While waiting for Flight of the Conchords to come on I chanced upon a preview of the April 18 premiere of the HBO cable network film Grey Gardens starring Jessica Lange and Drew Barrymore. I was familiar with the story having seen Grey Gardens, a 1975 documentary directed by the Maysles Brothers and found it quite fascinating. It depicted the story of two women, Big Edie Beale, real name Edith Bouvier Beale, the aunt of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, and her daughter, "Little Edie", Jackie's cousin. Their story is told through narative remembrances of the two women who in their heyday were well-to-do and affluent living in the magnificent 28 room mansion in East Hampton. They are filmed living in the house now in complete disrepair with raccoons and a plethora of cats in filth and squalor.
As the story unfolds we are introduced to "Little Edie" the "fashion designer"(she has a thing for designing her own unique clothes especially turbans). Edie could have been a famous Broadway star but she had to return home to care for her reclusive invalid mother. Their matter-of-fact attitude toward their unsanitary living conditions is strangely mesmerizing to watch. Due to the world's fascination with this eccentric mother and daughter there is even a Broadway Musical called Grey Gardens, a new musical. Evpl has the soundtrack. What little I saw looked like it was very well done. The flashbacks of Drew as Little Edie as a fresh faced beautiful young debutante are paired with current views of her at 56. Her mother, Big Edie, Jessica Lange, needs her and she abandons her singing career to return to Grey Gardens. The roles become reversed as they struggle to keep their home from being condemned. The library has copies of the original Grey Gardens.