Hooked on Grey Gardens

by HOOKEDONHOUSES on APRIL 23, 2009

Welcome to Hooked on Fridays, a blog party I host at the end of each week to celebrate the things that make us happy. This week I’m hooked on Grey Gardens, the East Hampton estate featured in an HBO movie starring Drew Barrymore and Jessica Lange. The house was one of the main characters in the film, and it was fascinating to watch it evolve through the years. Here are a few photos from the film set depicting Grey Gardens’ heyday in the 1930s:

I discovered a beautiful blog called Bloomacious this week during my searches for all things Grey Gardens. They have a wonderful interview with Grey Gardens Production Designer Kalina Ivanov and many more photos of the sets from the film that you can see there.

If you have missed Valorie’s series of posts about Grey Gardens on her blog Visual Vamp, I highly recommend them. She actually knew the Beales and has fascinating personal stories to tell about them.

Watching this beautiful home age and decay during the course of the film was painful. I’m sure you’ve seen the images of it with trees growing through the walls and English ivy covering the windows. Happily, Grey Gardens was purchased and completely restored by Sally Quinn and Ben Bradlee. Architectural Digest published photographs of it that you can see here. Over at Content in a Cottage you can watch a video that shows the lush grounds and some of the home’s interiors today.

Did you see the movie? Were you as captivated by it as I was? (I’m joining Fifi’s Fashionable Friday blog party today, too. Be sure to check it out!)

Now it’s your turn to tell us what you’re hooked on. If you have something to share with us on your blog, then add your link below. Just please be sure to:

1. Add the permalink to the specific blog post, not your general blog address.
2. You can put what you’re hooked on in parentheses after your blog name. You’ll probably get more visitors that way! Ex: Hookedonhouses (Not So Big Houses)
3. Link back to the party from your post so that your readers can come and see what everyone else is talking about today!
4. Visit as many of the other participants as possible and leave comments! That’s what a blog party is all about!
5. Double-check to make sure your link works and goes to the right page so it doesn’t get deleted! If you come back and see your link is gone, re-read these rules and try again.

Hooked on Fridays Participants

1. Arleen @ Seasons for All at Home 2. TK – (Raod Trip) 3. songbirdtiff ($20 room makeover) 4. Designing Your Dream Home (Hooked on Staircase railings) 5. Chez DeJonge (Hooked on Home Tours) 6. DesignTies (Hooked on sunrooms) 7. Puna – more kitchen pics 8. rue\’s pb&j life (Old Houses for sale) 9. Cooking During Stolen Moments (pineapple chicken) 10. Maya (Oprah\’s Retreats) 11. Floating Island (Photos) | Gennaro 12. Mary Beth {Flowers, Seeds & Growing} 13. Beach Cottage Love (blue table) 14. Deb/Dumbwittellher 15. Eileen@Star\’sFault 16. A Simple Walk (frugal decorating ideas needed!) 17. Katie @ Making This Home 18. Gayle @ Planet M Files(Pet Parade) 19. Kellie (giveaways– keepsake drawings) 20. Wayfaring Wanderer {Hk\’d on Wildflowers} 21. We are THAT family (Dollar Decor) 22. Susan (Exceptional Dining Room & Tablescape) 23. Our Nifty Notebook (Spring Planting) 24. Trish@TheOldPostRoad (Zinnias) 25. Christy – flea markets

26. Jill@Forever Cottage(Pottery Barn) 27. Mrs.Petrie (goody bags & a GIVEAWAY) 28. Lime in the Coconut…(Horses) 29. the BLAH BLAH BLAHger (built-ins) 30. Fifi Flowers Hooked on Champagne 31. Fabulously French (french beds) 32. m (Lovely Letters) 33. Marian – 34. Onlinehandyman is hooked on laminate floors 35. The World According to Isa (Treasure Hunting) 36. Claudia@DipityRoad (great photo ops) 37. Visual Vamp 38. Liz@Violet Posy (Wall Stickers & Giveaway) 39. Robin Rane\’ All Things Heart and Home 40. susan (Your home, only better.) 41. velvet and linen (hooked on interior design) 42. Gina @ The Shabby Chic Cottage (Pink Chandelier) 43. Creations From My Heart (Dollar Store) 44. Kristen@PajamaMama (free craft organization) 45. TidyMom(Banana Cake) 46. Jane @ Beach House 47. Laura @ Decor to Adore 48. Tricia 49. Newlyweds (Rain & Garden) 50. Jenelle @ This Lady Blogs (hooked on handmade!)

51. Angela @ PeonyPatch (Amy Butler) 52. RetroRuth (Vintage Johnson Wax Decorating Ideas) 53. Flower Patch Farmgirl (Blue Walls and Chippy Paint) 54.Shawn/Lifeatbuttercupfarm Spring Bursting Out!) 55. TheEckLife-table cloth curtains 56. Daly Essentials-renovations 57. wendy langston 58. Carolina Mama (You\’re Invited…!) 59. MissCaron (iron staircases) 60. Liz@It\’s Great To Be Home (painting fireplace surrounds) 61. From the Right Bank to the Left Coast 62. ImagineCozy (Shelf Repurposed) 63. {ae filkins} Hooked on Crackbook. I mean Facebook 64. Lynne, Tea for Joy (painted stairs) 65. ginnycartersmallenburg 66. Animator\’s Wife (homemade tumbling composter) 67. Florida Sue 68. SuzyHomemaker (Twilight) 69. The Tea Room (Pink Paper Crafts) 70.Jillian@Housewears(hooked on Design Inc\’s Tommy Smythe 71. WillowDecor 72. Becky *hooked on ladies * 73. ALCHEMY 74. Lindsay @ Peacock Blue (garden stools) 75. Jeanette @ A Passion for Scrapbooking, Decorating & Shopping (neoclassicism)

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An English Country House in “Death at a Funeral”

by HOOKEDONHOUSES on MARCH 8, 2010

For the 2007 British farce Death at a Funeral, director Frank Oz says it was important to find the perfect English Country house where the family and friends would gather. Luckily, the first one they saw was this ivy-covered home in Henley, an hour outside London, and it was so beautiful, he says, that they knew they didn’t have to look any further.

The movie, written by Dean Craig, is about the people who come together for a funeral service. Daniel is in charge of organizing his father’s memorial, but his efforts to keep things dignified and respectful are in vain. Things start off badly when the funeral home delivers the wrong dead body to the house and go downhill from there.

It’s a farce, so there’s lots of wackiness and unexpected turns of events, but I was busy staring at the sets. Frank Oz says that the interior of the house in Henley wouldn’t work for the movie, so they built the sets on a soundstage at Ealing Studios (London).

Daniel and his brother stash another body in the casket with their dad as a last resort (it’s a long story):

Michael Howells was the production designer. He also worked on movies likeEmma (1996) and Nanny McPhee.

Daniel giving the eulogy for his father:

A question for my U.K. readers: Is it common to hold funerals at home like this? Or is this just a movie thing?

Jane Asher plays the widow, Sandra:

When I first saw the movie, I knew I had seen the actor who played Daniel somewhere, but I couldn’t quite place him. It was driving me nuts. Then it hit me–

It was Matthew Macfadyen–the actor who played Darcy in one of my favorite Austen films, Pride & Prejudice! He looked so different and played such a meek and nervous character in Death at a Funeral that he was practically unrecognizable as the same person.

Here’s how Macfadyen looked in P&P:

The woman who plays Daniel’s wife Jane is Keeley Hawes. Macfadyen and Hawes are also married in real life, and they were expecting a baby boy during filming.

I really liked how they hung the artwork up the stairs:

Upstairs in the bedroom, where Daniel and Jane are getting ready for the funeral:

This is one of the only rooms that are actually in the house in Henley (not a set).

The upstairs hallway:

Daniel takes Peter (played by Peter Dinklage) into his father’s study to talk. Peter has a bombshell he’s about to drop on him.

Frank Oz says that the script called for a “regular height person,” but he thought Dinklage was the perfect actor for the part. (He was also great in movies likeElf and as Liz Lemon’s love interest on “30 Rock” recently.) He’ll reprise the role in theupcoming American version of the movie with Chris Rock in role of Daniel.

Why on earth they think we need an American version only 3 years after the original came out, I have no idea. Especially since the original didn’t do all that well at the box office here. (Current release date is June 2010.)

I love this garden shed or whatever it was behind the main house. Several scenes take place on the covered porch:

I wish I had gotten a good photo of Rupert Graves, who plays Daniel’s brother Robert, a successful novelist who has flown back from New York City for the funeral. Graves played Freddy Honeychurch in one of my favorite movies–A Room With a View.

You can see more photos from the movie at Sweet Sunday Morning. I was so wowed when I saw the house on her site that I had to see the movie. (I used a couple of her screen shots, too. The rest I took myself while watching the film.)

P.S. Did you watch the Oscars last night? I stayed up late to see it all and then overslept this morning. Oops! If you missed my fun quiz about Oscar-nominated movie houses, take ithere.

Visit my TV/Movie Houses page for links to all the others I’ve featured, from Housesitter (another Frank Oz film!) to The Family Stone.

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