Grey Gardens
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Big Magilla
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Jessica Lange truly lost herself in this role -- I thought her performance was brilliant. Drew Barrymore turned in the best work of her acting career with her turn as Little Edie and enters a new class. I agree with Big Magilla that both will be nominated for numerous awards for this including Emmys, SAGs and Golden Globes. The film itself will also be nominated. Jeanne Tripplehorn was pitch-perfect in her small scene playing a very recognizable person and Daniel Baldwin and Malcom Gets were equally convincing. The costuming was exquisitely detailed (and historically accurate) and the art direction rivals, if not topples right over, films that are typically nominated for Oscars. The recreation of Grey Gardens at its nadir is almost frighteningly real.
The "documentary scenes" managed to bring a new point of view to that film. We were getting the context of the scenes by their placement within the film and their relation to the past so, in some ways, there was more of an impact. The most explosive scene between mother and daughter in the documentary has even more of an effect now.
I went to a play last month called "After the Garden: Edith Bouvier Beale Live at the Reno Sweeney". The venue for the play was the cozy back room of a high-end consignment shop a few blocks from my house called Miss Pixie's. The play itself is a mix of singing and dancing (both are understandly not that great) and monologues/asides from an angry, slightly bitter, Edie (who is played by a man). It was written by Little Edie's real-life manager of her one week cabaret engagement at the Reno Sweeney Christmas week through New Year's 1978 (were any of you in attendance?!) Just as a further testament to the attention to detail of the HBO film, the red outfit that Barrymore as Edie wears at the close of the film (complete with red leaves around her head) was historically accurate.[/color]
Edited By flipp525 on 1240331622
The "documentary scenes" managed to bring a new point of view to that film. We were getting the context of the scenes by their placement within the film and their relation to the past so, in some ways, there was more of an impact. The most explosive scene between mother and daughter in the documentary has even more of an effect now.
I went to a play last month called "After the Garden: Edith Bouvier Beale Live at the Reno Sweeney". The venue for the play was the cozy back room of a high-end consignment shop a few blocks from my house called Miss Pixie's. The play itself is a mix of singing and dancing (both are understandly not that great) and monologues/asides from an angry, slightly bitter, Edie (who is played by a man). It was written by Little Edie's real-life manager of her one week cabaret engagement at the Reno Sweeney Christmas week through New Year's 1978 (were any of you in attendance?!) Just as a further testament to the attention to detail of the HBO film, the red outfit that Barrymore as Edie wears at the close of the film (complete with red leaves around her head) was historically accurate.[/color]
Edited By flipp525 on 1240331622
Last edited by flipp525 on Sun Jan 28, 2018 5:36 pm, edited 2 times in total.
"The mantle of spinsterhood was definitely in her shoulders. She was twenty five and looked it."
-Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
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Big Magilla
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I would agree that this belongs in the Broadcast section rather than the Films of 2009 section except that this is an event film that is being reviewed by major film critics and reviewers.
Whatever you may think of them, the two Bens are nevertheless high profile enough to at least meet the current standard of the second group. Lyons gave it a "See It" and Mank a "Rent It" but both praise the actresses, particularly Barrymore.
I agree Barrymore is phenomenal as Little Edie, but Lange is equally impressive in the less showy role of Big Edie.
I immediately played the first twenty minutes of so of the documentary after watching it and they are both spot on, capturing the look, through makeup, facial expressions and gestures, and the sound. Their voices are a perfect match.
Overall the film doesn't give you much more than the documentary in terms of information about the two women, but it does flesh it out. The mansion in disrepair is so revolting you wonder why they both weren't carried off to the loony bin just as quickly as the raccoons and other critters were carted off by animal control.
Jeanne Tripplehorn does a marvelous impression of Jackie O. She covers her nose and mouth with her scarf when she enters the disgusting house but quickly removes it when the two women appear so as not to offend them. She even reacts kindly when Barrymore/Edie goes into her nonsense about how she could have married Joe Kennedy and if he hadn't died, become First Lady instead of her. Tripplehorn/Jackie's "I wish you had" is one of the film's most touching moments.
HBO is probably the proper venue for the film. It's a bit too slight to be a hit at today's box office. Both Barrymore and Lange are likely to be nominated for Emmys, Globes, Satellites and everything else out there and Tripplehorn may pick up a nod or two as well. Barrymore is likely to win them all.
Lange and Malcolm Gets sing beautifully. Barrymore, not so much, but her presence in this is magical. A solid ***1/2 film.
Whatever you may think of them, the two Bens are nevertheless high profile enough to at least meet the current standard of the second group. Lyons gave it a "See It" and Mank a "Rent It" but both praise the actresses, particularly Barrymore.
I agree Barrymore is phenomenal as Little Edie, but Lange is equally impressive in the less showy role of Big Edie.
I immediately played the first twenty minutes of so of the documentary after watching it and they are both spot on, capturing the look, through makeup, facial expressions and gestures, and the sound. Their voices are a perfect match.
Overall the film doesn't give you much more than the documentary in terms of information about the two women, but it does flesh it out. The mansion in disrepair is so revolting you wonder why they both weren't carried off to the loony bin just as quickly as the raccoons and other critters were carted off by animal control.
Jeanne Tripplehorn does a marvelous impression of Jackie O. She covers her nose and mouth with her scarf when she enters the disgusting house but quickly removes it when the two women appear so as not to offend them. She even reacts kindly when Barrymore/Edie goes into her nonsense about how she could have married Joe Kennedy and if he hadn't died, become First Lady instead of her. Tripplehorn/Jackie's "I wish you had" is one of the film's most touching moments.
HBO is probably the proper venue for the film. It's a bit too slight to be a hit at today's box office. Both Barrymore and Lange are likely to be nominated for Emmys, Globes, Satellites and everything else out there and Tripplehorn may pick up a nod or two as well. Barrymore is likely to win them all.
Lange and Malcolm Gets sing beautifully. Barrymore, not so much, but her presence in this is magical. A solid ***1/2 film.
I think this falls into the category of "just not that important". Also, the movie hasn't aired yet. It premieres on HBO this Saturday night at 8PM.anonymous wrote:Shouldn't this be in the "Broadcast" section since it did air on HBO?
"The mantle of spinsterhood was definitely in her shoulders. She was twenty five and looked it."
-Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
-Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
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anonymous1980
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From the Los Angeles Times
The long move into 'Grey Gardens'
After a long journey, Drew Barrymore and Jessica Lange settle into a famous old Hamptons address.
By Choire Sicha REPORTING FROM NEW YORK > > >
April 15, 2009
Drew Barrymore, facing a window onto Central Park, held up a mirror. She took a long time reapplying her lipstick.
"Most of my best friends are gay and they all act like her, talk like her, dress like her at certain moments -- they all quote her all the time," she said, in her somewhat spooky way.
Gay men -- well, not all of them, but many -- do revere and constantly talk about Edith "Little Edie" Bouvier Beale, the crazy-fabulous younger half of the East Hampton mother-and-daughter recluse team made famous by the 1975 Maysles brothers (and company) documentary "Grey Gardens." The family had been flush in the Depression -- but, as revealed in the documentary, once left to their own devices, Jacqueline Kennedy's aunt and cousin rapidly became crazy cat ladies and a town scandal. The last signs of their class were the house itself and their starchy, grating half-mid-Atlantic, half-Long Island accents.
So after Barrymore fought her way into that role for HBO's "Grey Gardens," which (1) premieres Saturday and (2) relates both the era covered by the documentary and the women's younger lives, the gay anxiety struck her hard. After all, in the Venn diagram circles of gay Little Edie fan and gay friend of Drew Barrymore, the overlapping area approached 100%.
"I can't tell you the level of fear and sickness I would feel when they would imitate her," she said. "They know her and love her so well -- what if I do something that doesn't feel right with them?" She swore profusely, her tongue piercing shining in the afternoon light.
Photographs of Barrymore these days, which usually suggest a starlet of the '40s or '70s, or a woman haunted, are not solely the work of an art director or photographer; that somewhat spooked and spooky thing exists in person. She is a little like Madonna while she was obsessed with Frida Kahlo or Evita -- a woman who strongly sees herself in or is bewitched by another woman's character, so much so that it has leeched into her affect.
The proving ground
Of course, Little Edie was often otherwise occupied herself, famous as she was for wrapping herself in odd garments while the raccoons ate away at the house and her mother cooked corn in bed.
In any event, with coaching, including from friends of the Beales, Barrymore did get herself there. Chris Miller, the vice president of Barrymore's Flower Films and her full-time pretty-much-everything, was one of the first to hear Barrymore's Edie.
"I was, like, close your eyes," Barrymore said. "And I put my teeth in."
"I think we both cried," said Miller, from the other side of the hotel room.
"I think we did," said Barrymore.
Barrymore's other new best gay these days is "Grey Gardens" director Michael Sucsy. That relationship began, as all great ones do, with a meeting at the Chateau Marmont.
Producers had suggested Barrymore for the role. Sucsy didn't want her. "Listen," Sucsy said of his thoughts at the time: "I've worked with Drew now. How shall I say this? She was not proven in this genre!"
True enough. And what's more, she was a hotshot producer -- "Charlie's Angels," hello -- and beginning to work as a director. So she was ridiculously busy, the producers told him -- and it would take her forever to get to the script.
Except Barrymore called back in 12 hours and said she was flying to L.A. the next day.
At that meeting, "I said, 'Look I'm going to call out the elephant in the room,' " Barrymore said. " 'I've never done a part like this. I sound like a girl from the San Fernando Valley. I have nothing in my arsenal to prove to you I'm capable of doing this.' "
The meeting sold him. "No one had a gun to my head," he said. "I cast her."
The set was somewhat eccentric. There was Jessica Lange, who refuses to watch dailies but cannot stop herself from grilling everyone endlessly about what the previous day's shoot was like. There was Barrymore, more or less staying in character, shutting herself in her room, typing notes on a typewriter, refusing to use cellphones.
Why not a merry band of wing nuts for a film about the same? "I don't live in L.A., so I'm a little bit off the grid. So to speak," said Lange, who plays "Big Edie," Barrymore's character's mother. "But the first time [Barrymore] called me, it was interesting, I was doing a film in some remote place, maybe Canada somewhere, and she was just so exuberant and so kind of exclamatory about her desire to do this part and us to work together and I thought, wow, this is something quite unique."
Sucsy is a little bit of a character himself; he went to the swank Deerfield Academy, and he originally knew of Grey Gardens, the titular East Hampton house, from riding his bicycle past it.
"He had a great sense of refinement, but he's fun and outgoing and garish and human," said Barrymore. "It's not like he has a stick up his . . . ." Oh, OK, gotcha.
It's miraculous they even found themselves there.
While Sucsy had been feverishly working on the film for years, Rachael Horovitz, formerly of Fine Line and then Revolution Studios, actually owned the rights to the documentary. Sucsy and his producing partner, Lucy Donnelly, owned "life rights" through the estate. (And, while each party schemed, a stage musical called "Grey Gardens" had been written, mounted and closed.)
Combined effort
Once Horovitz became an independent producer, she finally pursued her own "Grey Gardens" project.
"I reached out to them," said Horovitz. "It was in the wake of the two Capote movies" -- and we all remember how that turned out. (For those who don't, the short version is that it would have been lovely for almost everyone involved if there'd only been one. Except maybe for Philip Seymour Hoffman's Academy Award.)
She was happy with Sucsy's script, written with Patricia Rozema, and so, "We were all eager to get married," she said.
So they went to the races together, to find another obstacle: Sucsy's résumé was nearly all commercials, no long-form dramas. "The only problem we had was the typical companies that make specialized movies, like say Paramount Vantage, they're very director-driven," said Horovitz. "They could not be as passionate about this film. Even Miramax."
Still, she loved Sucsy's reel; and, at the time, Lange and Barrymore were both at CAA, and CAA's Peter Levine was an early "adoptive grandfather" of the film, according to Horovitz; and Sucsy turned out to love Barrymore; and, in the end, everyone loved HBO. Because, yes, as usual, everyone involved said amazingly nice things about HBO -- particularly about HBO's now-departed original movies honcho Colin Callender, who brought the project in.
Plus? "They put a hell of a lot more money behind this movie than anyone wanted to in the equity market," said Sucsy.
So a good time was had by all.
"It felt good," said Lange, shortly before she went off to her remote Minnesota cabin to develop photographs in her darkroom; at said cabin, she promptly fell down and broke her collarbone. "I can't say that about a lot of them anymore."
The long move into 'Grey Gardens'
After a long journey, Drew Barrymore and Jessica Lange settle into a famous old Hamptons address.
By Choire Sicha REPORTING FROM NEW YORK > > >
April 15, 2009
Drew Barrymore, facing a window onto Central Park, held up a mirror. She took a long time reapplying her lipstick.
"Most of my best friends are gay and they all act like her, talk like her, dress like her at certain moments -- they all quote her all the time," she said, in her somewhat spooky way.
Gay men -- well, not all of them, but many -- do revere and constantly talk about Edith "Little Edie" Bouvier Beale, the crazy-fabulous younger half of the East Hampton mother-and-daughter recluse team made famous by the 1975 Maysles brothers (and company) documentary "Grey Gardens." The family had been flush in the Depression -- but, as revealed in the documentary, once left to their own devices, Jacqueline Kennedy's aunt and cousin rapidly became crazy cat ladies and a town scandal. The last signs of their class were the house itself and their starchy, grating half-mid-Atlantic, half-Long Island accents.
So after Barrymore fought her way into that role for HBO's "Grey Gardens," which (1) premieres Saturday and (2) relates both the era covered by the documentary and the women's younger lives, the gay anxiety struck her hard. After all, in the Venn diagram circles of gay Little Edie fan and gay friend of Drew Barrymore, the overlapping area approached 100%.
"I can't tell you the level of fear and sickness I would feel when they would imitate her," she said. "They know her and love her so well -- what if I do something that doesn't feel right with them?" She swore profusely, her tongue piercing shining in the afternoon light.
Photographs of Barrymore these days, which usually suggest a starlet of the '40s or '70s, or a woman haunted, are not solely the work of an art director or photographer; that somewhat spooked and spooky thing exists in person. She is a little like Madonna while she was obsessed with Frida Kahlo or Evita -- a woman who strongly sees herself in or is bewitched by another woman's character, so much so that it has leeched into her affect.
The proving ground
Of course, Little Edie was often otherwise occupied herself, famous as she was for wrapping herself in odd garments while the raccoons ate away at the house and her mother cooked corn in bed.
In any event, with coaching, including from friends of the Beales, Barrymore did get herself there. Chris Miller, the vice president of Barrymore's Flower Films and her full-time pretty-much-everything, was one of the first to hear Barrymore's Edie.
"I was, like, close your eyes," Barrymore said. "And I put my teeth in."
"I think we both cried," said Miller, from the other side of the hotel room.
"I think we did," said Barrymore.
Barrymore's other new best gay these days is "Grey Gardens" director Michael Sucsy. That relationship began, as all great ones do, with a meeting at the Chateau Marmont.
Producers had suggested Barrymore for the role. Sucsy didn't want her. "Listen," Sucsy said of his thoughts at the time: "I've worked with Drew now. How shall I say this? She was not proven in this genre!"
True enough. And what's more, she was a hotshot producer -- "Charlie's Angels," hello -- and beginning to work as a director. So she was ridiculously busy, the producers told him -- and it would take her forever to get to the script.
Except Barrymore called back in 12 hours and said she was flying to L.A. the next day.
At that meeting, "I said, 'Look I'm going to call out the elephant in the room,' " Barrymore said. " 'I've never done a part like this. I sound like a girl from the San Fernando Valley. I have nothing in my arsenal to prove to you I'm capable of doing this.' "
The meeting sold him. "No one had a gun to my head," he said. "I cast her."
The set was somewhat eccentric. There was Jessica Lange, who refuses to watch dailies but cannot stop herself from grilling everyone endlessly about what the previous day's shoot was like. There was Barrymore, more or less staying in character, shutting herself in her room, typing notes on a typewriter, refusing to use cellphones.
Why not a merry band of wing nuts for a film about the same? "I don't live in L.A., so I'm a little bit off the grid. So to speak," said Lange, who plays "Big Edie," Barrymore's character's mother. "But the first time [Barrymore] called me, it was interesting, I was doing a film in some remote place, maybe Canada somewhere, and she was just so exuberant and so kind of exclamatory about her desire to do this part and us to work together and I thought, wow, this is something quite unique."
Sucsy is a little bit of a character himself; he went to the swank Deerfield Academy, and he originally knew of Grey Gardens, the titular East Hampton house, from riding his bicycle past it.
"He had a great sense of refinement, but he's fun and outgoing and garish and human," said Barrymore. "It's not like he has a stick up his . . . ." Oh, OK, gotcha.
It's miraculous they even found themselves there.
While Sucsy had been feverishly working on the film for years, Rachael Horovitz, formerly of Fine Line and then Revolution Studios, actually owned the rights to the documentary. Sucsy and his producing partner, Lucy Donnelly, owned "life rights" through the estate. (And, while each party schemed, a stage musical called "Grey Gardens" had been written, mounted and closed.)
Combined effort
Once Horovitz became an independent producer, she finally pursued her own "Grey Gardens" project.
"I reached out to them," said Horovitz. "It was in the wake of the two Capote movies" -- and we all remember how that turned out. (For those who don't, the short version is that it would have been lovely for almost everyone involved if there'd only been one. Except maybe for Philip Seymour Hoffman's Academy Award.)
She was happy with Sucsy's script, written with Patricia Rozema, and so, "We were all eager to get married," she said.
So they went to the races together, to find another obstacle: Sucsy's résumé was nearly all commercials, no long-form dramas. "The only problem we had was the typical companies that make specialized movies, like say Paramount Vantage, they're very director-driven," said Horovitz. "They could not be as passionate about this film. Even Miramax."
Still, she loved Sucsy's reel; and, at the time, Lange and Barrymore were both at CAA, and CAA's Peter Levine was an early "adoptive grandfather" of the film, according to Horovitz; and Sucsy turned out to love Barrymore; and, in the end, everyone loved HBO. Because, yes, as usual, everyone involved said amazingly nice things about HBO -- particularly about HBO's now-departed original movies honcho Colin Callender, who brought the project in.
Plus? "They put a hell of a lot more money behind this movie than anyone wanted to in the equity market," said Sucsy.
So a good time was had by all.
"It felt good," said Lange, shortly before she went off to her remote Minnesota cabin to develop photographs in her darkroom; at said cabin, she promptly fell down and broke her collarbone. "I can't say that about a lot of them anymore."
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Precious Doll
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Here is the Variety review.
Grey Gardens
(Movie -- HBO, Sat. April 18, 8 p.m.)
By BRIAN LOWRY
Filmed in Ontario, Canada by Specialty Films and Locomotive. Executive producers, Lucy Barzun Donnelly, Rachael Horovitz, Michael Sucsy; producer, David Coatsworth; director, Sucsy; writers, Sucsy, Patricia Rozema; story by Sucsy.
"Little Edie" Beale - Drew Barrymore
"Big Edie" Beale - Jessica Lange
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis - Jeanne Tripplehorn
Phelan Beale - Ken Howard
Julius "Cap" Krug - Daniel Baldwin
George "Gould" Strong - Malcolm Gets
Albert Maysles - Arye Gross
David Maysles - Justin Long
How could a ravishing young debutante and her life-of-every-party mother -- relatives of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, no less -- become crazy cat ladies, occupying a dilapidated 28-room East Hampton mansion? "Grey Gardens," an HBO movie inspired by the eponymous documentary shot in 1973, doesn't fully answer that question -- indeed, there's a rather sizable hole in the story -- but nevertheless has a fabulous time contemplating it, showcasing marvelous performances by Drew Barrymore and Jessica Lange. It's a must-see for those fascinated by the lore of the U.S.' modern Camelot, as well as another sure to be lavishly adorned movie for the pay channel.
Director-producer Michael Sucsy (who also co-wrote with Patricia Rozema) is such a devotee of the original documentary that he spends chunks of the movie grainily recreating scenes from it, while turning the filmmakers (Arye Gross, Justin Long) into minor characters.
The film is strongest, though, when flashing back to portray mother and daughter before their descent, opening in the mid-1930s, when 18-year-old Little Edie (Barrymore) dreamt of being a starlet, and her vivacious mother, Big Edie (Lange), would entertain with elaborate song-and-dance numbers at parties.
"You're the mother of my children, not a showgirl," snaps her disapproving husband, Phelan (Ken Howard), who is soon out of the picture.
Events roll along innocuously enough, with Little Edie beginning a relationship with a high-powered married man (Daniel Baldwin), while Big Edie finds herself alone in that great big house. Yet when the tryst ends badly, the daughter takes refuge at home, even as the mother's resources wither. Even so, Big Edie refuses to leave Grey Gardens, despite exhausting her trust fund.
By the time the filmmakers encounter them in the early 1970s, they've settled into an oddly reclusive life, so much so that local authorities raid the place, which is overrun with cats and raccoons. It's not until then that Jackie O. (Jeanne Tripplehorn, looking the part, but without much else to do) takes an interest in their fate.
Beyond Big Edie's extraordinary attachment to the property, the movie doesn't fully convey who the enabler and the enabled were in this co-dependent existence. The two Edies are also, as one says, an "acquired taste," so their overly mannered speech and affectations -- coupled with the ravages of Bill Corso's uncomfortable-looking makeup, aging the stars 40 years -- require a bit of getting used to.
Barrymore and Lange nevertheless deliver vibrant, wonderfully theatrical turns, with Barrymore in particular seeming delighted to sink her teeth into a character this meaty after a blur of relatively forgettable romantic comedies. That's not to say "Grey Gardens" is without romance, but it's an unorthodox one -- in essence a love story between these two women who take refuge from the world in each other's company.
All told, it's an impeccably rendered piece, down to the smallest details -- the kind of lush, meticulous little parcel that relatively few outlets these days have the means or latitude to cultivate.
Camera, Mike Eley; production designer, Kalina Ivanov; editors, Alan Heim, Lee Percy; music, Rachel Portman; makeup, Bill Corso; casting, Ellen Parks. 104 MIN.
Grey Gardens
(Movie -- HBO, Sat. April 18, 8 p.m.)
By BRIAN LOWRY
Filmed in Ontario, Canada by Specialty Films and Locomotive. Executive producers, Lucy Barzun Donnelly, Rachael Horovitz, Michael Sucsy; producer, David Coatsworth; director, Sucsy; writers, Sucsy, Patricia Rozema; story by Sucsy.
"Little Edie" Beale - Drew Barrymore
"Big Edie" Beale - Jessica Lange
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis - Jeanne Tripplehorn
Phelan Beale - Ken Howard
Julius "Cap" Krug - Daniel Baldwin
George "Gould" Strong - Malcolm Gets
Albert Maysles - Arye Gross
David Maysles - Justin Long
How could a ravishing young debutante and her life-of-every-party mother -- relatives of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, no less -- become crazy cat ladies, occupying a dilapidated 28-room East Hampton mansion? "Grey Gardens," an HBO movie inspired by the eponymous documentary shot in 1973, doesn't fully answer that question -- indeed, there's a rather sizable hole in the story -- but nevertheless has a fabulous time contemplating it, showcasing marvelous performances by Drew Barrymore and Jessica Lange. It's a must-see for those fascinated by the lore of the U.S.' modern Camelot, as well as another sure to be lavishly adorned movie for the pay channel.
Director-producer Michael Sucsy (who also co-wrote with Patricia Rozema) is such a devotee of the original documentary that he spends chunks of the movie grainily recreating scenes from it, while turning the filmmakers (Arye Gross, Justin Long) into minor characters.
The film is strongest, though, when flashing back to portray mother and daughter before their descent, opening in the mid-1930s, when 18-year-old Little Edie (Barrymore) dreamt of being a starlet, and her vivacious mother, Big Edie (Lange), would entertain with elaborate song-and-dance numbers at parties.
"You're the mother of my children, not a showgirl," snaps her disapproving husband, Phelan (Ken Howard), who is soon out of the picture.
Events roll along innocuously enough, with Little Edie beginning a relationship with a high-powered married man (Daniel Baldwin), while Big Edie finds herself alone in that great big house. Yet when the tryst ends badly, the daughter takes refuge at home, even as the mother's resources wither. Even so, Big Edie refuses to leave Grey Gardens, despite exhausting her trust fund.
By the time the filmmakers encounter them in the early 1970s, they've settled into an oddly reclusive life, so much so that local authorities raid the place, which is overrun with cats and raccoons. It's not until then that Jackie O. (Jeanne Tripplehorn, looking the part, but without much else to do) takes an interest in their fate.
Beyond Big Edie's extraordinary attachment to the property, the movie doesn't fully convey who the enabler and the enabled were in this co-dependent existence. The two Edies are also, as one says, an "acquired taste," so their overly mannered speech and affectations -- coupled with the ravages of Bill Corso's uncomfortable-looking makeup, aging the stars 40 years -- require a bit of getting used to.
Barrymore and Lange nevertheless deliver vibrant, wonderfully theatrical turns, with Barrymore in particular seeming delighted to sink her teeth into a character this meaty after a blur of relatively forgettable romantic comedies. That's not to say "Grey Gardens" is without romance, but it's an unorthodox one -- in essence a love story between these two women who take refuge from the world in each other's company.
All told, it's an impeccably rendered piece, down to the smallest details -- the kind of lush, meticulous little parcel that relatively few outlets these days have the means or latitude to cultivate.
Camera, Mike Eley; production designer, Kalina Ivanov; editors, Alan Heim, Lee Percy; music, Rachel Portman; makeup, Bill Corso; casting, Ellen Parks. 104 MIN.
"I want cement covering every blade of grass in this nation! Don't we taxpayers have a voice anymore?" Peggy Gravel (Mink Stole) in John Waters' Desperate Living (1977)
Precious Doll wrote:I do suspect it's because the film itself isn't that good. Newsweek gave it a rather tepid review.
Reviews are reviews. There's a good one for every bad one.
Here's one praising Barrymore:
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_IJQynD....sts.jpg
And others:
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_IJQynD....iew.jpg
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_IJQynD....ple.jpg
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_IJQynD....g-1.jpg
Edited By flipp525 on 1239318743
"The mantle of spinsterhood was definitely in her shoulders. She was twenty five and looked it."
-Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
-Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
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Precious Doll
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I believe that this film was made with the intention of a cinema release. Does anyone know why the film didn't get picked up by distributors or even shown at film festivals?
Clearly if HBO could have gotten into cinemas they would have.
I do suspect it's because the film itself isn't that good. Newsweek gave it a rather tepid review. It will be interesting to see what the critical reaction is over the next couple of weeks.
Clearly if HBO could have gotten into cinemas they would have.
I do suspect it's because the film itself isn't that good. Newsweek gave it a rather tepid review. It will be interesting to see what the critical reaction is over the next couple of weeks.
"I want cement covering every blade of grass in this nation! Don't we taxpayers have a voice anymore?" Peggy Gravel (Mink Stole) in John Waters' Desperate Living (1977)
My uncle went to a special HBO screening of Grey Gardens in Santa Monica last Friday (for families of those depicted in the film) and he said that the film was extremely well-done. Barrymore and Lange absolutely disappear into their characters. I would expect both actresses will be promoted for awards consideration as co-leads.
Drew Barrymore on completely transforming for the role of Little Edie in Elle magazine:
“I knew this was not a courtesy meeting, but not far from it. I didn’t want to come in there like a hungry freak. But I also felt every second counting. So – polite conversation, then he started looking through my binder, and I saw his demeanor change, actually noticing all the hard work I had put into it. So I just put it out there. I said, ‘Look – I have all of this inside of me, and I promise you that I will change my face to be her. I will learn how to stop talking out of the side of my mouth. I will go to school to relearn body language. I will shut out the world. I will not talk to my friends. I will give up my life for this, because I don’t think you can play this character and have a social life and balance the two mentalities. I won’t act. I’ll become this person.’”
Edited By flipp525 on 1239134812
Drew Barrymore on completely transforming for the role of Little Edie in Elle magazine:
“I knew this was not a courtesy meeting, but not far from it. I didn’t want to come in there like a hungry freak. But I also felt every second counting. So – polite conversation, then he started looking through my binder, and I saw his demeanor change, actually noticing all the hard work I had put into it. So I just put it out there. I said, ‘Look – I have all of this inside of me, and I promise you that I will change my face to be her. I will learn how to stop talking out of the side of my mouth. I will go to school to relearn body language. I will shut out the world. I will not talk to my friends. I will give up my life for this, because I don’t think you can play this character and have a social life and balance the two mentalities. I won’t act. I’ll become this person.’”
Edited By flipp525 on 1239134812
"The mantle of spinsterhood was definitely in her shoulders. She was twenty five and looked it."
-Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
-Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
An article on the secrets of Grey Gardens as revealed in the upcoming HBO production. Among other things, the article mentions that Renee Zellweger was the director's first choice to play Little Edie:
http://www.nypost.com/seven/03172009/tv/gardens_secrets_159895.htm
Michael Musto's take in The Village Voice:
http://blogs.villagevoice.com/dailymu...._bl.php
Edited By flipp525 on 1238161290
http://www.nypost.com/seven/03172009/tv/gardens_secrets_159895.htm
Michael Musto's take in The Village Voice:
http://blogs.villagevoice.com/dailymu...._bl.php
Edited By flipp525 on 1238161290
"The mantle of spinsterhood was definitely in her shoulders. She was twenty five and looked it."
-Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
-Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
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rolotomasi99
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Reza wrote:Big Magilla wrote:It's an original dramatic work based on their lives, not an adaptation of either the documentary or the stage musical.
Oh I see! I thought it was an adaptation of the stage musical.
i thought it was an adaptation of the documentary which was the cinematic documentation of their lives, when in fact it is...well, what big magilla said.
Edited By rolotomasi99 on 1233871550
"When it comes to the subject of torture, I trust a woman who was married to James Cameron for three years."
-- Amy Poehler in praise of Zero Dark Thirty director Kathryn Bigelow
-- Amy Poehler in praise of Zero Dark Thirty director Kathryn Bigelow
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Big Magilla
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