Manhattan Baby

Starring:Enzo Marino Bellanich, Brigitta Boccoli, Andrea Bosic, Cosimo Cinieri, Christopher Connelly, Carlo De Mejo, Giovanni Frezza, Laura Lenzi, Mario Moretti, Tonino Pulci, Martin Sorrentino, Martha Taylor, Cinzia de Ponti
Studio: Anchor Bay
Product Type: DVD

Average customer rating:

Ciao Manhattan
Poorly extended 60's film project
Ciao Manhattan DVD
Celluloid heroes never really die
100 viewings ain't enough !

Ciao Manhattan (Ws Dol)
Starring: Paul America , Charlie Bacis , Nell Bassett , Brigid Berlin , and Jeff Briggs
Director: John Palmer (II)
Manufacturer: Plexifilm
ProductGroup: DVD
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Similar Items:

Edie: American Girl
Edie: Girl on Fire
Edie Factory Girl
Andy Warhol: A Documentary Film
The Life & Times of Andy Warhol - Superstar

ASIN: B000077VQR
Release Date: 2002-11-12

Amazon.com

Fact and fiction collide in the cult classic Ciao! Manhattan, which was billed as "the film that wrote itself." The unexpectedly poignant tale is based on the life of "Superstar" Edie Sedgwick, who plays a drugged-out former model named Susan. In Southern California, she lives in her wealthy, pie-obsessed mother's swimming pool and recounts her glory days in Manhattan to a Houston drifter (Wesley Hayes). John Palmer and David Weisman began filming in New York in 1967 and kept shooting for the next five years, even as Sedgwick moved West, grew out her hair, got breast implants, and spent time at a variety of mental institutes. The 1970s present is in color; the 1960s flashbacks are in luminous black and white. John Phillips, Richie Havens, and others provide the period-perfect soundtrack. Confusing at times, but always entertaining, Ciao! Manhattan is a must for fans of Head, Trash, and all things weird, wiggy, and Warhol. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

Description

Ciao! Manhattan parallels Andy Warhol Factory star Edie Sedgwick's glory days in the late 60's through her inevitable downfall and the tragic addiction that would take her life only weeks after filming wrapped in 1971. The DVD includes never-before-seen bonus footage of Edie, interviews, a photo gallery of Edie's life, and much more.

Customer Reviews:

Ciao Manhattan.......2007-02-22

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"

Poorly extended 60's film project.......2007-01-10

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.

Ciao Manhattan DVD.......2007-01-09

I ordered this item because I love and adore Edie Sedgwick. Yet I found the little bio of her rather dull and lengthy. It was not as exciting as I would have imagined her life to be. Still it is worth the time of getting a glimpse at her charm.

Celluloid heroes never really die.......2006-09-13

The two Edie Sedgwicks in this shambling sprawl of a film tell me everything I need to know about what happens when you repeatedly apply hard drugs to a young mind. Not good.
Eyelash Edie of the Factory days in the mid 60s was a jangly amphetamine doll, and implant Edie of barely three years later, after she had been ousted from the silver clouds and sent packing back to SoCal...ouch. She looked like a bobble head version of herself.
I read Edie: An American Biography when it came out in hardcover in 1982 before I had seen Ciao, and the book devoted several pages on the production, so I kind of knew what to expect, but of course to see the players in action...sigh. The original movie teaser promised "Speed. Madness. Flying Saucers." That's about right.
Lasting images: Ms. Berlin injecting speed in the toilet stall, screaming and blowsy...Edie plumped out, vacant and trying to dance...Paul America in New York driving a car out of a scene and (knowing this from reading Edie) he just kept on driving to California, stoned out of his mind...
For me, maybe the the last scene in the film is the most moving, where the young man sees Edie's obit in the newspaper and flinches away in sadness and embarrassment--
The lady might be dead but her influence floats on...
Also...
http://www.nypress.com/15/14/books/books.cfm

100 viewings ain't enough !.......2005-07-05

This no doubt is a strange film. If the theme of Zappa's 200 Motels was that touring can make you crazy, this film is definitely the flipside... DRUGS can make you crazy, ruin your career, put you in a nuthouse and inevitably kill you..... here we are in the flip side of the psychadelic 60's... the methadonic and dexatronic 70's... but the psychadelic daze pervails...

The director described Ciao as an OVERGROUND UNDERGROUND FILM... meaning that it is framed into a story with an actual plot and chractors and doesn't last 12 hours... In fact some of the dialogue and images in this film make it more of a cult classic (with its repeatable lines and dialogues) than a true "underground" film in which case it might have had statements to make, but wouldn't have necessarily been entertaining or rewatchable. Whatever, despite its flaws and the fact that at one point it was becoming the neverending film for the director and production crew as Edie and crew went AWOL for months, weeks days and years on end, it turned out great... it fact the film is so well edited and strung together you don't really realize that it was patch paste and capture scenes as you go until after you're told so... then admittedly it becomes quite obvoius.. -- Made over a 5 year period... you can really feel the colorful 70s when its the 70s and the mod (yet black and white) 60s when its the 60s... and everything blends together... In many ways the film reminds me of Zappa's 200 MOTELS... by the time its over you might feel as drugged out and dazed as many of the charactors, yet the charactors are so memorabe and the story so bizarre you watch it over and over again...

Despite the obvoius bad taste left in some Edie Sedgwick fans who realize that this film in many ways is a documentary of her fall and final days and might even arguably exploit it, on a level of entertainment and engagement this film is one of the all time most memorable... with the cartoonish "Dr. Roberts" sequences being a particular delight to cult movie fans... (*anybody remember the time when Junkie doctors like that were actually common ???)

Average customer rating:

A disappointing waste of widescreen photography
Not that bad at all !
Fulci Misses The Mark
Why I Never Wanted a Sandbox
Lucio fulci did it again the master in terror#1

Manhattan Baby
Starring: Enzo Marino Bellanich , Brigitta Boccoli , Andrea Bosic , Cosimo Cinieri , and Christopher Connelly
Manufacturer: Starz / Anchor Bay
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Similar Items:

The Black Cat
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ASIN: B000059PQ8
Release Date: 2001-05-22

Customer Reviews:

A disappointing waste of widescreen photography.......2006-03-29

I thought if I finally watched "Manhattan Baby" on DVD in widescreen rather than the poor full-screen video copies of it that were previously available, I'd be able to re-appraise it, but sadly, I still find that it's among Lucio Fulci's worst efforts. Fulci displays no evidence whatsoever in this movie that he knows what to shoot to make an interesting or suspenseful film. Half the time, he can find nothing worth putting in front of the lens except extreme close-ups of the actors eyes. Time and time again, the camera zooms in for lingering close-ups of the actors eyes, when there could have been - there must have been - so many other creative possibilities to choose from...did nobody point this out?

Anyway, whatever the artistic "vision" was supposed to be, the story goes roughly as follows: A husband and wife take their young daughter on a trip to Egypt, so that the husband can investigate an ancient tomb, and the wife can take pictures of all the tourist sights. The daughter, Suzy, wanders off alone and is ambushed by an Egyptian crone who gives her a mysterious amulet. (Cue the first of many extreme close-ups of eyes, and of the amulet, which also bears the design of an eye). At the same time the husband is blinded by a flash of blue light that emanates from a forbidden burial chamber that he has just discovered. Back in New York, the family is reunited with Suzy's younger brother Tommy (played by the same child actor who played Bob in "House By The Cemetery" ), and their nanny. From this point on, Suzy begins to act strangely, wandering about the house (cue extreme close-ups of eyes), scaring the nanny by playing odd hide and seek games with Tommy (cue more extreme close-ups of eyes), and putting the amulet in various random places for some unfathomable kind of dramatic focus (cue more extreme close-ups of the amulet). While all this inconsequential nonsense is going on, the parents of the children drift in and out of the action, occasionally looking fraught or troubled at the goings on (cue more close ups of eyes, naturally). A few people die in unremarkable ways. The end of the film sees Suzy fall more perilously under the spell of the amulet (cue more close-ups of the amulet) and the struggle to save her by a mysterious antique shop owner who comes to visit Suzy and tells the worried family that he can undo the curse (cue more close-ups of eyes).

Watching this film is only slightly more fun than watching paint dry. Fulci seems to have entirely run out of ideas about how to make a film that is visually stimulating - there is nothing even approaching interesting on the screen for about 90% of the running time. Just endless talking heads and those never ending eye close-ups. The trademark gore scenes are all but absent, save for one right near the end when a character is attacked by stuffed birds. The slant that the birds are stuffed rather than alive - having supposedly been re-animated by the evil power - is quite a good one, but sadly you can see the wires carrying them around the room in EVERY SINGLE shot during the attack. At least there were some good old-school close ups of bloody flesh-pecking to wake me up at this stage, but the film was over an hour and twenty minutes through by this time...far too late for redeeming the movie as a whole.

The dubbing is also terrible, the worst I have seen for a long time. Especially of the children. When an instant photo turns out badly, Suzy exclaims chirpily "It's a dud, defective stock!"...What the...? And when the parents ask where the babysitter has vanished to, young Tommy exlaims "She's gone on a voyage!" A voyage? What 8 year old boy uses words like "voyage"? It's almost a shame to see poor Giovanni Frezza, who appears to be an unselfconscious and lively child actor, crippled by such a hideous dubbed script. At least be thankful he does not have the same sounding voice he had in "The House by the Cemetery", which similarly ruined his character. But the fault lies way beyond pinning this on lame performances (Although I would have loved to see Katherine MaColl take the role as the mother rather than the lacklustre Martha Taylor, and Christopher Connelly is equally forgettable as the father.). There is really nothing worth keeping your attention on the screen for. A passably attractive prologue filmed on location in Egypt soon gives way to the rest of the film almost entirely taking place in the family's nondescript apartment. The antique shops looks like the set of the basement from "The House by the Cemetery" with just the cobwebs removed, and even the music is lifted from previous Fulci films, most notably some very recogniseable music from "The Beyond". How any self-respecting director can just re-use a score that was (one would presume) originally composed to match the story and atmosphere of one of his previous films is beyond me.

The plot, as usual, does not serve up anything cohesive to the audience, so without any arresting visuals or jolting gore scenes, watching the film is a pretty boring experience. There's no climactic ending, just a rather tame suggestion of the cyclical recurrence of the evil curse, the origins or intentions of which are never explained anyway during the entire plot. And as if you hadn't had enough by now, the film closes with - yes you guessed it - more extreme close ups of eyes and another, final (thank god!) close up of the wretched amulet, not that the sight of it produced any sense of dread throughout the whole dreary story. I will allow that there have been reports of imposed conditions behind the making of "Manhattan Baby" that lead Fulci to make some severe compromises, but he has to take responibility for what he delivered to his audience, and he should be ashamed of the undeniable weakness of the end result.

Not that bad at all !.......2005-09-12

Lucio Fulci's "MANHATTAN BABY" is not even close to his best effort,but just like "SWEET HOUSE OF HORROR" it has its tiny moments of Fulci's atmospheric & gorey brilliance. A sure shot for Fulci fans! all others should rent before buying!

Fulci Misses The Mark.......2004-03-28

Italian horror will never be seen as art to the masses. Even the hardcore fans admit to the cheesiness as being part of the attraction to them, but even though it's a trashy kind of genre, you can screw up! Lucio Fulci screwed up here. To people now taking an interest in Fulci, I'm sure this dvd cover has stared out at you from the shelf at the store and beckoned you to take it home . Don't listen to it! Yeah, it's Fulci, and yeah, it's from Anchor Bay, but don't let that fool you. Manhattan Baby is BAD, even for a Fulci film. With most of his horror films you could always guarantee to have a fun viewing experience, but this is actually quite painful. Everything you love about his previous works is nowhere to be found here. Fulci was actually trying to make a real horror film with suspense and stuff. Many directors accomplish this, but Fulci never has, and he certainly doesn't here. Fulci's films excel in atmosphere, music, gore, cheesiness and just downright strangeness. This film has none of that. It's basically a reworking of the Charleton Heston mummy flick, The Awakening-which was no masterpiece, but better than this. The only purpose this dvd will serve is to make your Italian horror dvd collection look bigger, coz it will get only one or maybe two viewings-mark my words! You just may be better off investing in a Kiss Koffin. That will at least get more use.

Why I Never Wanted a Sandbox.......2002-06-28

Manhattan Baby, considered a failure by many critics that wanted Fulci to conform to the formula of horror that made him successful, was actually one of his more entertaining movies. This was because it did break from the proverbial mould, building more on a storyline and an ever-present, overwhelming scene of doom. Unlike many of his earlier movies (Zombie, The Beyond) that brought this bleak overview with them as well, Lucio decided to try a new avenue in this presentation, one that only briefly sprinkled gore into the cinematic formula, causing much of the fallout experienced. He said that he wanted to present a more metaphysical terror, using a small array of special effects in the process, that would give his film a more Catholicist, "evil can be beaten but not truly destroyed," mentality. Well, mission accomplished.
The storyline, with its Egyptian focal point, deals with the manifestation of an ancient evil that is awaken (and overused) by a little girl after her foolishly curious archeologist father prods at things best left alone. It has some nice scenes with pieces of dark humor mixed together with catchy "manifesations/proofs of the dark forces present," plus some humorously cheap scenes that keep the movie from taking itself too serious. All in all, its fun and a bit dark at the same time, and is a good film for horror lovers/Lucio fans that remember his Sci-fi trials/Westerners and not simply his gore films.

Lucio fulci did it again the master in terror#1.......2002-05-24

this is another of his best movie ever done .i love it because
it started in a egypt pyramid were they frist meet a supernatural
evil the shock the archeolest.this movie cautains blood an some
gut scenes but is a very scary film.i love tomb films the will surprise you its uncut you must see it.recomened Zombie,domonia,
house by the sementary.the black cat.by henry. May23,2002 thurday

Average customer rating:

A disappointing waste of widescreen photography
Not that bad at all !
Fulci Misses The Mark
Why I Never Wanted a Sandbox
Lucio fulci did it again the master in terror#1

Manhattan Baby [Region 2]

ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Horror | Genres | DVD | Video

( M ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video

The Black Cat
The House By The Cemetery
Nightmare City
Demonia
The Beyond

ASIN: B00004RYSJ

Customer Reviews:

A disappointing waste of widescreen photography.......2006-03-29

Not that bad at all !.......2005-09-12

Fulci Misses The Mark.......2004-03-28

Why I Never Wanted a Sandbox.......2002-06-28

Lucio fulci did it again the master in terror#1.......2002-05-24

The Lucio Fulci Collection Volume 2 (Manhattan Baby/The New York Ripper)

Average customer rating:

ONE GOOD FILM IN THIS SET....
Nice Package
Like A Controversial Value Meal

The Lucio Fulci Collection Volume 2 (Manhattan Baby/The New York Ripper)
Starring: Cosimo Cinieri , Josh Cruze , Barbara Cupisti , Alexandra Delli Colli , and Daniela Doria
Manufacturer: Anchor Bay
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Horror | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Genres | DVD | Video

( L ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
Similar Items:

The Lucio Fulci Collection Volume 1 (The House By the Cemetery/The Beyond)
The House By The Cemetery
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ASIN: B0000640SP
Release Date: 2002-06-11

Customer Reviews:

ONE GOOD FILM IN THIS SET...........2002-11-14

I went for this 2 disc set because it did not work out much more than buying 1 film on it's own, but only liked one of the films,that being The new york Ripper.The case boasts that both films are razor sharp transfers,this is not a lie.ok so they do not look brand new but have been cleaned up pretty well for the age of the films.I knew that Fulci's films were supposed to be fairly shocking,but the ripper does not dissapoint for sleazy nudity ,sex and violence at all.it is not as hardcore as say,baise moi,but sex/horror fans should be pleased with this,even if the effects have dated badly now.The 'quacking' killer taunting the cops as many others have commented does also seem a bit ludicrous.The film is also a passable thriller in it's own right.
unfortunatelay, I cannot find much good stuff to say about Manhattan baby.The story,effects acting etc do not make up much of a movie for me,maybe one for real Fulci fanatics.Let's face it,the producer admits on the making of feature on the dvd'the budget was slashed and we basically ended up with a poor movie' That summed it up,and I watched it sadly as well(before viewing the extras!)Anyway,I will definetly be checking out some more of Lucio Fulci's movies when I get a chance,it was very interesting to see what all the fuss was about,and not being completeley dissapointed for a change.

Nice Package.......2002-10-30

Here are a couple of diverse goodies. Manhattan Baby is my favorite of the two. Not as much gore as most of Fulci's stuff but a very good story about a girl possesed by evil. New York Ripper on the other hand is a more typical slasher flic with a high body count and perhaps one of the most brutal murder scenes i have seen in the movies. Anchor Bay has done great things with these movies as the picture and sound quality is very good.

Like A Controversial Value Meal.......2002-06-28

Anchor Bays collections of newly released, more importantly UNCUT, Italian horror movies are impressive, and these two are no exception to that rule. The movies themselves, two highly disputed - each in their own rights - films, are worth a watch, one for mood and one for its bloody wholesomeness, and this set works as well. The picture quality, especially compared to earlier takes on both movies, is good considering the alternatives, the interviews are worthwhile in explaining exactly why Lucio chose to do the films, and the price is a good deal when you factor in separate costs.
To the movies:

Manhattan Baby
Manhattan Baby, considered a failure by many critics that wanted Fulci to conform to the formula of horror that made him successful, was actually one of his more entertaining movies. This was because it did break from the proverbial mould, building more on a storyline and an ever-present, overwhelming scene of doom. Unlike many of his earlier movies (Zombie, The Beyond) that brought this bleak overview with them as well, Lucio decided to try a new avenue in this presentation, one that only briefly sprinkled gore into the cinematic formula, causing much of the fallout experienced. He said that he wanted to present a more metaphysical terror, using a small array of special effects in the process, that would give his film a more Catholicist, "evil can be beaten but not truly destroyed," mentality. Well, mission accomplished.
The storyline, with its Egyptian focal point, deals with the manifestation of an ancient evil that is awaken (and overused) by a little girl after her foolishly curious archeologist father prods at things best left alone. It has some nice scenes with pieces of dark humor mixed together with catchy "manifesations/proofs of the dark forces present," plus some humorously cheap scenes that keep the movie from taking itself too serious. All in all, its fun and a bit dark at the same time, and is a good film for horror lovers/Lucio fans that remember his Sci-fi trials/Westerners and not simply his gore films.

NewYork Ripper
Sometimes it seems that Lucio, one of the better gore/horror directors to have ever graced the screen, and his releases, ranging from Zombie, The Beyond, Demonia, The New Gladiators, Four of the Apocalypse, can't get a break. Well, The New York Ripper, overly wrought with commentary about unpleasantry that "shocks" and an "overriding unpleasantness (that) makes it an acquired taste at best," is no exception to the bias rule. Railroaded by critics for a sadistic approach to serial killing (and leaving me to wonder when serial killing became a flower picking contest in the process) and then banned by most international venues except in the most butchered formats, this exceptionally brutal film mingles many facets together to paint a bleak rendition of what drives men to murder.
We are given the oddities of a serial killer that chooses a Donald Ducklike voice (which is later explained in the movie) as he vents his anger on the unsuspecting female population of New York and plays mind games with the detective supposedly hot on his trail. Filled with razor blades slicing through varied body parts, throats meeting unfortunate demises, people acquiring unfortunate limps, and an almost sad ending, this movies meets the criteria of something pleasantly contrived.

If you adhere to the opinions of the general public, then perhaps the horror of Field of Dreams would be more to your liking. On the other hand, if you enjoy a fully uncut presentation of gore and serial killing, you'll love this.

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