Documentary description: “From filmmakers of Jeffrey Epstein: Filthy Rich, this film goes beyond the headlines of the Ghislaine Maxwell case to tell the story of Epstein's mystery accomplice, illuminating how her class and privilege concealed her predatory nature.”
Netflix’s summary describes Ghislaine Maxwell as a “mystery accomplice,” but their documentary came out in 2022; we know a lot about her now. Besides, she has always been a well-connected socialite with rich and powerful friends. So, in many ways, she was never a mystery. But how and why she could do what she did for Epstein, as Sigurd McCawley says, defies comprehension.
As the show came out in November 2022, much of it focuses on her trial, which took place at the end of 2021, as well as the sentencing in the summer of 2022. This documentary, directed by Maiken Baird and Lisa Bryant, runs about one hour and forty minutes. Lisa Bryant also directed the series about Jeffrey Epstein.
Ghislaine Maxwell was – is? – a talented, attractive woman. Without her abilities, she could never have done so much successful sex-trafficking for so long. All of the former friends who were interviewed for the show – and they all are listed as former – described how she was consistently the life of the party. They also described how uninhibited she was with respect to sex.
To help us understand her choices later in life, the documentary shows us her early life. By far the most important person in her early years was her father, Robert Maxwell was rich, powerful, and well connected. Robert and his wife Betty had 9 kids, giving them every apparent advantage, but the family seems to have been dysfunctional. Robert cheated on his wife all the time (certainly this influenced Ghislaine’s attitudes toward relationships). In late 1991 he disappeared at sea, and was found dead in the water, not far from the Canary Islands. Shortly after that it came out that Robert Maxwell had plundered his employees’ pension plans.
After Robert Maxwell’s death, and especially after the information about the extent of his embezzlement came out, Ghislaine felt out of place in the UK. She fled to New York City. She needed a replacement for her father – both financially and emotionally – and she found one in Jeffrey Epstein.
Epstein had plenty of money. Ghislaine was attractive and a socialite. She introduced him to many people, including the Andrew formerly known as prince. Obviously. Epstein preferred girls / very young women, and Ghislaine went about procuring them for him. Several survivors describe how she found them, chatting them up, flattering them, offering them their hearts’ desires, leading them to take off their clothes (she would also strip and show them how to pleasure Epstein). Ghislaine also threatened the women who tried to get away, such as promising to ruin them and their futures. As Ghislaine and Epstein were friends with many powerful people, their threats had teeth.
For a while Ghislaine hoped Epstein would marry her, but he never did (possibly she aged out). However, even after they stopped “dating” (whatever that meant), they remained good friends. She only distanced herself from him when he got into trouble. This documentary shows she was a willing, even eager, accomplice.
Title musings. This is part of the “Filthy Rich” group of documentaries done by Netflix, and the phrase is perfect. It has traditionally meant those with way too much money, but in this case you can see what a piece of trash Ghislaine Maxwell is. I use the word trash because that was her word for the girls she procured for Epstein and others.
Bits and pieces
They show a headline of Robert Maxwell’s stealing £526 million from his firms. He died in 1991, when this was a ginormous amount of money.
In this documentary, the survivors express frustration by the death of Jeffrey Epstein in 2019. They felt he was not getting the punishment he deserved, which would be decades in a miserable prison. They celebrated at the sentence given to Ghislaine Maxwell. But, given how Maxwell may get pardoned by the current president, I am not particularly bothered by his death (albeit curious with respect to some details). He cannot commit additional crimes.
According to the internet, the official ruling of Robert Maxwell’s death was a heart attack combined with accidental drowning. Many people believe he took his own life, in order to avoid the shame of the scandal of the embezzlement. If that is true -and the timing suggests it might be – it foreshadows Epstein’s suicide.
Speaking of mysteries, while doing background research for this review I learned that Ghislaine Maxwell was married to a Scott Bergerson from 2016 to 2021. He did not go to her trial.
Quotes
Euan Rellie (former friend): When I first met Jeffrey Epstein, I thought he was a wildly successful investment banker turned money manager, for whom you know, everything had fallen into his lap.
Liz Stein (survivor): For the most part, it was pretty light-hearted – until it wasn’t. The tone of everything changed in the moment.
Petronella Wyatt (journalist): They became totally dependent on each other in a kind of weird way.
Christopher Mason (former friend): At the time it just seemed like flirtation. But what the hell was I thinking? What were we all thinking?
Christina Oxenberg (author): And then she tells me Jeffrey has been diagnosed by the best doctors in the world, and he needs three orgasms per day. … then she says, she picks up, three girls a day for Jeffrey.
Note Oxenberg said she did not realize at the time they were underage. She says if she had known that, she would have contacted the authorities back then.
Liz Stein (survivor): I knew that if I told anyone, my life was in danger. I think the pursuit of me was definitely a game to Ghislaine and Jeffrey.
Overall reaction
As this documentary covers such a repulsive topic/person, I don’t feel as if I can give it a rating. Given the subject matter, you may choose not to watch it (hopefully this review has given you some insight into this person). I did find it interesting, especially how easily and readily she groomed girls and young women. It does not have the depth of the series on Jeffrey Epstein -- that had the advantage of more minutes in the series, as well as the research of the initial book by James Patterson - but it is a good look at some of the filthy rich. Worth watching if you want to understand how such things could happen.
Victoria Grossack loves math, birds, Greek mythology, Jane Austen and great storytelling in many forms.
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