Aahana Swrup
‘An Honest Life’ is a Swedish mystery film that centers on a young college student’s whirlwind relationship with a self-proclaimed anarchist. Simon is all set for a future as a law student at Lund University. He’s renting an exorbitantly priced room and has surrounded himself with the exact kind of trust-fund babies he wishes to emulate. Therefore, when Max, the contrarian anarchist, enters his life, it throws a bit of a wrench in his pre-existing plans. Before he knows it, Simon ends up following Max to her off-campus Student Nation housing at Grey Gardens. The scenic cottage is home to other anti-establishment delinquents, gathered under the tutelage of retired professor Charles. In the coming days, Grey Gardens becomes the law student’s second home, bringing him to adopt a whole new, dangerous worldview. Thus, the property, an extension of Charles and his recruits’ dissidence for the system and its wiles, remains a crucial aspect of the film’s intimate worldbuilding.
Grey Gardens is a Fictional Element in Simon’s Narrative
For the most part, ‘An Honest Life’ remains a fictional story devoid of any direct inspirations from real life. Even so, while Simon’s character and his experiences retain a level of fictionality, much of his surroundings seem to be based in the real world. For instance, Lund University, the institution the protagonist is enrolled in for his law school courses, is very much a real establishment. Yet, the same cannot be said for Grey Gardens. Lund University has many Student Nations, aka social clubs, formed around the extracurricular lives of the students. However, an anarchist nation similar to the one helmed by Professor Charles isn’t one such club. By extension, Grey Gardens, the famed lodging for Max and her friends, also becomes a work of fiction. In real life, there are no recognizable properties in Lund, Sweden, that sport the name Grey Gardens and have an association with the city’s well-known University.
Instead, Grey Gardens, as a moniker, is most closely related to the similarly titled 1975 documentary by Albert and David Maysles. The documentary, which delves into the lives of Jackie Kennedy’s family, has no correlation to the narrative of An Honest Life.’ Therefore, the on-screen location, which is a home to Charles and his recruited group of bandits, remains confined to the premises of the film. In the story, the property serves as a home base for Max and her friends, who regularly indulge in the hedonistic pleasures of life. Once Simon starts to become incorporated into their group, the house becomes a central part of the story, offering a physical abode to the Bandits and their anarchist ideas. It secludes the group from the rest of the town, mirroring the way Simon’s narrative warps around Max, allowing her to masterfully manipulate him. Ultimately, like many other elements of the film, Grey Gardens is only a fictional addition created in service of the tale.
Read More: An Honest Life Ending Explained: Do Simon and Max End Up Together?
