Ciao! Manhattan

Plexifilm ($24.95)

In case you were still wondering what the hell this underground oddity was actually about, directors John Palmer and David Weisman explain it all (at least what they can remember) in the audio commentary of the film’s 30th Anniversary Edition on DVD. (Wesley Hayes, the loopy naif who portrays himself in the film, also pipes up.) But the star of the show is still Edie Sedgwick, the Vogue model and Warhol superstar who blazed bright and burned out on barbiturates in 1971. The film is a mishmash: black-and-white footage of Sedgwick and company from 1965 wrapped up in a crazy quilt of a plot involving hitchhiker Hayes, aliens, and electroshock therapy. It doesn’t make a lick of sense, but the anamorphic transfer is gorgeous; the early footage looks crisp and fresh, and Sedgwick’s presence is so cool and exhilarating that her fate seems all the more poignant. Stills and interviews (with Betsey Johnson and George Plimpton) paint a more detailed picture of the Manhattan dream girl.

This article appears in December 13 • 2002.

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