Little Edie - and her mother Big Edie - are the subject of the Maysles Brothers’ documentary film Grey Gardens.

Their story is way beyond high camp.

The Beales are also Bouviers - as in Jackie Bouvier Kennedy - and Little Edie was once the toast of the town, as a debutante, model and aspiring actress (she claimed proposals of marriage were forthcoming from Howard Hughes and John Paul Getty) until her ailing and abandoned mother called her home to their East Hamptons manse in 1952. From then on, the pair lived together alone, holed up in the house as it went to seed around them.

By the time the documentary-makers showed up with their cameras, the Beales had hit the headlines, and rock bottom, after the local Health Board condemned Grey Gardens, in 1971 (Jackie even donned rubber gloves to help clear the filth).

The film shows their daily routine, up close, in the ‘direct cinema’ style pioneered by the Maysles Brothers - Little Edie dances and sings, lambasts her mother for curtailing her career, and feeds the raccoons that live in the attic; Big Edie sings too, lambasts her daughter for pretty much everything under the sun, and mixes cocktails in jam jars. There isn’t, as far as I remember, a single moment in the film when the Beales are silent. Most of the time, they’re shouting at and over each other, in what is almost a private argot of quick-witted, epigrammatic quips. (They are both, it has to be said, quite, quite mad.)

It’s a moving portrait, then, and one that steers well clear of exploiting the Beales. The cherry on the cake, though, is Little Edie’s look. She is never seen without an improvised turban, usually fashioned by poking her face through the neck of a jumper with the arms tied at the back and a brooch pinned at the temple, and, more often than not, she bunches, ties and rouches up her skirts at random points around the hem. The result, fittingly, ends up somewhere between bag lady and society dame.

Sadly, Grey Gardens is only available on DVD in the US, but it’s well worth tracking down a copy if you’re able to play it. Failing that, you could always read more a wee bit more about the Beales:

• Edith Bouvier Beale, an obituary in The Guardian
• Christopher Barton’s Little Edie Shrine
• Jonno’s Lost In A Sea Of Leaves: Remembering the life - and death - of Little Edie Beale
• Instructions for accessing an ‘Easter Egg’ interview with Little Edie on the Criterion Grey Gardens DVD.

All credit to Janet for introducing me to the Edies and Grey Gardens!