Grey Gardens (1975)

Edith 'Little Edie' Bouvier Beale : But you see in dealing with me, the relatives didn't know that they were dealing with a staunch character and I tell you if there's anything worse than dealing with a staunch woman... S-T-A-U-N-C-H. There's nothing worse, I'm telling you. They don't weaken, no matter what.

Edith 'Big Edie' Bouvier Beale : The cat's going to the bathroom right right in back of my portrait.

Edith 'Little Edie' Bouvier Beale : God, isn't that awful?

Edith 'Big Edie' Bouvier Beale : No, I'm glad he is. I'm glad somebody's doing something he wanted to do.

Edith 'Little Edie' Bouvier Beale : This is the best thing to wear for today, you understand. Because I don't like women in skirts and the best thing is to wear pantyhose or some pants under a short skirt, I think. Then you have the pants under the skirt and then you can pull the stockings up over the pants underneath the skirt. And you can always take off the skirt and use it as a cape. So I think this is the best costume for today.

Edith 'Little Edie' Bouvier Beale : ...It's very difficult to keep the line between the past and the present... Do you know what I mean...?

Edith 'Little Edie' Bouvier Beale : I can't stand being in this house. In the first place, it makes me terribly nervous. I'm scared to death of doors, locks, people roaming around in the background, under the trees, in the bushes, I'm absolutely terrified.

Edith 'Little Edie' Bouvier Beale : Do you think my costume looked all right for Brooks? I think he was a little amazed.

David Maysles : He's probably seen it before.

Edith 'Little Edie' Bouvier Beale : No, no, this is the revolutionary costume! I never wear this in East Hampton!

Edith 'Little Edie' Bouvier Beale : We better check on mother and the cats. She's a lot of fun, I hope she doesn't die. I hate to spend another winter here though. Oh God, another winter.

Edith 'Little Edie' Bouvier Beale : I don't think there's any point in my meeting anybody that doesn't like music. Do you mother?

Edith 'Little Edie' Bouvier Beale : I tried to get you; I called and called and called.

Albert Maysles : Oh, yeah? How's everything?

Edith 'Little Edie' Bouvier Beale : I guess you went out. Then I called again. You were busy. Guess what's happened.

Albert Maysles : What?

Edith 'Little Edie' Bouvier Beale : What I... What I had felt was in the cards, you know, and I'm tellin' ya, I'm not gonna spend another ten years with this. You know, I spent ten years with the last.

Albert Maysles : You mean Tom Logan.

David Maysles : What is it now?

Edith 'Little Edie' Bouvier Beale : The Marble Faun is moving in.

Albert Maysles : Who is?

Edith 'Little Edie' Bouvier Beale : The Marble Faun.

David Maysles : Jerry.

Albert Maysles : Oh!

Edith 'Little Edie' Bouvier Beale : He just gave us a washing machine. That cements the deal. I gotta get outta here! I'm not gonna spend the rest of my life washing clothes in that goddamn...

Albert Maysles : I don't blame you!

Edith 'Little Edie' Bouvier Beale : So, I can see now why girls get married. You know, they're forced into it. It's all a question of who you want to stay with. Of course, I'm mad about animals; but, raccoons and cats become a little bit boring. I mean, for too long a time.

Edith 'Little Edie' Bouvier Beale : He might as well leave right now, 'cause he's *never* gonna get it. So that's it.

Edith 'Big Edie' Bouvier Beale : Get what? Sex with you?

Edith 'Little Edie' Bouvier Beale : What he's after!

Edith 'Big Edie' Bouvier Beale : He doesn't want any sex with you.

Edith 'Little Edie' Bouvier Beale : That's all they're after!

Edith 'Big Edie' Bouvier Beale : An old person like you?

Edith 'Little Edie' Bouvier Beale : That's all they're after! So why don't you tell him right now? You should tell him right now so I'm not bothered by him.

Edith 'Little Edie' Bouvier Beale : [stepping out of the house] ... damn, horrible place in two years! God, if you knew how I felt, I'm ready to kill!

Edith 'Little Edie' Bouvier Beale : If you can't get a man to propose to you, you might as well be dead.

Edith 'Little Edie' Bouvier Beale : I only cared about three things: the Catholic Church, swimming and dancing, and I had to give them up.

Edith 'Little Edie' Bouvier Beale : Do you think I'm gonna look funny dancing?

Albert Maysles , David Maysles : No...

Edith 'Little Edie' Bouvier Beale : I do terrific dances!

Edith 'Little Edie' Bouvier Beale : My God, my muscles, I can't do it, I'm tellin' you! What am I going to do! They're gone, with this soft life!

[Little Edie is reading from her astrology book]

Edith 'Little Edie' Bouvier Beale : "The Libra husband is reasonable. He is a born judge, and no other zodiacal type can order his life with so much wisdom." God! That's all I need: order! That's all I need: an ordered life. You know, a manager. But he's *got* to be a Libran.

Edith 'Little Edie' Bouvier Beale : Mother, you don't have enough clothes on.

Edith 'Big Edie' Bouvier Beale : Well, I'm going to get naked in just a minute, so you better watch out.

Edith 'Little Edie' Bouvier Beale : That's what I'm afraid of.

Edith 'Big Edie' Bouvier Beale : Yeah, for what, now why? I haven't got any warts on me.

Edith 'Little Edie' Bouvier Beale : But the movie, the movie!

Edith 'Big Edie' Bouvier Beale : I haven't got any warts on me!

Edith 'Little Edie' Bouvier Beale : That isn't the point, mother darling.

Edith 'Little Edie' Bouvier Beale : I'll tell you the whole thing. You might as well face it. It's my mother's house - and she owns it. And she wanted the people she wanted in it, and she didn't want the people that I wanted in it. But, God knows whom I wanted in it.

Edith 'Little Edie' Bouvier Beale : No, I'm not ready; I have no makeup on... but things are getting better!

Norman Vincent Peale : He wasn't emotional! He didn't get upset! He wasn't nervous!

Edith 'Little Edie' Bouvier Beale : He wasn't me!

Edith 'Little Edie' Bouvier Beale : Listen, kid! I'm extremely organized. I know exactly where to look for this stuff. I've got it under control right here, but I can't find it. Get it?

Edith 'Little Edie' Bouvier Beale : You can't have your cake and eat it, too in life.

Edith 'Big Edie' Bouvier Beale : Oh, yes, I did. I did, I had my cake, loved it, masticated it, chewed it and had everything I wanted.

Edith 'Little Edie' Bouvier Beale : I think my days at Grey Gardens are limited.

Edith 'Little Edie' Bouvier Beale : You know, I call Jerry "the Marble Faun."

Handyman : Nathaniel Hawthorne?

Edith 'Little Edie' Bouvier Beale : Yeah.

Handyman : You have that book here, Edie?

Edith 'Little Edie' Bouvier Beale : I haven't been able to find it.

Handyman : If you run across it, I'd like to read it.

Edith 'Little Edie' Bouvier Beale : It's very deep; I don't know whether you... Well, I guess you're up to it. They used to have it on all the, uh... I think it was on the high school reading list... "The Marble Faun."

Edith 'Big Edie' Bouvier Beale : [offering food to David and Al Maysles] Will you eat some liver pate, you kiddies?

Edith 'Little Edie' Bouvier Beale : It's not awfully good.

Edith 'Big Edie' Bouvier Beale : If you put lemon with it, it's all right.

Edith 'Big Edie' Bouvier Beale : I may die with this diet!

Edith 'Little Edie' Bouvier Beale : I'm pulverized by this latest thing!

Edith 'Little Edie' Bouvier Beale : I always took French, but nothing ever happened there. I can read and write in French, but I can't speak it!

Edith 'Little Edie' Bouvier Beale : It's very difficult to keep the line between the past and the present. You know what I mean? It's awfully difficult.

Edith 'Little Edie' Bouvier Beale : Horrors! Somebody's removing the books from my room! Where'd this little book come from?

Edith 'Little Edie' Bouvier Beale : She doesn't like the Catholic Church.

Edith 'Big Edie' Bouvier Beale : Oh, go on, what the hell, I worship the Catholic Church!

[first lines]

Edith 'Little Edie' Bouvier Beale : What're you doing down there? You staying there?

Edith 'Little Edie' Bouvier Beale : I like freedom.

Edith 'Big Edie' Bouvier Beale : Well, you can't get it, darling. You're being supported. You can't get any freedom when you're being supported.

Edith 'Little Edie' Bouvier Beale : You can't?

Edith 'Big Edie' Bouvier Beale : No. You can't get it.

Edith 'Little Edie' Bouvier Beale : I think you're not free when you're not being supported... .It's awful both ways.

Edith 'Little Edie' Bouvier Beale : Ponder - both? Or, pondering each? Pondering one, I took the other. And that made all the difference.

Edith 'Big Edie' Bouvier Beale : Robert Frost?

Edith 'Little Edie' Bouvier Beale : Isn't that wonderful?

Edith 'Big Edie' Bouvier Beale : Did he say that?

Edith 'Little Edie' Bouvier Beale : That's all you need, just three lines like that.

Edith 'Big Edie' Bouvier Beale : Edie, is that Robert Frost?

Edith 'Little Edie' Bouvier Beale : Who else?

Edith 'Little Edie' Bouvier Beale : I think my days at Grey Gardens are limited. I think my days at Grey Gardens are limited.

Edith 'Little Edie' Bouvier Beale : [complaining about Jerry] I'm so sick of that kid! I mean, I have great pity for him and I like him, but...

[Little Edie is reading from her astrology book]

Edith 'Little Edie' Bouvier Beale : "The Libra husband is not an easy man to please. The monotony of domesticity is not to his liking, but he is a passionate man, and a respecter of tradition." All I have to do is find this Libra man.

Edith 'Little Edie' Bouvier Beale : She likes everything - without girdles.

Edith 'Little Edie' Bouvier Beale : I suppose I won't get out of here until she dies or I die.

Edith 'Big Edie' Bouvier Beale : Who is she?

Edith 'Little Edie' Bouvier Beale : I don't know when I'm going to get out of here.

Edith 'Big Edie' Bouvier Beale : Well, why do you want to get out?

Edith 'Little Edie' Bouvier Beale : Because I don't like it.

Edith 'Big Edie' Bouvier Beale : Anyplace would be much worse. Anyplace on earth.

Edith 'Little Edie' Bouvier Beale : [wearing a halter top] Oh, God, do you think it's going to stay up? I feel something slipping.

Edith 'Little Edie' Bouvier Beale : I'm not a bit terrified of the city. Not a bit. I like the terrible noise you hear at night and all these terrible drilling sounds. I never - I never go to sleep unless the whole pavement is jumping outside and it's 100 degrees and that drill is going onk-onk-onk-onk-onk-onk and then I just go to sleep.

Edith 'Little Edie' Bouvier Beale : The hallmark of aristocracy is responsibility, is that it?

Edith 'Little Edie' Bouvier Beale : When am I going to get out of here?

Edith 'Big Edie' Bouvier Beale : She's always talking like that.

Edith 'Little Edie' Bouvier Beale : You don't know who Max Gordon is? He's a famous producer. You've heard of him, haven't you? He discovered Judy Holliday. He discovered Judy Holliday. He said I was much funnier.

Edith 'Little Edie' Bouvier Beale : No one took care of Mrs. Beale. She had my father's money and her own money - the Bouvier money. And another thing, Mrs. Beale wasn't taken care of sexually!

Edith 'Little Edie' Bouvier Beale : I can't. I just can't. I can't spend another winter out here in the country. I can't do it. I don't enjoy it. Furthermore, I'm telling you, I can't get my figure back unless I hit New York City. You know, that ice box is too near. I got to get away from that ice box.

Edith 'Little Edie' Bouvier Beale : It's absolutely disgusting, for women to alone. What are they proving? They have to go around dogs or other women or something.

Edith 'Big Edie' Bouvier Beale : Dogs are lovely. I'll take a dog anyway.

Edith 'Little Edie' Bouvier Beale : I'm pulverized by this latest thing.

Edith 'Little Edie' Bouvier Beale : I can't get the thumbtack in the wall. I got the saddest life.

Edith 'Little Edie' Bouvier Beale : Are you absolutely crazy? There isn't anything I can't do.

Edith 'Big Edie' Bouvier Beale : You didn't say "la". You're not Czechoslovakian. Love! You don't say "laaave". You say the la - you see, she knows she's singing so badly she had to wiggle about 20 times to every note to distract the people, you know, that she really can't sing a drop.

Edith 'Little Edie' Bouvier Beale : I can sing - like mad!

Edith 'Big Edie' Bouvier Beale : Well, sing beautifully. You're singing incorrectly. Very ugly. All of us must do everything correctly.

Edith 'Little Edie' Bouvier Beale : I see myself as - a little girl and all that.

Edith 'Big Edie' Bouvier Beale : And I see a very immature child.

Edith 'Little Edie' Bouvier Beale : You know, she see's me as a baby and I see myself as - some kind of a little girl. They see me as a woman. I don't - I don't see it. When I get out of here, I do. When I go to New York City I'll see myself as a woman. But, in here, I'm just, you know, mother's little daughter.

Edith 'Little Edie' Bouvier Beale : If I only knew the words, Marlene Dietrich.

[singing]

Edith 'Little Edie' Bouvier Beale : Down around the lamppost, It's Lili Marleen.

[speaking]

Edith 'Little Edie' Bouvier Beale : That's an old war song, mother.

Edith 'Big Edie' Bouvier Beale : You are not going to sing that song! Stop it, will you!

Edith 'Little Edie' Bouvier Beale : Why not?

Edith 'Big Edie' Bouvier Beale : Because I don't want to hear it. I'm your mother. Remember me?

Edith 'Little Edie' Bouvier Beale : I stood for yours all these years.

Edith 'Big Edie' Bouvier Beale : Come on. Well, my voice is beautiful and trained. It was beautifully trained, my voice. I never tried to attract men with it.

Edith 'Little Edie' Bouvier Beale : She's always hated Marlene Dietrich.

Edith 'Big Edie' Bouvier Beale : I can't stand her!

Edith 'Little Edie' Bouvier Beale : She absolutely loathes Marlene Dietrich.

Edith 'Big Edie' Bouvier Beale : She makes me very ill.

Edith 'Big Edie' Bouvier Beale : Stop that silly nonsense! Quit it!

Edith 'Little Edie' Bouvier Beale : I can't have any fun.

Edith 'Big Edie' Bouvier Beale : Go away! You've had enough fun all your life.

Edith 'Little Edie' Bouvier Beale : I never had a minute's fun. Not a minute. I never had a minute's fun.

Edith 'Little Edie' Bouvier Beale : Unless the man understands music, there's no point in my even meeting him. Cause I never could figure out what was wrong, you know, with stockbrokers and tennis players.

Edith 'Little Edie' Bouvier Beale : Mother, do you realize that your whole chest was showing in that movie?

Edith 'Big Edie' Bouvier Beale : Yeah, I'm awful glad everything is perfectly disgusting on account of you. You did it. You sure bring out the worst in your mother.

Edith 'Little Edie' Bouvier Beale : It's very depressing, you know, when winter sets in here. You know, cause I don't like the country and I don't want to be here. Any little rat - any little rat's nest in New York, any little mouse hole, any little rat hole, even on 10th Avenue - I would like better.

Edith 'Big Edie' Bouvier Beale : Sing "Only a Rose" now Edie. You ought to do that. Go on sing it.

[singing]

Edith 'Big Edie' Bouvier Beale : Only a rose

Edith 'Little Edie' Bouvier Beale : Only a rose... Only a rose, I give you, Only a rose

Edith 'Big Edie' Bouvier Beale : Dying away

Edith 'Little Edie' Bouvier Beale : Dying away, Only a rose

Edith 'Big Edie' Bouvier Beale : To keep in memory

Edith 'Little Edie' Bouvier Beale : To keep in memory, Only...

[laughs]