Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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47 of 49 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Poorly extended 60's film project, January 10, 2007
Tragic" is a word that may become synonymous with the name of Edie Sedgwick.
The 5 stars are for Edie's smile, and nothing more.
This "Let's Start", and then "Stop", "Start again" cycle of this film presents as a messy, disorganized glance at Ms. Sedgwick's disturbing life.
Another 'tragedy " exists here. Our educated culture should recognize that if Edie weren't exceptionally beautiful, there wouldn't have been much fuss over an ancestor of a historically noted family.
Beauty still takes precedence over most other attributes.
It's been over 35 years since the death of Edie Sedgwick, but the "glam-famishished" still won't let the beauty get her rest.
The film's black and white scenes show the brilliance of Edie's past beauty, but are all cut and pasted into a confusing, tangled decoupage.
The additional color footage of the next decade is woven in carelessly. If it was just Edie's glowing wedding sequence that were included, it would've been much easier to watch.
The "two teenagers" who appear in the the colored segments seem out of time with Edie's Glory Days of the 60's.
This is NOT a spiraling Masterpiece.Not a work of art nor imagination galore.
Just commercial trash for the star struck. For other than commercial purposes, it is a film that Spotlights it's own defeat.
It is a poor tribute to Edie Sedgwick and I prefer the very big, heavy photograph book.
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35 of 36 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Ciao Manhattan, February 21, 2007
i knock down a star for this because of the insufferably boring scenes involving Mr. Verdeccio and his chauffeur.
take all that out and you've got your 5th star back.
but, alas, we're stuck with it.
the rest is all good.
absolutely essential are the dvd extras:the interviews with the co-director, david weisman, betsy johnson,wesley hayes and george plimpton.
absolute essential dvd extra pt. 2: the film-length commentary with david, john palmer and wesley.
absolute essential dvd extra pt.3: the found film footage unused in the film but here embellished with commentary by david and john.
i first saw Ciao Manhattan, probably at that same revival movie house another reviewer mentions having seen it....and that must have been, what, early 90's? something like that.
it was a difficult watch.
i was tortured by the character of Butch. perhaps even worse is the young dude who plays Edie's servant, Geoffrey.
the whole sub-plot involving Verdeccio and co. is a colossal test of endurance and just about ruined it all for me.
and it was an endurance as well to sit and watch a truly disabled miss Sedgewick in the color scenes shot in 1971.
she's completely surrendered to a drug-induced state of .........zonksville.
but i still wanted her to make it through. to get herself together.
and i take it back..she's not COMPLETELY surrendered to zonksville because she speaks intelligently and thoughtfully about her past.
and her past is represented in this film by many black and white filmed flashbacks shot in 1967 when this project had a different agenda.
she looks great in these flashbacks. a bit trippy but still gorgeous and fun-loving.
even in the color scenes from '71 with her hair grown out and dark again as it was before she came to new york in the early '60's, she looks young and beautiful.
one of the blessings of this dvd is to learn via the commentary that Edie was very much part of this films objective and was eager to portray herself in an unflattering light.
so, i was quite relieved to learn that the wasted and disheveld Susan who she plays in the film is very much Edie acting in that way.
i recomment this dvd along with the book "Edie Girl On Fire" and the film "Factory Girl"
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28 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The film is what it is, but the special features are great, January 24, 2003
Before I got Ciao! Manhattan on DVD, I had seen it twice before, once on video (first time) and once at a cinema revival screening of it (second). I was fascinated by the movie upon my first viewing, but managed to make it through the second showing just barely...my unconditional admiration for Edie Sedgwick being what got me through it. I mean, it's a weird, wacky, and wonderful film--full of great images of 1960's glamour and a funny, bizarre plot set in the 70s--but I bought the DVD really just so that I could complete my Edie memorabilia collection.
Anyway, I sat down to watch it the other night and turned on the special features first. They were fantastic! The interviews with David Weisman and Betsey Johnson were incredible; both of these people communicate very well the spirit of the 1960's and what they were experiencing and trying to communicate during the making of the film, not just in terms of the actual production but the way life itself was for these "youthquakers" back then. Weisman also gives some great insight as to why, after all these years, people (and young people in particular) are still so fascinated with Edie and the Warhol crew. And then there's the extra footage, which, despite having no soundtrack, is absolutely mesmerizing. Shots of 1960's kids, New York, Woodstock (I think), and of course outtakes from the film...well, it was just a fantastic bonus. Watching the features first really made me appreciate the film the most I ever had when I saw it the third time...this is a DVD not to be missed (well, admittedly, for a certain audience with an interest in the 1960s).
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