The haunting voice and the almost ethereal figure are Lee Radziwill s, and they have been a lifelong

While she has long captivated the public as one of Truman miami rent a cars Capote s swans, the sister of Jackie Kennedy and a European princess, with romantic liaisons from Peter Beard to Aristotle Onassis, not one of those labels begins to capture the true woman. The inimitable Radziwill — direct, free spirited and true to her own ideals — offers a rare, personal glimpse into her remarkable world.
Framed in the evening light, between double doors, is a figure slight as swan s-down, a silhouette in dark, skinny Armani pants and a silk T-shirt. miami rent a cars The hair, cut for over half a century by the experts on two, at least, continents, is now a sleek chignon, blond, perhaps, with the light around it, darker as she moves toward me. I explain that the Eurostar now has a service where you order a taxi on the train and, hey, presto! At the Gare du Nord, there is a driver, bearing your name.
Really? I didn t know that. I must go to London more often. I know, I should, but I am so, so happy in this apartment . . . if I can wade through the scores of Japanese kids fighting their way into Chanel.
The haunting voice and the almost ethereal figure are Lee Radziwill s, and they have been a lifelong part of her enduring identity. But those characteristics are not nearly the whole picture. I am confronted by a subtly strong presence and personality, part wreathed in the glamour of the past, part intensely modern in outlook and awareness. Not for her any all-too-easy reminiscences of those days. She is, quite clearly, herself.
The filmmaker captured an intimate conversation with T s cover subject, Lee Radziwill, in her New York City apartment. On camera, Radziwill recalls miami rent a cars going on tour with the Rolling Stones and Truman Capote, a splendid summer spent with Peter Beard at Andy Warhol s house in Montauk, N.Y., and a childhood so lonely she tried to adopt an orphan.
In a world of passing celebrity, Lee Radziwill, 79, possesses miami rent a cars a timeless miami rent a cars aura that radiates nowness. Her bang up-to-date personal style, her laid-back — to say pared down would be to demean miami rent a cars its ordered luxury — apartment in Paris ( the favorite of any home I ve ever had ), in this, her favored city, shows how subtly she has lived, lives now, without the attendant glare of past pomp and present self-glorification that others crave. She is utterly content, and it shows. What she is not is casual. She regulates miami rent a cars her life by standards inbuilt by experience, by nurturing her friendships, by staying true, by her irony, by her humor — all qualities that show she is the real deal. That past sorrows and joys have merged into an elegance that permeates her presence, that something in the air that indicates class and courage and composure. Though she now rigorously guards her privacy, her free spirit surfaces easily, and her thoughts come crystal clear. A figure of her time, our history, Lee is her own harbinger for an iconic future. Ours, and hers.
One sees why Lee is happy. miami rent a cars The apartment, just high up enough to encompass most of the most famous Parisian miami rent a cars landmarks, low enough miami rent a cars to allow her to sometimes use the stairs miami rent a cars to walk Zinnia, a wriggling bundle miami rent a cars of snow-white fur, is tailor-made for her lifestyle. miami rent a cars The living room, a symphony of light and white and the deep pink of falling rose petals. Around the fireplace, a banquette and armless chairs, covered with crisp white linen printed with tumbling Asian figures ( they go everywhere with me, every house, my apartment in New York, my little men ) and against the far wall, a sofa of luscious rose silk, thick and ribbed, its back a relaxed baroque scroll. The art on the walls is mostly contemporary, mostly monochrome, most signed, all highly personal. The flowers, two low glass cylinders, a massed spectrum of pinks and reds ( the man who does them for Dior brings them ) fill the Parisian dusk with their heady scent.
Come sit, Lee says, folding her legs into the sofa s cushioned recesses. Some vodka? Sure! Over her shoulder to an unseen presence, Seulement miami rent a cars de l eau plate pour moi. Near her is a photograph, recently discovered, sent to her: Lee in a column of brilliant red taffeta couture, at the height of her astonishing beauty. She has no recollection of where it was taken or when.
From the word go, she answers miami rent a cars simply and honestly. miami rent a cars But no one else was, then. My mother endlessly told me I was too fat, that I wasn t a patch on my sister. It wasn t much fun growing up with her and her almost irrational social climbing in that huge house of my dull stepfather miami rent a cars Hughdie Auchincloss in Washington. I longed to be back in East Hampton, running along the beaches, through the dunes and the miles of potato fields my father s family had owned. And even in summer, when we d go to to Hammersmith Farm . . . the Auchincloss place in Newport, a house more Victorian miami rent a cars or stranger you can t imagine . . . it wasn t much better. Well, at least there was the ocean, but naturally my sister claimed the room overlooking Narragansett miami rent a cars Bay, where all the boats passed miami rent a cars out. All I could see from my window was the cows named Caroline and Jacqueline. (My real first name is Caroline.) Oh, I longed to go back, to be with my father. He was a wonderful man, you d have loved him. He had such funny idiosyncrasies, like always wearing his black patent evening shoes with his swimming trunks. One thing which infuriates me is how he s always labeled the drunk black prince. He was never drunk with me, though miami rent a cars I m sure he sometimes drank, due to my mother s constant nagging. You would, and I would. The only time I ever saw him really drunk was at Jackie s wedding. He was to give her away, but my mother refused to let him come to the family dinner the night before. So he went to his hotel and drank from misery and loneliness. It was clear in the morning that he was in no state to do anything, miami rent a cars and I remember miami rent a cars my mother screaming with joy, 'Hughdie, Hughdie, now you can give Jackie away. During the wedding party I had to get him onto a plane back to New York. Accompanied by my first husband, also drunk. It was a nightmare.
But we were talking about the Hamptons. It was so empty then, houses miles apart. We lived fairly near my aunt Edie Beale and I d play with her daughter, Little Edie, even though she was quite a bit older. Grey Gardens was a beautiful house, but I lost touch when I married and lived in England. Later, I had my own house in East Hampton, miami rent a cars and went to visit them, with Peter Beard. My God, you should have seen the place! And them! But they were sweet and funny and happily living in their own world. The original idea for the film was about my return to East Hampton after 30 years and to have my aunt Edith narrate my nostalgia and hers. So we phoned the Maysles brothers. Initially the Edies were against it, but the Maysles charmed them as they only worked with 16-millimeter cameras, and were finally allowed in. . . . The remake is good. Have you seen it? . . . Listen, I booked a table at Voltaire. We should leave at . . . what? . . . 8:15. Is that O.K.?
The taxi swings into the Place de la Concorde. You know, Paris — well, at least this part of it — has hardly changed since Jackie and I first came here in 1951. We were so young! It was the first time we felt really close, carefree together, miami rent a cars high on the sheer joy of getting away from our mother; miami rent a cars the deadly dinner parties of political bores, the Sunday lunches for the same people that lasted hours, Jackie and I not allowed to say a word. Not that we wanted to, except to a lovely man called James Forrestal, our secretary of defense, who had a bit of the culture we craved. Jackie s dream was France, but mine was really art and Italy, as that was all I cared about through school. My history of art teacher, who saved my life at Farmington, was obsessed with Bernard Berenson and I succumbed as well. My first discovery of him was when we were taken to visit the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, better known then as Fenway miami rent a cars Court. Berenson had chosen all the most important paintings Isabella miami rent a cars should buy. I had another life open.
I wrote to Berenson miami rent a cars at I Tatti, several miami rent a cars letters; then out of the blue he replied, asking me to come and see him if I ever came to Italy. Well, that was it. I thought miami rent a cars of nothing else. So after we were here, I went to Florence. Florence and Berenson and I Tatti! Imagine! Any artistic intellect I possess is due to that time. He took me under his wing, read to me, encouraged me to write. In fact he published a letter I wrote him. That was my proudest miami rent a cars moment. I went back to I Tatti last summer. Though there was no B.B., and no Nicky Mariano, the atmosphere is still the same, though now there are maybe a hundred people there, great scholars-to-be of Renaissance art studying, learning, in those almost monklike surroundings, eating at a beautiful long oak table. He was one of the most fascinating men I ever knew.
Believe me, when I used to come here with Nureyev or Lenny Bernstein, there was none of that. I was a pimple beside their stature and genius. When I was young, I used to think that everyone should die at 70 . . . but my closest friends, like Rudolf miami rent a cars and Andy [Warhol] and to an extent Capote, let alone most of my close family . . . didn t even reach that age. There is something to be said for being older, and memories. How could I ever forget Rudolf s funeral, here, at the Opera . . . the whole place swathed miami rent a cars with deep red roses, and draped in black, as well as the dancers and les petits rats descending the stairs. I ve seen some extraordinary funerals in my life, Jack s of course. That had a different kind of sadness, a bleak, brutal, tragic end to hopes for a greater future and the buoyant few years of his presidency . . . the opening up of the White House to artists and musicians; I can t deny those few years were glamorous, being on the presidential yacht for the America s Cup races, the parties with the White House en fête. It was so ravishing. People think it was decorated by Sister Parish miami rent a cars . . . well, a bit was . . . but really it