This is unique because it’s not really a character but an actual person in a documentary. Today we are talking about Little Edie Bouvier from the 1975 documentary Grey Gardens.
In some funny ways Little Edie is kind of similar to Napoleon Dynamite. Both have kind of horrible lives but embrace them with contentment. They are both easy to please and I like that.
Grey Gardens is a documentary made by two brothers Albert and David Maysles about 2 distant relatives of Jacqueline Onassis Kennedy, a mother and daughter both named Edith Bouvier (big and little Edie).
But with all of that Little Edie has chosen to be happy. She dances and smiles and speaks her mind to anyone who will hear her.
“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”
Isn’t that a lovely way to stuff it to the high class ladies who probably think they are staunch? I love it!
There’s something to be said for deciding to be happy even to the point of being a little nutty. It certainly beats the alternative.
“‘Course, I’m mad about animals, but raccoons and cats become a little bit boring. I mean, for too long a time.”
“I only cared about three things: the Catholic Church, swimming and dancing, and I had to give them up”
“It’s very difficult to keep the line between the past and the present. You know what I mean? It’s awfully difficult. ”
Little Edie steals every scene she is in and leaves you despite all the crazy feeling, wishing you could have a meal with her and ask her a million questions. You know she would be funny, vulgar, cheerful and probably a little shocking. A movie about both women would have to be a documentary because people would say it is too out there for fiction, and yet there it is.
Proof that the human race is endlessly fascinating.