Has anyone ever had a strange love affair with a film that in some aspects is interesting, artistic and thought provoking, but in other ways is exploitative and causes you to feel uncomfortable and disgusted by the film makers intentions? Well this is what the 1972 picture Ciao! Manhattan is to me.
For those of you who are unfamilier with the film, Ciao! Manhattan is an avant-garde, semi-biographical film about the life of Edie Sedgwick. The film starts Edie as the ex-model Susan (Edie) who has suffered brain damage due to the copius amounts of drugs she used in the 60's. Susan talks of her time at The Factory, her time as Susan Superstar, It Girl, with a famous Artist, (Andy Warhol). The story also follows a young travelling man, Butch, who finds Susan stumbling along the side of a road hitch-hiking. He takes her back to her mothers house, where she lives in an emptied pool area and tells him her life story as 'Susan Superstar'.
The film was originally put into production in March 1967, so it is compiled with a cocktail of new and old footage. Much of the film imagery was taken during the time that Edie was involved in the Factory. The black and white footage is used during the flashback scenes when Susan is talking about her days in New York. The later footage which is the backbone of the film consists mainly of an array of unconventional characters, Susans pool hideaway and Butch learning of her past. The finished picture can be confusing and dis-jointed at times and this had a lot to do with budget problems but also drug use between cast and crew members off camera.
Ciao! Manhattan allows the viewer to have brilliant insight into what was going on in New York in the late 60's and has rare footage of Edie at the time which would not otherwise be accessible, (there are actually lost Ciao! Manhattan tapes floating around with hours and hours of unseen footage). We also have original footage of Allen Ginsberg, Brigid Berlin, Paul America and Baby Jane Holzer, all huge names on The Factory scene.The film also has scenes of the infamous Dr. Robert administering his 'vitamin shots'. These black and white films paint Edie as a young, intelligent, articulate actress with a lot of potential. Sadly in the later, colour 70's footage, it is clear that Edie had become another car crash product of the 60's.
At first glance and general assumption, the film appears to be tackling issues of drugs, alcohol, fame and addiction. The character Susan demonstrates quite pointedly the downfall of an icon dependent on the current phase and if there was a 'story' to stop anyone from taking class A drugs, this is it. Susans slowed speech and motor skills is seemingly down to the drug addiction she struggled with for years and Edie acts this very well. What they don't tell you is that Edie isn't acting at all.
Edie did in fact suffer long term brain damage after overdosing on heroin and it left her with slurred, slowed speach and little motor control. Her brother, Jonathan, describes her state when Edie's mother finally took her out of the the hospital and back to the ranch in Santa Barbara in the late fall of 1968: "She couldn't walk. She'd just fall over... like she had no motor control left at all. The doctor did a dye test of some sort and it showed the blood wasn't reaching certain parts of the brain... She couldn't talk. I'd say, "Edie, goddamn it, get your head together... She'd say, 'I... I... I... know... know... know... I... I... can but it's ha... ha... hard...' "
Edie still fought against the alcohol and drug dependency she had aquired during her time at the factory and the character Susan couldn't have been further from fiction.
During filming, it was not unusual for someone to have to hold Edie up if she was sitting or lift her up onto something to sit on. She had lost the ability to remember any of her lines and therefore had to be shown cards for her to read instead. Much of the time whilst filming she had been drinking and became increasingly difficult to work with. Edie was in no fit state to be filming an auto-biographical account of her life.
Aside from this, some aspects of the script involved Edie speaking very closely of her drug problems, her strained relationship with her father 'Fuzzy' and upsetting accounts of how she was often treated unfairly by her old friends at The Factory. The majority of footage of Edie saw her exposing her upper half, stumbling around appearing unaware of herself.
On top of this the film replicates a scene in which Edie has electric shock therapy, which she wrongfully underwent back in 1962 at Silver Hill hospital at the request of Fuzzy who claimed Edie was dilusional when she discovered him having an affair. This time was very traumatic for Edie and in my opinion unneccessary to the stroyline.
Edie died in 1971, before the film was completed and so released a year later in 1972. The film was then dedicated to her memory, the last motion picture she made. Ciao! Manhattan premiered in Amsterdam due to critical aclaim. It continued to have further success in Germany, London and San Francisco. A great deal of the success was down to Edies death.
Edie Sedgwick was very much exploited in the making of Ciao! Manhattan. Her near total inability to handle herself, act and even speak begs the question of whether the completion of the film was even an appropriate venture to begin with. Some may argue that Edie agreed to do it but was she really in a fit state of mind to question what was happening? The later footage of her is undignified and cruel. The success of Ciao! Manhattan at the time of release only demonstrates once again the fascination the world has with the demise of an icon, present day, I think although the viewer is faced with these issues, the film has wonderful footage of Edie in her prime and makes her a little more accessible.
Nothing like her old self
