To say a filmmaker like John Waters relishes skewering various facets of human nature and family valuesβincluding obsessions with true crime and celebrity cultureβwould be an understatement, and we, his rapt audience, take perverse pleasure in his pride. On the surface Beverly is a polite and unassuming upper-middle-class housewife to her dentist husband and a doting mother to their teenage children, living in Towson, Maryland.
Waters likes to keep things loyal to his native Baltimore. It is curious to think that Meryl Streep, Kathy Bates, Glenn Close, and even international treasure Julie Andrews had been considered for the role, but Turner is fantastic as Beverly, putting everything and then some into her portrayal. Having made his name in the early s with transgressive cult films that riff on comedy and surrealism Waters has given us Multiple Maniacs , Pink Flamingos , Female Trouble , Hairspray which was later adapted into a hit Broadway musical and a musical film , as well as Polyester , Cry-Baby , Serial Mom , Pecker , and Cecil B.
Demented Not one for subtlety, Waters never does things by half. Yet his work has such style and humour, and Serial Mom remains as riotous, fresh, and funny as it was thirty years ago. She took the brothers with her on a trip to Grey Gardens, a mansion designed in by Joseph Greenleaf Thorpe and so-called because of the colour of the dunes, the concrete garden walls, and the sea mist.
In Grey Gardens, her aunt and cousin lived. Their lives in this crumbling house, surviving on limited funds and living in increasing poverty, were at odds with the glamour of the Kennedy dynasty and the affluence of the Hamptons, which has a historic reputation as home to the wealthy and summer playground to the rich. In , with eviction and the City threatening to demolish Grey Gardens, Jackie O and Radziwill provided the necessary funds to stabilize and repair the dilapidated house, hoping it would meet village codes.
The couple separated in and were legally divorced in , with Phelan notifying his wife of the divorce via telegram. Big Edie was given Grey Gardens plus child support for their daughter and two sons but no alimony , so relied on financial support from her family and continued to give local recitals, which did not pay exceptionally well. A dutiful daughter bound to her now ailing mother.
