t been able to secure an invite.
Mr. Brawn, who forged a friendship with Little Edie Beale in the late 1970s, has been trolling the Internet for trailers and snippets of the film. “They slowly release these things,” he said.
“Drew I think basically has more of the reputation of doing these lighthearted flicks with not a lot of meaty, serious acting, but this is big time,” he said. “To play somebody and just to capture the voice, you wouldn’t know it wasn’t Edie, it’s uncanny.”
Ms. Barrymore worked with a dialect coach, learned to sing and dance, and wore prosthetics, false teeth, and contact lenses for the role. According to a press release, she cut herself off from the modern world for three months to study the part, refusing to use her cellphone or connect to the Internet, and reportedly read nothing but Little Edie’s journals, books, and back issues of The New York Times from the period.
Ms. Lange also threw herself into her role as Big Edie, which required even more prosthetics and makeup than Ms. Barrymore. At certain points in the film, she wears a fat suit with breasts made of birdseed to give them the most authentic sagging look.
“I’ve never studied so hard to be a character in my life,” said Ms. Barrymore, who admitted she “flipped out” when she read the script and had to convince Mr. Suscy that she “would go to the ends of the earth to play this woman.”
For Ms. Barrymore, “the ends of the earth” included a trip to Windmill Village in East Hampton, where she met with Lois Wright, a friend of the Beales who appeared briefly in the documentary as a guest at Big Edie’s birthday party.
In December of 2006, “Drew Barrymore came out to my place,” and along with Mr. Suscy, they hopped in the car and drove to Montauk to visit Doris Francisco, another friend of the Beales who died in 2007. Ms. Wright recalled that Ms. Barrymore brought her flowers and even went to the kitchen to find them a vase.
“She’s so natural and pleasant,” she said. “She wanted to know a little bit more about certain expressions of Edie’s,” and was delighted to hear what Ms. Wright had to say.
Ms. Wright was frank with the actress, whom she had never seen in action before. “ ‘I didn’t go to any of your movies,’ I said, because ‘they were too young.’ ” She also said that she “wasn’t sure” if it would be possible for Ms. Barrymore to pull off a believable rendition of her friend on-screen.
“But since then I’ve seen some of the outtakes, and she looks marvelous,” said Ms. Wright last week, granting her seal of approval. “I think that [the Beales] spirits would enjoy all of this.”
Ms. Wright, who has published a book about her experiences with the Beales, “My Life at Grey Gardens,” also has an exhibit of her Beale-inspired paintings planned at the National Arts Club in New York City opening on April 29.
She was proud to say she has received double invitations to the screening in Wainscott on Saturday. She will be attending with two dates, Andrew Afram and Andrew Mroczek, enthusiasts of Grey Gardens from Massachusetts who helped her to publish her memoir.
Romantic Leads
Back-to-back Oscar-winning romantic comedies will be on the screen in the Bay Street Theatre’s Picture Show series this weekend. Doris Day and Rock Hudson will be the stars of honor.
Co-sponsored by BookHampton, tomorrow’s feature will be “Lover Come Back,” which co-stars Tony Randall and Edie Adams and was the anticipated return of Ms. Day and Mr. Hudson after the runaway hit “Pillow Talk.” The duo play advertising executives on Madison Avenue who are vying for the same lucrative commercials.
On Saturday, Mr. Randall, who won a Golden Globe for his role in “Lover Come Back,” can be seen with Ms. Day and Mr. Hudson, along with Thelma Ritter, in “Pillow Talk” itself. Doris Day was nominated for an Academy Award, but was up against some stiff competition that year from Katharine Hepburn and Elizabeth Taylor in “Suddenly Last Summer,” Audrey Hepburn in “The Nun’s Story,” and Simone Signoret, who won, in “Room at the Top.”
The show goes on at 8 p.m., the box office will open at 7:30, and tickets cost $5.