This film isn't widely available to buy and I've never seen it listed on any TV schedules in the UK, so chances are anyone who is going to the trouble of tracking down a copy by whatever means will be approaching it knowing some of the background of Edie Sedgwick and the Warhol Factory/Superstar scene.
The film is cobbled together from older black and white footage and stills from her New York heyday and film shot very close to the end of her life. Its an awkward mix of documentary, pseudo-intellectual psychodrama; however the high brow veneer rapidly rubs off and all you are left with is an incomprehensible mess that stinks of rank exploitation and morbid voyeurism.
It managed to hold my interest by giving glimpses of the extremely narcissistic scene Edie inhabited prior to her leaving New York for good, the highlight of which is Brigid Polk on the toilet injecting speed while extolling her own innate talents.
Its worth watching along side the very sanitised yet watchable Factory Girl. The voice over ending glosses over her final years yet in Ciao you get some insight of the grim reality.
That grim reality is that you are watching the terminal decline of a deeply unwell and drug addled young woman. The fact that she is literally weeks away from death means anyone with even just an ounce of compassion and empathy can't come away from watching this without a feeling of immense sadness.
The film is cobbled together from older black and white footage and stills from her New York heyday and film shot very close to the end of her life. Its an awkward mix of documentary, pseudo-intellectual psychodrama; however the high brow veneer rapidly rubs off and all you are left with is an incomprehensible mess that stinks of rank exploitation and morbid voyeurism.
It managed to hold my interest by giving glimpses of the extremely narcissistic scene Edie inhabited prior to her leaving New York for good, the highlight of which is Brigid Polk on the toilet injecting speed while extolling her own innate talents.
Its worth watching along side the very sanitised yet watchable Factory Girl. The voice over ending glosses over her final years yet in Ciao you get some insight of the grim reality.
That grim reality is that you are watching the terminal decline of a deeply unwell and drug addled young woman. The fact that she is literally weeks away from death means anyone with even just an ounce of compassion and empathy can't come away from watching this without a feeling of immense sadness.