Sunday, July 13, 2008

My Future In Movies

Having had a ropey old Friday I had a weekend that was filled with vodka but also with quite a few movies and two of these leapt out at me as two possible versions of my future, and one that could quite easily feature Polly two. As you may know we have become, on the occasional evening, The Children of Polari and we were both wondering what the future could hold for such an unlikely duo.

Polly came round on Friday to be there for the thing I am not going to talk about and afterwards bought and cooked me dinner (I was a bit all over the shop) and then got me very drunk on Ribena and Cava followed by Peach vodka and lemonade. While we were enjoying these we watched ‘Whatever Happened To Baby Jane?’ which is one of my all time favourite movies. Bette Davis is just amazing and so, so wickedly evil. The tale is of two sisters one of whom becomes a child star and then the other an adult star, jealousy and envy flare leading in one running over the other… from then on its simply high drama and high camp action! Amazing acting! In some sick and twisted way this film made us think of us though now we are concerned over who is Baby Jane and who is Blanche? …Answers on a postcard please.

We had planned a fabulous DVD night to happen next week but a) we are both up to the nines next week and seeing each other three nights in a row already and b) I needed the support then, so sadly the other film that we had wanted to watch hadn’t arrived from Lovefilm.com yet. This is one of Polly’s favourites and the reason she thought we should watch it will become apparent. It arrived on Saturday.

‘Grey Gardens’ isn’t so much a film as a documentary. It was filmed in 1976 at the home of Jackie O’s cousins Big and Little Edie Bouvier. These women had been seriously renowned women in their day in the 1920’s and 1940’s. However they had become a pair of recluses, the house was decaying around them and they had cats, cats galore and fleas as well as you found out.

They were both completely mad as you could see from the documentary, they had wild raccoons living in the attic which Little Edie would go and feed despite the fact that these cute little monsters where tearing down walls in other parts of the house. Big Edie and Little Edie both spent much of the time in a permanent sing off against one another which is hilarious to watch and were both prone to uncontrollable rages. One minute they were mother and daughter the best of friends, the next they were like two cats fighting. Oh and the cats, these women were living in one room (with a fridge which only seemed to stock ice-cream and a camp burner that only ever seemed to boil sweetcorn) and they had cats everywhere and they were doing all sorts of business all over the room. Seriously you must see it, it’s beyond belief. And to add to the campness of it it’s now also a musical www.greygardensthemusical.com it appears I don’t need a crystal ball to see my future or two possibilities.

I quite like the idea of being a crazy old cat man!

1 comment:

Poetic Painter said...

Sorry about your cat...had a similar situation with my own.