Love to Love You, Donna Summer

As "Love to Love You, Donna Summer" (2023 release; 107 min) opens, Donna Summer performs that breakthrough song (some might say, her signature song), as she dances along. We then hear from Donna herself: "I have a secret life: what you see is not who I am". We then go back in time, as young (8 yo) Donna is asked to sing gospel songs at church. At this point we are 10 minutes into the movie.

Couple of comments: this documentary is co-directed by Brooklyn Sudano (Donna's daughter) and Oscar-winning (for "Music by Prudence") Roger Ross Williams. The result is a carefully crafted assessment of Donna Summer the musician and the person. The film makers do not step aside to address avoid some touchy issues. The lovie includes never-before-seen home footage (it helps that Donna, a wanna-be film maker, has a camera with her on those long tours). When asked what she thinks about being called the "Queen of Disco", Donna responds "but that is not all of who I am". This documentary makes that very clear.

"Love to Love You, Donna Summer" premiered at the Berlin Film Festival in early 2023, to immediate positive acclaim. The movie is currently rated 83% Certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. For whatever reason I had missed this documentary, until Max (where this is now streaming) suggested it to me based on my viewing habits. If you are a fan of Donna Summer or of the disco era, I'd readily suggest you check this out, and draw your own conclusion.

I watched this documentary for the purpose of seeing a glimpse of Donna Summer's off-stage private life. I would have been age 9 when Love to Love You, the song, was released worldwide. As a young person growing up in the 70s and 80s I did not follow the lives of entertainers and still do not as a woman in her mid-50s, so learning about Donna's life peaked my interest because I have an appreciation for her as a performance artist.

Giving the fact that I knew nothing about Ms. Summer's personal life, I can say I did learn some things. Unlike some others who have written reviews, I did not mind all the home footage. Her personal life off stage is why I was drawn to watch the documentary.

What I do have an issue with is the absolutely poor audio/sound mixing. There are segments where a caption will appear that states, "Voice of... (a person's name and their relationship to Donna)," but then nothing is heard. Early on in the film when this first happened, I turned the volume up to a really high level and barely heard the person speaking. This happens throughout the film. I subsequently stopped turning up the volume to hear because then the following audio would come in blasting. There are also instances where the narrator/daughter asks someone a question, but then their answer is not heard. Did no one view the film for possible issues before it was released on HBO Max?

An intimate documentary about the life and career of the 'Queen of Disco', Donna Summer. Co-Directed by Summer's daughter Brooklyn Sudano (with Roger Ross Williams), the movie takes a very personal viewpoint on the singer's career.

There is no formal narration, but, fortunately, Summer left behind a very large collection of personal recordings (she was an early adopter of home video cameras) and writings. As a superstar, her career was also well-documented which only added to the family's wealth of archive of material. There are no 'talking heads' per se; instead, the 'narration' is largely formed from those recordings.

It's a fairly nontraditional form for those expecting a more straightforward 'Behind The Music' biographical doc, but, it mostly works. It progresses more or less chronologically - save for an oddly placed segment that flash-forwards to the recording and release of 'Bad Girls'. The most interesting aspect to casual fans is the portion given over to her pre-disco career where she went from leaving her family in Massachusetts to doing the play 'Hair' to going to Europe to start her professional singing career. Once 'Love to Love You, Baby' came out, her image as a sexed up disco diva was set. It certainly jump-started her success, but, the doc shows that it came at a personal price both in her private relationships, and her mental and physical health.

The disco label made it difficult for Summer to transition to non-dance oriented music, and like the Bee Gees, it hurt her on a commercial level, as well (she only had one Top 10 single after 1982). Even at the height of her fame she tried to break out beyond the image, but it was too strong to many. She continued to record up until a few years before her passing.

LOVE TO LOVE YOU, DONNA SUMMER is very an authorized biography with all three of Summer's daughters and her widower, musician Bruce Sudano, all appearing and relating their memories. Still, there are some quite dark truths and observations revealed. It not sanitized.

Donna Summer had a voice that could make any aspiring singer sit down. Her voice had a resonance that kept you listening. I found this documentary stretched to find a story outside her career that just didn't really do anything to make her legacy shine brighter but rather more of her daughter's search to understand her mother who clearly was exceptionally reserved and not fully connected to her children. Even her love affairs seemed shallow. I found this documentary more discrediting than inspiring. A lot of scenes were flat, lots of unnecessary home video that made me want to turn it off and just stream one of her live performances to remember the bottom line - great voice.

My mother was a huge Donna Summer fan, she had all her albums and listened to them all the time. As a kid I was entranced by Donna's album covers-they were huge pictures of her and Mimi dressed in beautiful sequined gowns. Mimi and I are one year apart in age and I thought she was the luckiest girl alive to be able to be living such a glamorous life and wearing such beautiful dresses like a princess.

When I heard this documentary was coming out, I was cautiously optimistic simply for the fact that I am wary of the children of celebrities to tell the truth about their parent. Particularly the life they lived before they had children. For some reason, children are often seen as the ultimate biographical sources for their parents but I don't agree. Partly because as children we only ever know a small part of our parents story and only the part they tell us or the part we see with our own eyes. Donna Summer was approx.25 years old when her first child Mimi was born yet her participation was minimal-she spent the most time with her Mom as Donna was well over 30 years old when Brooklyn was born. How would she know, for sure, what her mom was or wasn't doing before she was alive? You can go by what your parent tells you, but parents don't always tell their kids the truth. This is mentioned in the doc that as children they were not allowed in their Mom's bedroom and their Mom was somewhat aloof about her private life. My personal view is that the children of celebrities more than anyone else, want to preserve a particular view or image of their parent. A good example of this is the Natalie Wood documentary that was done by her daughter.

The documentary seemed rushed maybe there were budgetary constraints that would explain why A LOT of details were omitted. Her participation in the production of HAIR which was quite controversial for the time-her life in Germany which was allegedly a difficult time for her due to bad relationships and possibly substance abuse. Her life post-disco and her brief early 80's come back with She works hard for the money and her popularity in the UK which eclipsed her popularity in the US post-disco. I could go on and on... Lastly, on the topic of Donna's views on the gay community. For the filmmakers to allege that she didn't mean what she said, and that Donna had gay friends and liked gay people is disingenuous. The internet keeps receipts in perpetuity, and it is quite clear what her views were. Her views were in keeping with the times! Who is to say that those views would not evolve over time?