That Summer

Life in Montauk, a hamlet of Long Island, circa 1972, as photographer Peter Beard and friend Lee Radziwill plan a documentary on Lee's eccentric aunt, Edith Bouvier Beale of East Hampton, and her cat-loving daughter "Little Edie". Home-movie footage of Lee's sister, Jackie Onassis and her friends (including Andy Warhol and members of his Factory, and Truman Capote) will be of great interest for celebrity-watchers, though the real drawing-card of "That Summer" is the Beales and the story behind the celebrated 1975 documentary "Grey Gardens". Swedish-Danish-US co-production for Sundance Selects; funny and sad, in equal measure. ** from ****

Does not add much insight to Grey Gardens, simply adds more Big and Little Edie, of whom I can't get enough. They are extremely entertaining in this movie, arguing and singing and explaining life. If you enjoyed both Grey Gardens docs and the biopic, you will enjoy this.

Least interesting: Peter Beard, his collages, photographs, house and the quick footage in the beginning of his celebrity pals.

Most interesting: Big and Little Edie in all their time-capsule glory, and Lee Bouvier Radziwell's visits with them at Grey Gardens.

That Summer is comprised of mostly archival footage, interspersed with Beard's reminiscences and images. The loose premise of the early footage was to capture something of the old Hamptons, before it was saturated with the super wealthy. Lee, Beard and the Maysles fall into the wormhole of the Beales's lives, and the women's eccentricities end up being more fascinating than anything else.

If you are curious about what inspired the Maysles to make their film, this is definitely worth watching. Lee is a lovely presence who is kind to and appreciative of her relatives.

This is a movie about a movie that was never made, and about another movie that was made, instead. I really don't know what this adds to the story of Big Edie and Little Edie of Grey Gardens, and the film footage of the beautiful people of the 1970s is not interesting. I kept hoping for some insight, some reason to revisit Grey Gardens, but this movie doesn't have it.

Narcissism run riot and for collectors of celebrity gossip and curios only. "That Summer" is something of a companion piece to "Grey Gardens" featuring some of the same characters, (the Beales, mostly), but it's really nothing more than the home-movies of Peter Beard, whose friends included Lee Radziwill, Jackie Kennedy-Onassis, Truman Capote. Andy Warhol etc. and it's full of the indolent doodlings of the super-rich. These people are so cut off from the real world they may as well be living on Mars. What's more, the cheap home-movie look of the picture is positively headache-inducing at times and like "Grey Gardens", there's something ghoulish about it but at least "Grey Gardens" felt like a real film, despite being highly intrusive. This is more like a vanity project gone wrong; a road-kill of a movie if there ever was one.