"That Summer" Official trailer

May 3, 2024 3:32 AM

🎥 "That Summer" 🎥 Peter Beard (and his then girlfriend Lee Radziwill) was the impetus for the June 1972 meeting of the Beales and the Maysles - culminating in Grey Gardens the documentary the impetus for the June 1972 meeting of the Beales and the Maysles - culminating in Grey Gardens the documentary (and later the musical and film). In 2007, a film lab accidentally returned a rough cut of 1972 Maysles footage of The Beales to Peter using an old label on a film cannister. It was part of the Maysles Films archives digitization project and was supposed to be returned to Maysles directly, but had been paid for by Peter and Lee in 1972 and had Peter's still-current address on it.

Maysles Films had insisted the film had all been returned or destroyed when Lee cancelled the project. The lie exposed, the film (now presumed very valuable) became the subject of a custody battle. The footage became the basis of the 2018 documentary That Summer, due to Peter's heroic efforts to get around litigious Maysles and Radziwill attorneys by adding new footage.

posted by Czjewel (14 comments total)

That's a ... pretty deep cut. Here is the Grey Gardens doc.
posted by chavenet at 3:44 AM on May 3 [2 favorites]

Chavenet. That's a gem of a film. Saw it a few years ago. The Broadway musical of Grey Gardens is a bit of fun too.
posted by Czjewel at 4:46 AM on May 3 [1 favorite]

So... this is a documentary about a documentary? Is it documentaries all the way down?
posted by Halloween Jack at 6:14 AM on May 3 [1 favorite]

I hope so, I like documentaries better than tv shows.
posted by JanetLand at 6:22 AM on May 3 [1 favorite]

This feels like the Hearts of Darkness to Grey Garden's Apocalypse Now.
posted by grumpybear69 at 6:24 AM on May 3 [1 favorite]

Grey Gardens was a very touching documentary. I saw it so long ago that I can not recall much other than the affect it left on my mind.
posted by DJZouke at 8:00 AM on May 3

Did the Beales financially benefit from these documentaries? Seems like this is close if not outright exploitation of these women. I did find Grey Gardens fascinating.
posted by waving at 8:42 AM on May 3 [1 favorite]

waving. 5000.00 each for mother and daughter for the film Grey Gardens...and a promised 20 percent of profits from film, never realized.
posted by Czjewel at 9:06 AM on May 3 [3 favorites]

watching "Grey Gardens" is like being inside a late-era J.D. Salinger story.
posted by chavenet at 9:20 AM on May 3 [2 favorites]

Truman and Lee Radziwill, together again. I will try to forget that Feud ever happened and watch this instead.
posted by mykescipark at 9:43 AM on May 3 [3 favorites]

I remember watching this a while back while on the hunt for Peter Beard content, not having any idea that it was part of the Grey Gardens Cinematic Universe.
posted by villanelles at dawn at 10:09 AM on May 3

So the Grey Gardens Cinematic Universe now includes:

Grey Gardens (1975 documentary)
The Beales of Grey Gardens (2006 documentary)
Grey Gardens (2006 musical)
Grey Gardens (2009 movie)
"Sandy Passage" (2015 Documentary Now! documentary)
That Summer (2024 documentary)
posted by Omon Ra at 10:22 AM on May 3 [3 favorites]

And, on FanFare:

• Grey Gardens (original doc)
• The Beales of Gray Gardens (second doc on the Beales by the Maysles, using unseen archival footage)
• That Summer (discussed above)
• Grey Gardens (HBO film with Drew Barrymore and Jessica Lange)

posted by DirtyOldTown at 12:06 PM on May 3 [4 favorites]

Happy to add the Documentary Now! parody Sandy Passage
posted by vitabellosi at 8:17 AM on May 4