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On rewatching the film, she says, you begin to see the motivations behind its making — both the plucky vulnerability of the mother and daughter, now living in squalor in a collapsing mansion on Long Island, and the gentle intrusion of the filmmakers, Albert and David Maysles. By the third time, Champigny says, you begin to love the two women in spite of their apparent fragility and their endless bickering. “It’s almost like a love story,” she says. Whether you’ve seen “Grey Gardens” multiple times or have not yet seen it, the place to be on Friday will be the Cabot, where the 105-year-old theater hosts a special 50th anniversary screening of the cult-classic documentary. Guests are encouraged to dress in costume — Little Edie has become a camp icon, with her elaborate assortment of scarves and headwraps — for an opportunity to win a gift certificate from the Salem vintage store Modern Millie. Born in Dorchester, the Maysles brothers both studied psychology at Boston University. They went on to co-direct several of the acknowledged benchmarks of “direct cinema,” the shoot-from-the-hip style of documentary filmmaking, including “Salesman” (1969) and “Gimme Shelter” (1970). David died in 1987 at age 55; Albert lived until 2015, when he was 88. “They kind of created, with a few other key people, this foundation for documentary,” says Rebekah Maysles, daughter of Albert. “Their idea of being open, honest, and raw is so important — for film, but also for art, writing, poetry.” In 2005, Albert and his family created the nonprofit Maysles Documentary Center to support and showcase the art form. Originally housed in Maysles’s office on 54th Street in Manhattan, the center is now located in a Harlem storefront. Rebekah currently sits on the board. Later this month, the center will host its own anniversary celebration of “Grey Gardens,” with Jerry Torre, one of the film’s secondary subjects, in attendance. (He’s the young handyman whom Little Edie nicknamed the “Marble Faun,” after the Nathaniel Hawthorne novel.) “He’s a total sweetheart,” says Rebekah, who is working on a film about her father’s legacy. According to Rebekah, her father maintained his friendship with Little Edie until her death in 2002 at age 84. Over the years, the Maysles have occasionally been accused of exploitation in the filming of “Grey Gardens,” but Albert maintained that Little Edie was pleased with the finished film. In 2010, the Library of Congress added “Grey Gardens” to its National Film Registry. “I think they really felt like they were seen,” says Rebekah of the Beales, who were famously related to the former first lady Jacqueline Kennedy. Though the Beales’ circumstances were unusual, their lives provide a glimpse of eccentricity “that seems universal,” says Rebekah Maysles. “Crumbling wealth aside, there’s something about them. Everyone has someone like that in their life,” she says. It was Champigny who brought the idea of the 50th anniversary celebration to the Cabot. Since first stumbling on a broadcast of the film many years ago, she has noticed the influence of “Grey Gardens” across the culture, from riches-to-rags stories such as “Schitt’s Creek” and “Gilmore Girls” to “The Queen of Versailles,” the 2012 documentary that has been adapted into a musical. In “Grey Gardens,” Little Edie is portrayed as a former debutante who recognizes that life is passing her by. At one point she begins to recite Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken”: “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood …” “And here she is now,” says Champigny, “immortalized on screen.” “GREY GARDENS” 50TH ANNIVERSARY SCREENING At The Cabot, 286 Cabot St., Beverly. 7 p.m. Friday, Nov. 7. $13.50-16.50. thecabot.org James Sullivan can be reached at jamesgsullivan@gmail.com.
