Semi-autobiographical story of Conrad Rooks, who travels to France to undergo a drug-withdrawal cure. Flashbacks to the beginings of psychedelia in San Fran. Though initially confusing, as Rooks blends drug-illusion with reality, and cuts color with black-and-white and monochrome tinted shots, "Chappaqua" is conventionally constructed with a beginning, middle, and end.
Cinematography
Chaotic color/black-and-white juxtapositions that mirror withdrawal hallucinations
Score
Ravi Shankar's sitar as actual character — Sun God indeed
Acting
Beat legends playing cosmic archetypes with zero irony
Director
Conrad Rooks
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Rooks self-financed this after inheriting a fortune from his father's Avon Products empire — making it possibly the most expensive home movie ever made by a wealthy addict.
The film premiered at Cannes in 1966, where Ravi Shankar's score so impressed George Harrison that he began his own sitar studies shortly after.
US
