Chappaqua is a 1967 American drama film, written and directed by Conrad Rooks. The film is based on Rooks' experiences with drug addiction and includes cameo appearances by William S. Burroughs, Swami Satchidananda, Allen Ginsberg, Moondog, Ornette Coleman, The Fugs, and Ravi Shankar. Rooks had commissioned Coleman to compose music for the film, but his score, which has become known as the Chappaqua Suite, was not used. Ravi Shankar then composed a score.
The picture has become a cult film.
Plot American Russel Harwick travels to a villa outside Paris to receive treatment for drug addiction. During withdrawals, he experiences a series of flashbacks to his experiences in New York City and other parts of the world, and has numerous hallucinations.
The film briefly depicts Chappaqua, New York, a hamlet in Westchester County, in a few minutes of wintry panoramas. In the film, the hamlet is an overt symbol of drug-free suburban childhood innocence. It also serves as one of the film's many nods to Native American culture. The word "chappaqua" translates to, as per The New York Times, to a "Place where the brush makes a rustling sound when you walk through," "a separate place" or "rustling or rattling land."
Cast Jean-Louis Barrault as Dr. Benoit Conrad Rooks as Russel Harwick William S. Burroughs as Opium Jones Allen Ginsberg as Messie Ravi Shankar as Dieu du Soleil Paula Pritchett as Water Woman Ornette Coleman as Peyote Eater Swami Satchidananda as The Guru Moondog as The Prophet Ed Sanders, Tuli Kupferberg, Ken Weaver and three others as The Fugs Rita Renoir Hervé Villechaize Penny Brown as the nurse
Production The film was shot in England, France, India, Jamaica, Mexico, Sri Lanka and the United States.
Release The film debuted in competition at the 27th Venice International Film Festival where it won the Special Jury Prize, and was subsequently released by Regional Film Distributors, a newly formed subsidiary of Universal Pictures, in New York City on November 5, 1967. It was re-released in 1970 by Minotaur Releasing.
References
External links
"Conrad Rooks's Chappaqua Is a Therapeutic Travelogue of the Unconscious" New York Times review, November 6, 1967 Review of Chappaqua at Mondo Digital German movie poster, 1998 at Baumann Graphik