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The online film magazine Combustible Celluloid offers new movie reviews, DVD reviews, film reviews, actor interviews, actress interviews, director interviews, film books and all things cinema related for the thoughtful and passionate. Online for ten years! Over 3000 reviews!

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Grey Gardens (1975)

Rating: 3 1/2 Stars (out of 4)

Staunch

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

Buy Grey Gardens on DVD

Brothers David and Albert Maysles brought innovative methods to their documentaries: no narrative structure and no narration -- just truth. Their most famous and most spectacular work is still the 1970 Rolling Stones film Gimme Shelter (also available on Criterion DVD), but this unusual pair of docs is certainly worth inclusion in any DVD library. Salesman (1969, Criterion Collection, $39.95), selected for the Library of Congress's National Registry of Film, follows four Bible salesmen on their beats in the American South. Far more outrageous, the cult classic Grey Gardens (1975, Criterion Collection, $39.95) tells the story of Jackie Onassis' outcast cousin "Little Edie" and aunt Edith Bouvier Beale, who live in a dilapidated mansion outside of New York. Criterion presents both DVDs in outstanding new transfers and both come with Albert Maysles commentary tracks (David Maysles passed away in 1987), with tons of extras. Grey Gardens includes a fairly recent telephone conversation between Edie and Albert that shouldn't be missed.

Starring: Edith 'Little Edie' Bouvier Beale, Edith Bouvier Beale, Jack Helmuth, Brooks Hires, Norman Vincent Peale, Jerry Torre, Lois Wright
Written by: n/a
Directed by: Albert Maysles, David Maysles
MPAA Rating: PG
Running Time: 100 minutes
Date: December 6, 2001