Ciao Manhattan (1972)

Directors:

John Palmer
David Weisman

Writers:

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

Release Date:

July 1974 (Austria)

Genre:

Biography | Drama | Romance

Plot Keywords:

Electroshock Therapy | Flashback | Monitor | Hitchhiking | Fantasy Becomes Reality

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
Brigid Berlin	...	Brigid (as Brigid Polk)
Lilimor Mercer	...	Lil
Rosko	...	Locker Attendant
Lorenzo	...	Rapist (as Titus & Lorenzo)
Titus	...	Rapist (as Titus & Lorenzo)
Allen Ginsberg	...	Himself
Christian Marquand	...	Entrepreneur
John Nahan	...	Lawyer
Jean Margouleff	...	Mister Verdecchio (as Mister Verdecchio)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Nena Thurman	...	(scenes deleted)
Richie Berlin	...	Richie (uncredited)
Robert Thurman	...	Bob (uncredited)

Directed by
John Palmer
David Weisman

Writing credits
John Palmer		(screenplay) and
David Weisman		(screenplay)
Robert Benard		additional story
Genevieve Charbon		original concept (as Genevieve Charbin)
John Palmer		additional story
Chuck Wein		original concept
David Weisman		additional story

Produced by
Michael Maiello	....	associate producer
Robert Margouleff	....	producer
David Weisman	....	producer

Original Music by
Gino Piserchio

Cinematography by
John Palmer
Kjell Rostad

Film Editing by
Robert Farren

Costume Design by
Betsy Johnson

Production Management
Janet Palmer	....	production supervisor

Sound Department
Robert Margouleff	....	sound
Harold Wordsman	....	sound effects editor

Camera and Electrical Department
Bob Adelman	....	still photographer
Jeff Briggs	....	grip (as Geoffrey Briggs)
Eduardo Lopez de Romana	....	electric
Larry Shock	....	electrician
Steve Shore	....	stills
James Signorelli	....	camera operator: second unit
David Weed	....	grip

Editorial Department
Margareta Schiappa	....	assistant editor (as Marni Schiappa)

Other crew
Susan Coppola	....	script girl
Terry Stevenson	....	color slides
David Weisman	....	title designer

Production Companies

• Court Pictures
• Maron Films
• Sugarloaf Films Inc.

Distributors

• Constantin-Film (1974) (Austria) (theatrical)
• Maron Films (1973) (USA)
• Plexifilm (2002) (USA) (DVD)

Other Companies

• ASI / Magno  sound re-recording
• Cinefects  opticals
• Seemon & Mareijke  costumes

Also Known As:

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:

Referenced in Sweetest Compassion: The Gunther Palmer Story (2002)

Soundtrack:

Citizen Kane

the living end...on film.

A silver lipstick stained blueprint to the "Big Come Down" era, Ciao Manhattan is, by technical standards, very bad. Though the color sequences are well photographed and the older clips seem well reproduced, the narrative is clumsy and the sound is choppy. This doesn't bother me and whereas, I would like to see a coherent documentary on Edie, the flaws of the film are perfect alongside the flawed characters in the film. It possesses a very paranoid, broken and detached quality that is in keeping with a certain sub genre that has grown over the ensuing years. In music, it's everything low-fi since the LP, The Velvet Underground & Nico(1967). In film-making, it's any art film since Andy Warhol's Empire(1964).

The film is, quite by incident, the very quintessence of the dangers of mixing cinema verity lifestyle with a diet of tablets which include a total disregard for the wages of sin, in favor of "really living". (i.e. on film, on drugs and off reality). What illustrates this is that Susan(Edie)isn't really acting in this film, but seems to be fooling herself (with coaxing from the filmmakers, no doubt) into thinking that she is, simply because, she's using the name Susan and is probably on LSD most of the time. It's a kind of twisted defense mechanism that Edie is using to distance herself from her own personal reality. This is ironic, considering the fact that her personal reality is the focus of the entire film and that her(Edie's) own mortal coil is unraveling faster then footage can record it. But, the cameras are tenacious and keep rolling thru her staged shock treatments(a true event) to her "last chance at a normal life" marriage(a true event captured on 8mm complete with a Warholsque posterized sequence) and finally a news clipping of her obituary.

The film serves well as a cautionary tale to the contemporary modern girl, with Susan(Edie) as the prototype modern girl, trying anything new, without regard to the consequences. i.e. forced stardom, derelict emotions, mood management drugs, radical psychotherapy techniques and even a botched breast job. This has all become a common lifestyle today(in 2006), perfected by time and human casualty. Susan(Edie) was an incidental trailblazer in a film(lifestyle) where the sun shines too white hot for human beings to bare it, yet is too intoxicating for the obsessive ones to turn away from. Like a pretty, lactose intolerant, lab rat that keeps eating the cheese in spite of the gas pains, Susan(Edie) was caught in a maze of learned behavior and couldn't resist it's unhealthy escapism's, even though she must have felt the grim reaper's hand on her emaciated shoulder. As long as she was feeding her head and all eyes where on her, she really lived. She only "snuffed it" after filming had concluded and she was faced the realism of a sober, off camera existence.

The book "Edie, An American Biography" is required reading if you want to get the most out of this film and may be all you can take. *Not for the mentally squeamish.