Ciao! Manhattan

Definitely an odd little time killer about Edie Sedgwick, an Andy Warhol fledgling who has fallen on hard times, and is living in a swimming pool in Beverly Hills. Very trippy strange little flick, more so pasted together with old clips of Edie in some early Warhol films. Would have served a better purpose as a documentary, but definitely worth checking out. Obviously this is not for all tastes.

This film is interesting only to anyone familiar with the saga of Edie Sedgwick. And it seems a bit ghoulish/voyeuristic to admit watching it for that reason. Although it's often claimed to be a biography of Edie, the film really is just a painful look at a person in the final stages of mental illness-drug addiction. She died soon after filming completed, which is no surprise.

The plot of Ciao is pretty garbled by the storyline involving the character Mr. Vedecchio. The director's commentary explains that Vedecchio was only added to the movie because during shooting the rest of the cast disappeared and there was nothing else to do but beef-up this role. In fact, the whole movie is a cut-and-paste of pre-meltdown Edie (black and white footage) and post-meltdown Edie (color), with Vedecchio and Paul America tossed into the mix. The color section also introduces Butch, the drifter from Texas, who does provide some much-needed comedy.

Although Ciao, Manhattan might not be particularly entertaining on its own, the DVD extras in the Anniversary package are wonderful, and to me made the disc worth purchasing. The directors' (and Butch/Wesley's!) commentary provides the story of how this movie "directed itself", and informs much about Edie and her state of mind during the last days of her life. There is quite a bit of extra footage from the Warhol-NYC days, and some terrific stills of Edie. A nice booklet is also included.

This movie had a DVD release about 20 years ago and I highly recommend viewing this movie with the audio commentary because then it becomes a documentary about Edie Sedgwick. Without that commentary, you have a quasi drama(with a little sci fi) movie based around a fictionalized version of Edie Sedgwick. This character is burned out from the same setting but is living in an empty pool with a palace of pies owner for a mother. She recounts her life while showing off early breast implants much of the time. That's when the movie shifts to black and white archival footage. There's a rich and powerful shadowy figure stalking her. We never really know why. She has a love interest named America. Cant remember if that was Captain or Mr. A Jesus looking type character is the rich guy's henchman. The movie tries to be alot of things. Whatever plots they were trying to develop never really get resolved.

What we learn in the audio commentary is what the footage actually means regarding Edie Sedgwick. Roger Vadim has a role as a doctor because his mother was deeply enamored with Edie Sedgwick and wanted to be near her. Some footage from a gathering in '68 is significant because it shows Edie falling apart and this happened around the time she abandoned Andy Warhol for Bob Dylan. A betrayal Warhol never overcame.

Also they explain how much input Edie herself offers in the making of the film which is apparently alot including the filming of a real electroshock therapy session which she insisted be done.

We learn about other people always around Andy's Factory like Brigid Polk and other models. We also get more explanation of the story they were trying to tell.

I'd give this an 8 with audio commentary by the directors David Weissman and John Palmer and costar Wesley Hayes and a 6 without it. On its own, its just showing footage with a vague story tying it all together. I can see how so many viewers find the movie appalling given the fact that Edie died weeks after much of the later footage was shot but as they said in the commentary, making this movie kept her going. This was something she wanted to make and when it was just about finished, she was gone.

I've seen this video a couple of times, and I've seen parts of it many times and it always gets my attention. There's something oddly hip about it, even today. Maybe it's living in an empty swimming pool or just wasting the days sleeping that appeals to me, or maybe it's seeing a topless girl with a nice body seem entirely unglamorous, or is it just the kooky narration?... but there's a fresh insanity about this that makes it worth watching. I don't know, but anyway, I dig it .

Ciao! Manhattan is an underground film starring former Warhol Superstar Edie Sedgwick. Edie was one of those troubled rich girls who died young because they only found solace in drugs and booze. Certainly an interesting individual. Of course, for me it is difficult to respect any "socialite" since the ones we've had the last two decades have given these people a bad name.

Ciao! Manhattan is a combination of two films: a black-and-white production made shortly after Sedgwick's exit from the Warhol Superstars from 1966-67 and color footage from 1970-71. Sedgwick plays herself, albeit with the name of Susan Superstar as she lives in a tent in the pool of her Mom's mansion, boozing and drugging herself to death while some drifter from Texas named Butch half-listens and half-dreams while she talks about her sordid life in New York.

I found the film to be 90 minutes of druggy dialogue. Ms. Sedgwick was clearly drugged up during the color segments. You needed subtitles to understand what she and Butch were saying. I also saw it as an overlong YouTube video where somebody is pleading for help. She's asking in vain for somebody to help her and the clowns who are supposed to listen to her cries for help are too busy screwing around.

Sadly for Edie, her entire 28 years were a total mess. I doubt even today you could save her. She was the Amy Winehouse of her day.

These people associated with Andy Warhol were quite an eclectic group and it is certainly worth watching any material you can find of them to see what the excesses of the 1960's did to them. I still wonder what happened to those drug addicts in the Roliing Stones' CS Blues but we already know what happened to Ms. Sedgwick.