Read the following essay...http://documentary.net/direct-cinema-and-cinema-verite-guide-to-the-genres/ and use at least one quote in your response.
Discuss in at least two paragraphs how the Maysles cinematically depict Grey Gardens (the home) and Mrs. Beale and Edie. Mise-en-scene, shot types, lighting, etc. all play into how they are represented.
In a separate paragraph, give me your response to the film as a whole.
Due Friday, January 24.
The Maysles' documentary uses the style, "Cinema Verite" to depict Grey Gardens, the home of Mrs. Beale and Edie. Albert and David Maysles use of closeup shots, cutaways, and mise-en-scene all aid in portraying to the audience the women's real lives and personalities.
ReplyDeleteThe Maysles use of cutaways and closeup shots allows for the audience to have a more personal experience with the women. Instead of just having a medium shot of the women sitting while they're talking to the camera, interview style. Albert and David take obscure shots of objects in the house, cats, or other things that are apart of the women's home while the women are talking off screen. This allows the audience to connect with the women on a more personal level, by allowing us to see the things that the women are surrounded by every day. The mise-en-scene is also interesting, because its all real! The costumes are not costumes, they are just the clothing the women wear regularly! And the set is the actual home! Nothing is staged. This really allows the audience to observe how the women live and behave.
I absolutely loved this documentary. I found the topic to be very interesting, as well as the style of filmmaking the Maysles used. They immersed themselves in the culture and environment of these women. Mrs. Beale and Edie did not pretend the cameras weren't there, they interacted with Albert and David. Edie even developed a bit of a crush on them! She made comments to the camera about how she was happier when they were there. To me, the entire concept of cinema verite is very interesting. I hope to use this style of filmmaking myself in the future.
In the documentary of Grey Gardens, the Maysles explore the lives of Mrs. Beale and Edie, two women that live in an abandoned mansion, who are both very strange and live in filth. The Maysles have a specific way that they filmed this documentary because of the way that they wanted to depict the home of Grey Gardens an also how they wanted to depict Mrs. Beale and Edie. The Maysles use a style of documenting known as Cinema Vérité in which the people shooting the documentary make their presence known instead of being like a “fly on the wall” as in direct cinema. This can be seen during the ongoing conversations the Maysles have with the two women during filming that got put into the movie. It’s also not formal interview, it’s just on the spot questions that “the filmed subjects didn’t plan to share.”
ReplyDeleteThe actual place that they live in, Grey Gardens, is “characterized” by the camera by having cutaways around the house. The Maysles typically had close-ups or long shots of different areas of the house that really brought up similar conclusions about where the Beale’s live; in a dirty, run down, overgrown mansion. The Maysles show close-ups of cats running about the house, garbage and litter and filth everywhere, and in the midst of it all the Beale’s have important belongings thrown about with the trash. The Maysles also have long shots outside the house that show the almost seemingly endless amount of overgrown shrubbery and trees and dying plants. We see huge cracks in the walls, falling foundations and raccoons invading the attic of the mansion, and this creates a lasting image in the viewer’s head because of the way that the Maysles dedicated close up shots of all this stuff for the documentary itself. Then these images make the viewer wonder, “who can live like this.” And this is answered when the Maysles portray Mrs. Beale and Edie.
The Maysles cinematically show the true lives of Mrs. Beale and Edie by showing how they react and live with each other every day, but how they portray them is a different story. Cinematically, the only things we see that portray Mrs. Beale and Edie. We generally see the two women in close ups or medium shots while they address the film makers or the camera, answering their questions, making it a Vérité style of documentation. What’s important about this is we can look at them most of the time and explore who they are as they live in this building that is falling apart, and see their reactions up close and personal on the screen. Another thing we can note is their outfits/ make-up and hair design. They inform the viewer about how they seem to be poor living in there in-humane conditions, but it surprises us when we learn from them that they are inheritance of a rich family. So what happened along the way? We don’t know, its left a mystery mostly. Another thing to note is how the Maysles portray them by only showing their side of the story. We learn everything we need to about them from them, how no one from the town stops by, how everyone judges them, and we know about this because of how they almost got kicked out of their house because of the unclean problem. So it’s interesting to see how the Maysles decided to portray the peculiar lives of these two peculiar women.
Overall I thought the documentary to be kind of weird, but in a good way. The documentary as a whole was really well put together, exploring a lot of aspects of the live of these two women, telling their life story based on how they perceive the past. In the end we feel bad for Edie who seems to have gone crazy from all the things her mother has done to her over the years, and the final scene at the end really showed me their complex relationship with that final argument before the end of the film. So overall I thought it was an interesting documentary regardless of the strange documentary topic.
I agree with Austin
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ReplyDeleteWithin the 1975 film Grey Gardens, one of the main things that I believe the Maysles wanted to achieve, is showing how the Beales were in the past and how they were currently. They wanted to emphasize the large border that separated the past from the present, which in this case, was the house in which they lived. While watching the documentary, I constantly tried to imagine how such wealthy and beautiful women ended up in a poor position. The Maysles do a great job in revealing the true reality, the reality hidden behind their successful past and the fact that they’re related to Jackie Kennedy. We are able “to see so-called “priviledged moments”, when those being filmed forget that fact and a somewhat hidden truth is being revealed”, which is explained by Oliver Stangl in his post on direct cinema. The old house looks as though a wild house party were thrown in it, as it creaks with the sound of the past, and traumatized cats scurry about the years of clutter build up.
ReplyDeleteThere are plenty of cutaways to surrounding objects, such as cats, photographs, and garbage. The conditions that the Beales were living in is a reflection of their mental state. From seeing all of the neglected parts of the house filled with garbage and damages, we understand that they’ve been through a lot in the decades they’ve been there. The camera would often drift into a cutaway when Big or Little Edie is talking, so it’s like they’re narrating their own lives. A good example is 31 minutes into the film, when Little Edie and Big Edie are sharing stories about themselves, and the Maysles zoom into a photograph of Little Edie. It’s very interesting hearing her talk, and seeing old pictures of her younger self. One of the Maysles asks “didn't you expect that edith might get married some day?”, as they film close ups of photos of Little Edie. They discuss all of the things she could have done and how she had so much potential. Close ups help us to emotionally become more understanding of the situation that the Beales are in.
What is also important is how the Maysles do not use non-diegetic music within the film. By only using diegetic sounds, everything is more authentic . We catch all of the silent moments in their conversations and how their voices echo in the large house. For the entire time, all we hear is Big Edie and Little going back and forth. We get to see the type of bickering that was going on for the past years. Jerry Torre’s ears must have melted after his work at the grey gardens (he had a documentary made about him as well). About 16 minutes in, there is a long shot of Little Edie as she searches for a record. As the camera slowly zooms into her face and everything is silent, all we can hear is how crazy she’s gotten.
The film “Grey Gardens” is a documentary about two women who are mother and daughter, Mrs. Beale and Edie her daughter, who are in their 80’s and 50’s respectfully, and live in a falling apart old house that is depicted as a house well passed its prime with desperate need of renovation. The first few shots of the movie show a giant hole in the wall with a racoon or some sort of animal in it showing just how old and beaten up this house really is. In so many shots the Maysles frame one of the women as the main subject, but then also at the same time in the background of the shot they would put in the frame of the shot a hole in the wall or a huge mess or something that highlights the house as it is and as it is falling apart juxtaposing the house with these also old and most likely past their prime women. The way the shots are set up, these women are portrayed as being in the same shape as their house is, falling apart and being lost in memory. These women are also portrayed as crazy people as well as it seems these women almost never get human contact very often. This is the very meaning of the documentary itself, age and decay in both the house and the women.
ReplyDeleteThe final few scenes of the movie the viewer starts to realize that these women aren’t just a little off their rockers, but they are full blown crazy. As the mother yells at her daughter about how she will never leave the house and will never get married and all this stuff, you start to realize just exactly how the daughter had become what seems like crazy. The Mother and daughter have a strange argument and the mother yells at Edie about how Edie won't ever leave this house no matter what Edie says. The room is messy and the way the shot is it feels very claustrophobic as well as a dimly lite room made the entire scene seem much drearier and it makes the audience feel sorry for Edie being stuck with this woman as her mother. She seemed mean and bitter towards Edie in my opinion.
My personal response to film was that I didn’t really like it. At first it was kinda funny and awkward how strange these two people are, but as the movie went on, I started to think they were just strange to thinking they were completely insane. By the end of the movie, I even felt bad for Edie that she had to live with her mother for so long. Maybe I didn't see enough of their relationship to judge them and their mother daughter relationship, but it seemed that Mrs. Beale is rude and almost ungrateful for Edie living with her and taking care of her. So as a final response to the movie, it made me feel uncomfortable and it reminded me of a now a day reality show. I loved the documentary as a documentary, i was very interesting and a very good style in which it was made, but i didn’t like the movie as a movie itself if that makes sense.