Welcome to Grey Gardens … as you've never seen it before.
Three years before the Maysles' landmark documentary introduced the world to Edith and Edie Beale — the unforgettable mother-daughter (and Jackie O. relatives) living in a decaying dream world on Long Island — renowned photographer Peter Beard chronicled life at their crumbling estate during one summer in 1972.
For the first time ever, director Göran Olsson assembles this long-lost footage — featuring glimpses of luminaries like Andy Warhol, Mick Jagger, and Truman Capote — into a one-of-a-kind family portrait bursting with the loving squabbles, quotable bon mots, and impromptu musical numbers that would make Big and Little Edie beloved cultural icons.
“To me, this film is very much a love story,” said director Göran Olsson. “The original footage reflects Peter Beard’s and Lee Radziwill’s relationship and the love and respect they had for their friends, including Big and Little Edie Beale. I hope it also reflects our own love and respect for the characters and the time.”
“The people in this film were so ahead of their time. It’s only today that the mainstream is starting to catch up to their concerns, their expressiveness and even their style,” added Olsson.
“There is a contradiction in the fascination of glamour and nostalgia and the desire for real social change that, in many ways, mimics the contradiction of everyday life itself. But there is also a possibility to combine the two, developed by thinkers, activists and artists in the last century. This film explores a facet of that,” says Olsson.
“This is, after all, a cast who made an epic contribution to the narrative of culture, and who were also prescient about the future — who understood how the commodification of images was changing our relationship to ourselves and the world — and who responded to this creatively.”