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That Summer
***
Dir: Goran Hugo Olsson
Starring: Edith Ewing Bouvier Beale, Edith ‘Little Edie’ Bouvier Beale
(USA, 1hr 20min)
If you’re a Jackie O junkie, resident of the Hamptons or just into gossip that comes under the heading ‘strange but true,’ you’ve most likely heard of Edith ‘Big Edie’ Beale and Edith ‘Little Edie‘ Beale. The eccentric and reclusive aunt and cousin of sisters Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Lee Bouvier Radziwill are present in this sort-of prequel/strange follow-up to the cult classic 1975 film Grey Gardens. That film depicted mother and daughter Edith and Little Edie living in a 28-room filthy run-down mansion that they shared with over 60 mostly feral cats and also families of racoons for over 25 years.
The (cat) shit hit the fan when media got whiff of this. A mini-furore broke out because the officials of East Hampton wanted to evict the women and sent in the fire department to hose down the said abode. Jackie got credit for being her relatives’ saviour but it was actually Lee who found them in that condition and got the ball rolling with Jackie’s second husband, tycoon Ari Onassis, whose money funded the clean-up in bringing the house just up to code, thus sparing the Beales from losing their home.
Famed photographer Peter Beard is the main narrator of this lost documentary that’s basically a home movie. He and then-girlfriend Radziwill wanted to do an environmental film about the Long Island community before it was over-run and over-developed (though why then include live footage, supplemented with photo stills, of celebs including Mick Jagger and first wife, Bianca, author Truman Capote and Andy Warhol?) This is The Two Edies’ Show all the way. The Beales never pass up an opportunity to show off – especially Little Edie shamelessly flirting like a schoolgirl – giving us some insight where they lived in their own world before Albert and David Maysles (part of the crew on That Summer) came back and filmed them for posterity.
It would be easy for some to dismiss the two as the Hamptons’ crazy cat ladies and ridicule them – case in point is a scene where Little Edie says she named a stray after Teddy Kennedy because it looks like him and you don’t know whether to laugh or cry. Obviously, there was disconnect in The Two Edie’s along the line with sanitation and concerns about sanity, but the duo weren’t stupid. They possessed a sharp wit and were a hoot, despite a love/hate co-dependent relationship. The Edies were beauties of their day, brought up to look pretty and marry well, but Little Edie was a rebel, working for a time and remaining single. She wasn’t too thrilled giving up her independence to come back and take care of her mom at Grey Gardens.
Beard and Radziwill do show genuine affection and concern for the women. There’s a missed opportunity leaving you wishing there were scenes of her and the Beales talking together about their histories and the arts (of which they all were talented and interested in) and how this downfall occurred. Radziwill is another elusive character who you’d like to know further. There’s more questions than answers in this story that combines the Bouvier/Kennedy mystique with poverty and delusion that’s for die-hard devotees and gawkers only.
words Rhonda Lee Reali