HereToRockYourWorld said:

people often don't the first time. they don't like the women, they find it boring, they feel like the doc is mocking them, etc. my roommate and friends had the same reaction the first time.

then they tend to want to watch it again.

Imago said:

one of the joys of a dvd player and being home alone is you can masturbate if you need.

we won't judge you for it.

but seriously, hedwig first! you'll LOVE hedwig!

HereToRockYourWorld said:

i am naive as hell.

cborgman said:

See, I was thinking that. Like, I have this sense that maybe one day I'll be in the MOOD for it and think it's brilliant.

We'll see.

My whole thing with it was, yeah, I know these people are in the world. I get it. I have a range of emotions about it. It just didn't feel like the film was adding anything to my perspective, which made it feel artless to me.

But. We'll see.

cborgman said:

I totally fuckin' love you.

Oh, and with Grey Gardens, I watched it with Mary. . . sort of. . . she fell asleep about 20 minutes in () and the next time she suggested watching a movie, she added, "but a NORMAL movie, no weird documentaries and nothing with Prince."

Poor thing.

HereToRockYourWorld said:

i found it weird and confusing the first time. the second time i totally realized how like little edie i am, and it scared the fuck out of me. the third time, i started seeing how much is not being said but subtley shown about their relationship... essentially these women have driven each other insane, and have an incredibly toxic relationship that keeps them from being able to be apart.

HereToRockYourWorld said:

i love you too.

cborgman said:

i didn't like it the first time i watched it. i watched it on a fluke cuz i worked at a video store and we could take home movies for free, so i just grabbed GG one night after work and i thought it was kinda dumb and mean.

then over the next few weeks i couldn't stop thinking about it.

and then i had to have my own copy.

and thus an obsession was born.

i think it's about much more than classism or mental illness or squalor or whatever it appears to be on the surface. i think it's an amazing movie about individuality and upholding one's identity. they truly were STAUNCH women!

Anx said:

S-T-A-U-N-C-H.

Anx said:

a big part of what drew me back to it is the complete randomness of edie saying incredibly profound beautiful things in the middle of sometimes incoherent rants or delusions.

"sometimes it hard to keep the line between the past and the present"

cborgman said:

Well, that's the whole headfuck with the film, right? That they are such odd birds, but. . . they are also these figures that are human in such a universal way. We are all AFRAID that we can see ourselves in them, I think. . .and we're right, we can. It's a very strange sort of mirror.

I guess I feel like I've just made peace with a lot of that. It's my deeply sympathetic misanthropy. And I don't necessarily feel like looking at it any more. . . right now?

HereToRockYourWorld said:

very true.

cborgman said:

See. . . that I didn't get. I didn't get that they were really making a choice to uphold their identities.

HereToRockYourWorld said:

that part i don't see as being true. i don't really see little edie as being all that staunch of a woman. she mentions the suitrs so many times, that i don't really even see her as a strong woman. even at 50-something, she is still trying to define herself through a relationship with a man (the "libra husband" bit, the endless and shameless flirting with the filmmakers, hell, she even think jerry wants her sexually), which was a big part of the self-recognition i had in her.

i think she would like to THINK she is a "STAUNCH woman", but she isn't. it's actually become one of the sadder (Though funny because of her pitch, smugness, accent and delivery of the line) parts of the film.

HereToRockYourWorld said:

i think the two parts of the film that brought this aspect home for me (other than that obvious "staunch character" scene, ha) were:

* when the cat is taking a dump behind big edie's oil portrait and she just laughs and says "i'm glad someone's doing what they want around here!"

* and when the edies are bickering and little edie says "the hallmark of aristocracy is responsibility, isn't that right mother?" then big edie gives her daughter a sour look.

i dunno...i'm fascinated with how they adapted to relative poverty while still carrying on in some kind of imaginary society world. they seemed happy with it. they seemed content in their own way. i think they really loved each other and that nobody understood them as much as they understood each other. they were kind of a real life version of the munsters or the aadams family, i guess. the rest of the world saw them as freaks, but within those walls, "freak" was normal.

i dunno. i have about 1,001 different thoughts about that movie. i've obsessed over it for over a decade. i've had magazine articles published about it. little edie's family read my obit at her memorial service. i'm way too close to that movie.

cborgman said:

Anx said:

Have you posted the stuff you wrote about it?

HereToRockYourWorld said:

no...there's a fan site called greygardens.com that used to (maybe still does) have most of my stuff archived. the obit was originally posted on gaywired.com, though i don't know if they archived it or if they're even still around. i know i have it somewhere and i can dig it up...

Anx said:

If you have a moment and the inclination sometime, I'd be interested in reading it.

HereToRockYourWorld said:

as would i

cborgman said:

me three!

cborgman said:

I saw it in the theater and there was only one person there with me. She was way up front.

I LOVE THIS MOVIE. I could relate to so much.

M

MIGUELGOMEZ said:

i saw it the first time with stymie and i'm SO glad she went with me. we just talked and talked about it afterwards.

HereToRockYourWorld said:

Um....it's time to reconsider this g/f thing! Totally kidding!


M

MIGUELGOMEZ said:

Well, she DID absolutely love Shortbus, so. . .I'll cut her some slack.

Oh Damn.

I saw a preview. They actually showed an erect cock

Imago said:

Trust me, there are many more surprises in that movie.


M

Imago said:

oh there are dicks flyin like the damn 4th of july in that movie. but you don't even notice them after a while. it's a weird movie that way.