Big Picture: Grey Gardens (1975)
- Presented By: Tampa Theatre
- Dates: February 25, 2026
- Time: 7:00 PM
- 711 N Franklin St, Tampa, FL 33602
- Price: $9-$12 + taxes and fees
Tampa Theatre
Part of the Big Picture February series "Remembrance of Things Past".
FILM SYNOPSIS: 1h 35m / PG / Documentary, Drama
We showcase Grey Gardens, a 1975 documentary by Albert and David Maysles about the lives of a mother and daughter, both named Edith Beale, who live as recluses in a derelict mansion in the Hamptons. Relatives of Jackie Kennedy, Big Edie and Little Edie (as they are known) live in bizarre squalor, a surreal dreamlike existence that seems to happen half in memory and half in reality. It’s like if Norma Desmond was two people who had never been successful at anything, and also they were dead broke.
In a way, their indefatigable snootiness and clenched insistence on the finest things are the only comical details that make the story tolerable. If they weren’t so fascinatingly full of themselves, it would be too sad to watch. And if it wasn’t real, it would have to be invented.