A prequel to "Grey Gardens"

April 30, 2018 8:36 AM

Ok, if you're a cult follower of Grey Gardens, then you know this already. (If not, some people think that you should see the HBO drama first to get a good introduction.) You know that in 1972, the Maysles brothers shot some footage of Lee Radziwill and her relatives with the idea of making a documentary about the Bouvier childhood. You know that the Maysles decided that her aunt and cousin made better footage, and Grey Gardens was born. Long thought lost, this early footage has now been turned into an 80-minute film called "That Summer," opening May 18. Here's the trailer, and the Variety review. But you knew that.
posted by Melismata (11 comments total)

I did not know that, but am now very excited to see this.
posted by sandettie light vessel automatic at 8:44 AM on April 30, 2018 [1 favorite]

Interesting - I was thinking about Grey Gardens over the weekend because of the Everything is Stories podcast's
profile of Jerry "The Marble Faun" Torre, who has a new book out about his time there.
posted by ryanshepard at 8:53 AM on April 30, 2018 [3 favorites]

Also check out the Documentary Now! episode "Sandy Passage", written by Seth Meyers (and starring Bill Hader and Fred Armisen), which parodies Grey Gardens.
posted by stinkfoot at 9:01 AM on April 30, 2018 [7 favorites]

Thanks for passing this along; I hadn't been sure if it was a cash-in or worth watching. I just got into this whole story and musical recently, never having seen the movie until last week. I am, as it happens, a single only child who is very close to her mother and has failed at a lot of things, plus I'm afraid I am losing my hair, so I felt, shall we say, extremely seen.
posted by Countess Elena at 9:03 AM on April 30, 2018 [9 favorites]

There's, of course, the "sequel" The Beales of Grey Gardens as well.
posted by Ashwagandha at 9:31 AM on April 30, 2018 [1 favorite]

Edie, Edie,
Sad and needy,
How does your garden grow?
It grows quite grey
From day to day,
Cause we ain't got the dough.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 10:24 AM on April 30, 2018 [1 favorite]

Grey Gardens is such a rough documentary to me, and it seems like it opened the window to where, if you read your city's building standards commission documents, the knob has turned from mostly ignorant about building codes but enthusiastic about building men and anarchist lawn care to all elderly hoarders all the time, and they all have equally depressing financial stories and enablers.
posted by The_Vegetables at 11:11 AM on April 30, 2018

Executive producers: Peter Beard, Andrea Barron, Susan Rockefeller, Danny Glover, Tony Tabatznik

Danny Glover??
posted by I_Love_Bananas at 12:26 PM on April 30, 2018

Proper phrasing demands the last of this post be "I don't know if you know that. I mean, do you know that?"

I saw an elderly, very elegant woman at an opening night at the Metropolitan Opera, and asked a photographer who had just taken her picture who she was. Lee Radziwill, it turned out.

Anyway I'm totally watching this.
posted by Smearcase at 12:55 PM on April 30, 2018

I saw Grey Gardens when it came out, when I was 20, with my parents, who always took the family to the art houses. Just a minor film about a quirky family, I thought. I guess I've had some inkling, through occasional internet references, that it became to be more interesting as time went on. Maybe I should see it again. I haven't seen 2001 since it came out, either.
posted by kozad at 8:25 PM on April 30, 2018

Actually the guy in the article is right, if you're wondering what they're all about then definitely see the HBO movie with Drew Barrymore first. It's a narrative that explains everything, the why, where and when.
posted by Melismata at 10:27 AM on May 1, 2018