067 - Candy Mountain

Synopsis: Struggling musician goes on road trip to find famous long lost guitar maker

Director: Robert Frank, Rudy Wurlitzer

Actors: Kevin J O'Connor, Harris Yulin, Tom Waits, Bulle Ogier

Date: 1987

How viewed: youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M46U83r5Ss0

Rating: 4/5

David Meyer says:

Though the camera work is simple (due to a low budget) there are images of heartbreaking poetry. Frank's visuals support a core value of road movies: There's profundity in the open landscape of the outback and only the road can take you there.

I say: 

This was one of the films I feared I'd never find - it's not on lovefilm, or imdb, and although it's been on my amazon and ebay wish lists for a couple of years, no copies have appeared. But then, a couple of days ago, I did a general google search and found it (and the 2 other films I was missing!) on youtube - some kind soul had posted the entire film there - OK, it's a bit blurred, but it's fantastic to see it! I've no idea why it's not available - it's got a lot of pluses - directed by Robert Frank (the noted photographer, who, according to his wikipedia page, took road trips across the US for 2 years photographing all strata of its society. He took 28,000 shots, of which only 83 were finally selected for publication in his famous book ' The Americans'), so you sense it's somewhat autobiographical, and a pile of famous and not so famous musicians - Tom Waits, Mary Margaret O'Hara, Dr John, Leon Redbone, Jo Strummer, David Johansen, Rita MacNeil - though most 'act' rather than sing. So anyway, Julius (O'Connor) overhears that guitars made by Elmore Silk (Yulin) are extremely valuable, but that Elmore has disappeared, and offers to find him and persuade him to sell some of his guitars as a quick way of becoming rich and famous. So, as he slowly tracks Elmore down, by being passed from person to person, and given possible addresses, he has less and less money, gets more and more beat-up transport, and travels from the New York to the edge of the world (Nova Scotia). The film is supposed to be about the realisation that quality of life is more important than money, but I'm not sure Julius sees it that way! It's not a great film, Frank is first and foremost a photographer rather than a director, and whilst it's great to see so many musicians (especially M2O'H (love her!!), and Leon Redbone (I had to stop the film and go and order a couple of his CDs on Amazon!!) they are not good actors, though as the film progresses everyone and everything somehow seems more and more relaxed. Worth seeing? Only if you're a fan of Robert Frank, road trips and a bunch of famous/infamous musicians (which I am!!).