Ciao Manhattan (1972)

User Rating:

5.3/10   

Directors:

John Palmer
David Weisman

Writers:

John Palmer (screenplay) and
David Weisman (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

July 1974 (Austria)

Genre:

Biography | Drama | Romance

Plot Keywords:

Sex | Hitchhiking | Model | Childhood Trauma | Drugs

Cast

Edie Sedgwick	...	Susan Superstar
Wesley Hayes	...	Butch
Isabel Jewell	...	Mummy
Jeff Briggs	...	Geoffrey (as Geoffrey Briggs)
Paul America	...	Paul
Tom Flye	...	Tom
Gabriel Lampa	...	Mario
Pat Hartley	...	Yoli
Nell Bassett	...	Receptionist
Charlie Bacis	...	Doctor Robert (as Bhavananda)
Jane Holzer	...	Charla (as 'Baby' Jane Holzer)
David Weisman	...	David
Wesley Rand	...	Wes
Viva	...	Diana - Vogue editor
Roger Vadim	...	Dr. Braun

Also Known As:

Ciao! Manhattan (USA) (alternative spelling)
Edie in Ciao! Manhattan

Runtime:

84 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White | Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Norway:18 | West Germany:18 | UK:18 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Arcadia, California, USA

Company:

Court Pictures

Quotes:

Susan: Speed is the ultimate, all time high. That first rush. Wow! Just that burning, searing, soaring sense of perfection. There's no way to explain it unless you've been through it. There's no way to tell anyone who hasn't tasted it. I'd like to turn the whole world on just for a moment... just for a moment. I'm greedy. I'd like to keep most of it for myself and a few others, a few of my friends. Keep that superlative high just on the cusp of each day so that I radiate sunshine.

Movie Connections:

References Sweet Smell of Sex (1965)

Sad, so very, very sad

As Edie's biography here on IMDb says, she was in and out of institutions. It is clear that this woman-child was taken advantage of very callously by Andy Warhol and others, at first for her money, and later for her celebrity.

Ciao! Manhattan shocked and angered me when I first saw it in 1972, because I had known Edie. For several months in 1962, when she was in a very tony, low-security psychiatric institution in Westchester, I knew her as a sweet-natured, somewhat reticent, and very artistic 19-year-old. When I first met her I thought she was a 12-year-old child, as I was, for she was so thin and under-developed looking for her age. Seeing the way she is abused in Ciao! Manhattan just leaves me feeling very sad for her. She deserved better than this exploitation film.

As for the "Summer of Love" reference made by an earlier reviewer on IMDb, referring to the fact that this film was actually made partly in 1967, I do not think Ciao, Manhattan represents any of the genuine feelings of free expression and loving attitudes that were touted at the time. There is far too much cynicism inherent in this film to connect it in any way to the hippie happiness one could experience in pleasanter circles than that inhabited/created by the ghastly, selfish, mean-spirited, and self-involved Warhol. He used and threw away such gentle souls as Edie. I weep for the lost and under-appreciated life she led while under the influence of Warhol. In kinder company, she might have survived and been happier.

Ciao, Edie! You deserved better.