That Summer review: A prequel to the beloved Grey Gardens

‘I never thought of the Beales as unfortunate or sad,’ Beard reflects in the contemporary voiceover that runs through the film. That’s the paradox which makes them such wonderfully compelling screen figures

Both mother and daughter are glamorous and very well-spoken but they live surrounded by detritus and dustbin bags (Story AB)

Dir Goran Hugo Olsson, 80 mins, featuring: Peter Beard, Lee Radziwill, Edith Bouvier Beale, Andy Warhol, William Vanden Heuvel, Paul Morrissey

That Summer is a “prequel” to the much-loved Maysles brothers 1975 film Grey Gardens, which spawned a hit Broadway musical and features on many lists of the top documentaries of all time.

It turns out that before the Maysles headed to East Hampton to film Edith Beale and her daughter Edie in their decrepit old mansion, Edith’s niece, Lee Radziwill (Jackie Kennedy’s sister), had been making a film of her own on the very same subject.

Her collaborators, photographer Peter Beard, the great experimental filmmaker Jonas Mekas and (a little incongruously, given that he rarely visited the countryside) Andy Warhol, had shot several reels of material. Director Goran Hugo Olsson has retrieved them and edited together this footage.

Like Grey Gardens, the new film works its magic through its startling mixture of decay and splendour. The Beales live in a beautiful house in the Hamptons but one that has become totally derelict. Both mother and daughter are glamorous and very well-spoken but they live surrounded by detritus and dustbin bags. (We learn that the garbage collectors are refusing to come to the property because it is so overgrown and inaccessible.)

Young Edie fusses about her lipstick as cats and raccoons wander by. Her mother is keen to show everyone an old portrait of her as a younger woman, looking very aristocratic and distinguished in a ball gown. She has a beautiful voice and bursts into song at random moments.

Lee Radziwill, who is on camera constantly, is hoping the mother and daughter will help her discover facts about her own family background. The Beales are too distracted to prove much help on that front. Instead, Radziwill and her collaborators become embroiled in the fight to keep the duo in their home. It turns out the busybody local authorities are persecuting the Beales and trying to get them out of the house.

“I never thought of the Beales as unfortunate or sad,” Beard reflects in the contemporary voiceover that runs through the film. That’s the paradox which makes them such wonderfully compelling screen figures. Everything about their plight suggests they should be objects of pity. They’ve barely left their derelict home in a quarter of a century and it is falling down around them.

Occasional remarks hint at dark secrets. We hear about the relentless womanising of Radziwill’s father, Jack, and, at one stage, Edith tells her daughter that “you shouldn’t have had incest with your uncle”. However, both appear remarkably content.

They have an innocence about them. They’re so obsessed with the past anyway that their everyday problems in the present don’t appear to bother them at all. As long as they have cats for company and plenty of coffee-flavoured ice cream to eat, life could hardly be better. They both seem to enjoy bickering with one another.

In the end, Beard and Radziwill abandoned their film project and the Maysles picked up the threads a couple of years late when they made Grey Gardens. Beard is the key figure here. An artist, photographer and social gadfly who lives nearby, he was friends with everyone from Karen Blixen (author of Out Of Africa) to Mick and Bianca Jagger.

In his voiceover, he pinpoints precisely why the Beales exercised such fascination on him 40 years ago and why their story still intrigues viewers. Being with the Beales, he suggests, was like visiting a flying spaceship. It was always fun and it was always surprising.

That Summer hits UK cinemas on 1 June.