Rats run through their litter-strewn mansion, and their rich Hamptons neighbours are clearly horrified, but there's a grandeur to the way they pick their way through the trash, seeing around them not a kip, perhaps, but a palace.

A tribute to the spirited ones.

That Summer is a found-footage documentary which might as easily be a Tennessee Williams play. It is that weird and wonderful.

Like Grey Gardens, the new film works its magic through its startling mixture of decay and splendour.

No one who loves Grey Gardens can do without this.

For those fascinated by the Maysles brothers' classic 1975 documentary Grey Gardens, a portrait of the eccentric, impoverished socialites Edith Ewing Bouvier Beale and her daughter Edie, this is a Beale-apalooza.

Big and Little Edies' pre-existing fans will relish this early look at the eccentric recluses who lived in squalor despite their familial connection to Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy.

At its best, "That Summer" proves an effective time capsule aimed squarely at Beale devotees, adding light and context to the saga of this endlessly baffling and singularly captivating mother-daughter duo.

The film is raw, not even "rough-cut" quality. And this is the charm and the power.

A footnote to "Grey Gardens," fascinating -- but still a footnote.

Not only does the film breathe new life into an American family surrounded by tragic mythos, but it sheds light on a cinematic treasure that forever changed documentary filmmaking.

Fans of Grey Gardens and the Beales are going to want to see the unseen footage, and for the most part they won't leave disappointed.

A rich, deeply nostalgic look back at one particular world of the 1970s.

Sheds further light on the Beales with footage shot before the making of "Grey Gardens."

The makers of this rescued-footage documentary ultimately understand the power of its subjects' personalities.