Pierre Bismuth's 'Where is Rocky II' Investigates Ed Ruscha's Lost Sculpture

Pierre Bismuth, the French artist and filmmaker known for co-writing the Oscar-winning screenplay for 'Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind' (2004), has directed his first feature-length film, 'Where is Rocky II'. The documentary follows Bismuth's obsessive search for a lost artwork by American artist Ed Ruscha: a large fake rock made of resin titled 'Rocky II', supposedly placed somewhere in the Mojave Desert, California, in the late 1970s and then forgotten. The work is absent from official Ruscha catalogues, unknown to gallerists and curators, and lacks any documentation. Bismuth confronted Ruscha at a press conference, asking bluntly, 'Where is Rocky II?' Ruscha confirmed the work's existence but refused to disclose its location. Undeterred, Bismuth hired private investigator Michael Scott and screenwriters D.V. DeVincentis and Anthony Peckham to aid his quest. The film premiered in Italy on November 16, 2016, at the ninth edition of Lo Schermo dell'arte Film Festival in Florence, with the director in attendance.