Candy Mountain. 1987. Switzerland/Canada/France. Directed by Robert Frank, Rudy Wurlitzer. Screenplay by Wurlitzer. With Kevin J. O’Connor, Bulle Ogier, Tom Waits, Joe Strummer, Harris Yulin. DCP courtesy Film Movement. 97 min.
Jim Jarmusch, rumored to have made an appearance in Candy Mountain, once said that “Robert Frank is, to me, the godfather of so many different things.” A fraught but fascinating collaboration between the Swiss photographer and filmmaker Robert Frank and Rudy Wurlitzer, the author of Two-Lane Blacktop and Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, Candy Mountain in many ways embodies their shared passions: for New York and Nova Scotia, open roads and dead ends, music and musicians (the film features self-conscious appearances by Tom Waits, Leon Redbone, Joe Strummer, David Johansen, Rita McNeil, Arto Lindsay, and Dr. John), and strange encounters and unlikely friendships. Frank, who worked closely with another great French actress, Delphine Seyrig, when he and Alfred Leslie made Pull My Daisy in 1959, here casts Bulle Ogier as one of the eccentric outsiders trying to find her place in the world.
preceded by
Run. 1989. USA. Directed by Robert Frank. DCP. World premiere of new digital remaster by The Museum of Modern Art. 4 min.
Jonathan Demme wrote that “Robert Frank’s very short film Run, set to New Order’s tune of the same name, remains one of the most gratifying tastes of cinema ever. It’s a deep, rich and exhilarating emotional journey somehow compressed into the time it takes for New Order’s engaging pop song to play out.” Frank shot on Hi8 for the LA concert sequences and 35mm for the street scenes in Williamsburg, where Mabou Mines actor David Warrilow performs a pantomime date while a young girl (the daughter of Frank’s Brazilian percussionist friend Tony Noguera) twirls and drums behind him. Frank’s still photographs of the band also appear on a lamppost.