Ciao! Manhattan (1973)

Blurring the lines between documentary and melodrama, Ciao! Manhattan (1973) was perhaps intended as a breakthrough vehicle for lovely and doomed brunette pixie Edie Sedgwick, but the hip and happening whirling dervish of an heiress passed unfortunately from this life before she was able to reap any benefits from the film. Starring as Susan, the busty waif is shown to be living in her fictional mother’s drained California swimming pool, spending much of her time topless and twirling. It is never clear if Susan is being tormented or comforted by memories of bygone nights as a fabulous creature of New York City’s glam party circuit. Archival footage of the actual Edie Sedgwick "making the scene" with Andy Warhol, appearing in the pages of Vogue magazine, and traipsing down fashion runways provides the fodder for Susan’s flashbacks. This blurring of fantasy and reality may be at the root of what cost Edie her life, which lends a poignancy to Ciao! Manhattan.