I’ve ALWAYS been mesmerized by the flag dance

Am I the only person, who feels uneasy when watching Grey Gardens because I can't decide if it was exploitative or not?

You're mesmerized by that? Don't you do stuff around the house like that all the time? I know I do.

My dog pretends to enjoy it.

Bill Heder spoofed it wonderfully.

It’s how she makes the flag the star of her performance

What R2 said.

Smell my asshole

We preferred when she and her mother spooned us.

It wasn't until I saw this that I realized how truly genius Drew BArrymore was as Little Edie.

It’s cool and all, but Big Edie’s song “When we are together, together, together…” expends a lot less energy.

R2, I do. If you married me, we would have a lot of fun just singing and dancing around.

R5 Make it a goal to form your own thoughts and sentences.

[quote] Am I the only person, who feels uneasy when watching Grey Gardens because I can't decide if it was exploitative or not?

I might have until I learned that Little Edie went to the premiere and got a standing ovation, which made her overjoyed.

What she wanted more than anything else was a little love and attention, and the film gave it to her. In fact, it made her an immortal. Long after we are gone people will still be talking about her lovingly and reverentially, and that was what she really wanted.

Well, she’s got it, r12. I fucking LOVE Little Edie and sprinkle her little sayings into my speech. “this is the best outfit for the day” and “The Libra man…” and “I have to think these things up”

R12 Thank you, I didn't know that. I agree the fact that she got a standing ovation at the premiere makes it fine in my book. I think it was clear watching the documentary that all she wanted more than anything was to be a star, of some sort. And, she did get her star moment and it has made her immortal.

Also, did anybody on here see the Broadway musical with Christine Ebersole played Big and Little Edie, at different times of their lives? I never saw it, but I listened to the soundtrack years ago, and now every time I eat grits I start singing "Hominy Grits." It is a catchy earworm but it was also written to unintentionally racist, but I can't help singing it.

R13 I agree!

Sorry, I meant cast album not soundtrack.

Love Little Edie. She had to make up fun shit to do, Broke and taking care of her mother in that falling down old house? Well then, just put on a scarf and leotard and march and dance with a flag. What the fuck else was she supposed to do?

She was always good to us.

Those orange shoes though.. how does she March about like that? I’m always looking for a photograph of her. To date, I haven’t found one.

^ I think she was arrested for wearing a red shoe on a Tuesday, not orange. It’s now a meaner Republican town.

I know it’s probably of no interest here but here in my midwestern abode, I re-enacted the flag dance using my fleshlight.

Well, it's better than seeing a fag dance

I like how she makes that miniature flag the focus

I love Edie. I think she's brilliant, and so much of the behavior in GG I'm able to justify. But this dance.

The Maysles later explained their stupefaction after weeks of Edie teasing them with mentions of her rehearsing her big dance scene, and then for that to be the final product. No clue what her connection was to the VMI Marching Song, and if made more sense in the original context: is she recreating some dance troupe from a football game she attended in the 30s from memory, or is it all her own creation? What can't be disputed: she looks beautiful and happy.

R24 beautiful and happy is how I look as a 49 almost 50 yr old man as I recreate the flag dance in my living room.

^^and yes I have a miniature American flag that I make the focus when I perform the dance for my two little dogs, in my living room.

Of course the fags go crazy over her.

I’m doing the flag dance right now. I wanted you to know…

I always make sure the mini American flag is the star of my dancing. Not me. I feature it just like Edie.

^^^its hard to be humble when you’re one hell of a man who does Grey Gardens dances in his living room for entertainment.

Ending up like the Beales is my greatest fear in life.

[quote]Bill Heder spoofed it wonderfully.

I can't believe that Bill Hader is straight.

Staunch!

I did it better.

R31 I’d love to end up like those women.

I wonder how old she is in that clip

35 or 40?

^^^ Little Edie was in her 50s when the film was made:

Debutant in the ‘30s means 50-year-old in the ‘70s

Little Edie was born in 1917 and Grey Gardens was filmed in 1973 so she was 56 years old at the time.

A rare photo of Little Edie in her later years, taken sometime in the 1990s.

R4 that was appealing to me since I’m a veteran

^^ you know I think they should show op’s clip to our troops stationed overseas. It is very patriotic and may even inspire young servicemen to explore dance.

Drag parody.

Sinead O’Connor has got some moves!

Grey Gardens should be mandatory for the education of high school students to encourage them to avoid getting in that situation. I can understand something like that happening in the 1970s, but nowadays it could be less of a death sentence. The only problem is that if someone in her situation was asking for help on social media she would be mocked and then when she was found dead a bunch of do gooders would say she rejected assistance. Every time I’m reminded of that film I wonder what could have changed things for her.

What could have changed things for her is to get a damn job.

I don’t know her.

DL at its finest. Now I know that--when I do my flag dance in the living room--I AM NOT ALONE.

It’s that time of year to get my portable flags out. Line my two doggies up on the sofa. Put on hooray for the red white and blue then dance dance dance.

My group of friends quote Grey Gardens the way most people reference Seinfeld. We don't associate with those who don't know or care for The Edies.

"Mother wanted me to come out in a kimono, so we had quite a fight..."

"Ending up like the Beales is my greatest fear in life."

I think I would have ended up like Edie, if I'd yielded to the temptation to be a slacker, and stayed at home with my narcissistic mother... and my mother had had a mansion to be narcissistic in!

Things turned out better than that for me, because MY narcissistic mother threw me out instead of keeping me as a pet. Seriously, that's what's going on between mother and daughter, Big Edie is a classic case of NPD and Edie is someone who's spent a lifetime living with an NPD case.

R52 I gave up on that being my worst case scenario years ago as I’ve lowered my bar

Clearly Brit Brit’s inspiration.

A pure culture moment to savor

Better than a PBS special on fish

"[R52] I gave up on that being my worst case scenario years ago as I’ve lowered my bar"

I never said being stuck at Grey Gardens was anyone's worst-case scenario, neither mine nor Edie's!

Edie's life wasn't entirely bad, she had her moment of New York glory, her unhappy years stuck at home with her mother, her second moment of glory, and quietly and happily living out her days in a Florida seaside condo. Things could have been far worse for her, she never spiraled into addiction or married a monster, or ended up on the streets. She may not have had much for decades, but someone else always fed and housed her, even if it was in utter squalor for a while.

L’il Billie

"Am I the only person, who feels uneasy when watching Grey Gardens because I can't decide if it was exploitative or not?"

If it had been anyone else the film might have been exploitative, but Edie seemed to love the attention! For a moment there, she was a STAR, and she still has a niche audience in us!

And she used her newfound notoriety to embarrass her cousin Jackie Bouvier Kennedy Onassis to giving her enough money to live quietly away from the media. So the movie actually had a very positive effect on Edie's life, without it she might have lived the rest of her life being dependent on her brothers once her mother passed, at best, or being abandoned to whatever awaits an eccentric woman with no job skills in America. The movie made Edie both famous and independent, and that's all she ever wanted out of life.

Christine Ebersole: "The Revolutionary Costume for Today" (Grey Gardens -Playwrights Horizons)

Readin my horoscope (and yours).

I’m doing it!

Decisions

“I only mark the hours that shine.” ― Edie Beale

Thanks OP, I needed this today.

I’m S T A U N C H!

[quote]Bill Heder spoofed it wonderfully.

I’m tired of hearing people say he’s totally not gay. LIES.

^^ Also, Hader didn’t spoof her. He paid tribute.

I’m doing it, mama.

he’s totally not gay, R65

My mini flag is my friend