Grey Gardens

Grey Gardens is another documentary by the Maysles brothers made in 1975 and I much preferred this to Salesman. It explores the world of an eccentric old mother and her middle-aged daughter who live in a run-down mansion and spend their time dreaming about the past. Once again it seemed to me that the actual material was more interesting and inspiring than the filmmaking. Maybe I’m missing something but it seems to me the Maysles brothers don’t really do narrative. They are excellent at capturing and presenting reality and, though I do not find this to be engaging ‘storytelling’ in the conventional sense, I suppose this is what makes them masters of cinema verite (Direct Cinema). As a document recording the lives of two fascinating people Grey Gardens is amazing but as a film it lacks a narrative drive and therefore is not as engaging as it could be.