1 post tagged “movies”
[Warning: this is all about to get a bit cliche and over-the-top. Apologies for how uncool I seem in this moment. But, I mean...come ON these were some CRAZY BITCHES & I love me some crazy; you know this.]
I'm always a little bit behind on the underground phenomena nowadays. Cult classics seem to elude me until a few minutes before they become the "next big thing." Such is the case with my current obsessions: The Ladies Beale.
From the documentary Grey Gardens, we are introduced to the incredibly complex and poetically tragic world of these two fallen socialites-turned-recluses. Their fall is heartbreaking, yet their rebirth as the cult queens of fashion and hip-references that is currently surrounding them is incredible. (You know Little Edie is, in a way, getting the life she always wished she had.) I can't help but wonder whether or not there is some mental illness brewing here (I feel as though there has to be?) in order for such a crossover to occur, or if the poshest of the posh were really just this delusional that a fall from grace just transformed itself into this weird, quirky-madness? The world may never know. It's probably more magnetic and romatic this way, let's be honest.
These were two women so incredibly dependent on one another--so torturously attached--that your heart aches for them and the lives they once lived. The chances Little Edie had when she was a beautiful young woman, the helplessness her mother was bred into having, then crafted and used to manipulate those around her. She constant subtle jabs they both take at each other. And how you watch this--and, in retrospect--really pull for Little Edie to get out of the hell that is falling down around them, even though you know (in the end) she never really does.
Little Edie also suffers from Alopecia; a condition that many would just throw off as something so "superficial" but women--especially in her time--are so purported by their beauty and their hair, that to lose it is almost to lose everything. To see it unfold in the HBO version of their lives (also titled Grey Gardens) is painstaking a process--Little Edie's own disintegration mirrors what happens to the house in later days. (Alopecia is something I know a lot about given a family member of mine's struggle with it, and I could only imagine how she handles it, too, as a woman.) It is a heartbreaking external realization of all the stress Little Edie keeps inside.
This is not to say that she is totally not at fault in the situation, or that her mother is terribly evil; they are both products of their time and surroundings. Even if the fact that they were Jackie O's cousins was taken out of the picture, they are still fantastical and over-the-top enough that it's an incredibly engaging story. I am so utterly fascinated by the whole thing. Their style, their actions, how these women--so used to the most opulent and extravagant aspects of life--can just become so comfortable in the house that is falling apart as much as their respective sanities.
I just purchased both the documentary & pre-ordered the HBO DVD; I highly suggest anyone interested in the stories of people to watch it. I, as a writer, have always been extremely interested in the art of the character sketch--especially in the unfolding of the most quirky, unusual & unexpected characters--and that is exactly what this is. Its unintentional poetic and visual eloquence is unparalleled. And you, too, will fall in love with the ladies Beale.
It's very difficult to keep the line between the past and the present, you know? Very difficult.
