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(More customer reviews)Interest in "Factory Girl" Edie Sedgwick has been renewed by a half fictional biopic. And "Edie: Girl on Fire" attempts to get into the head of the girl (incorrectly) described as the first person famous for being famous -- the text isn't much, but the many pictures are delightful.
It's mostly composed of quotes from various people who knew Edie -- lovers, pals, coworkers, and even the man she was briefly married to. It studies her early life, her life as the star of the Factory, and even quotations from Edie herself ("You care enough, that you want your life to be fulfilled in a living way, not in a painting way, not in a writing way").
It's also filled with dozens and dozens of photographs -- maybe on average, two per page. Close-ups, photo shoots, candids of her laughing and posing and smoking and talking and just grinning, and pictures of her while filming her movies with Warhol. Wedding pics, sketches, dancing silly hats, early socialite clubbing days, and more intimate pictures such as Edie carefully sculpting a clay horse.
Edie herself is the main reason to see this -- her charm and vibrancy can really be felt through the camera lens, and you can really see how beautiful she really was, even when her life was falling apart. And the pictures show her in every which way, in all states of mind.
The beauty of the pictures is fortunate, because they're strung on the thin text like wooden beads on a piece of thread. The quotes are nice, often informative, but they make Edie seem like some kind of idealized angel who had no real flaws. And those essays that pop up every now and then are just revolting squishy and worshipful -- it's impossible to get a sense for what Sedgwick was actually like.
"Edie: Girl on Fire" is a simply brilliant photographic record of Edie Sedgwick's all-too-brief life. But the text isn't nearly as fulfilling -- just enjoy the view, and glean what you can of the Factory Girl from the images she left behind.
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Model, film star, socialite, friend, lover, addict, Edie Sedgwick was the first "it" girl of the Andy Warhol Factory scene and later muse to Bob Dylan. The arc of Edie's life traced the rise and fall of the 1960sfrom idyllic experimentation to dissolute recklessness. After being toasted by the whole of New York City, Edie died alone of a drug overdose in California at the age of 28. David Weisman (with John Palmer) filmed Edie for the last five years of her life in his cult film Ciao! Manhattan. When he recently uncovered lost footage of Edie, David was inspired to create Edie: Girl on Fire, a book and a documentary film that explores Edie's true story. He and coauthor Melissa Painter have tracked down and interviewed many of Edie Sedgwick's surviving intimates, including Danny Fields, Baby Jane Holzer, and Ultra Violet. They also unearthed hundreds of never-before-published photosportraits, professional ad shoots, and heartbreaking snapshots of the girl who won New York's heart and nearly burned down the Chelsea hotel. The book also features a CD with Edie's last interview ever, a riveting account of a rollercoaster life. Sure to be seen as a rebuttal to Hollywood's highly fictionalized film Factory Girl (coming this fall), Edie: Girl on Fire creates an insightful and startling portrait of a woman that nobody quite knew.
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