Los Angeles Plays Itself [Blu-ray]

Encke King Director: Thom Andersen, Thom Anderson

Overview

CalArts professor Thom Andersen directs the digital video essay film Los Angeles Plays Itself, titled after a gay porn classic by Fred Halsted (L.A. Plays Itself). Using clips from well-known mainstream movies to lesser-known obscurities, Andersen explores the myths and realities of the city as produced by Hollywood and as viewed by contemporary philosophy. He divides the film into three segments: "The City as Background," "The City as Character," and "The City as Subject." In addition to the pre-manufactured images, he also provides footage of the actual landscape, showcasing structures like Union Station and LAX. His commentary touches on various political and social views of the city, often voiced through criticism or praise of other filmmakers and their work. Encke King delivers the narration. Los Angeles Plays Itself was shown at the 2003 Toronto Film Festival.

Product Details

Release Date:	10/21/2014
UPC:	0881164000859
Original Release:	2003
Rating:	NR
Source:	Cinema Guild
Language:	English
Time:	2:50:00
Sales rank:	23,388

Special Features

The Tony Longo Trilogy (2014, 14 minutes) a short film by Thom Andersen; Theatrical trailer; Collectible booklet featuring essays by Mike Davis, author of City of Quartz: Excavating the Future of Los Angeles and Thom Andersen

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Encke King

Narrator

Technical Credits

Thom Andersen

Thom Anderson

Thom Andersen	Director,Producer,Screenwriter
Thor Moser	Sound/Sound Designer
Craig Smith	Sound/Sound Designer
Thom Anderson	Screenwriter,Director

Editorial Reviews

Thom Andersen's documentary examines the many ways the city of Los Angeles is represented -- and misrepresented -- on film. Drawing on an encyclopedic knowledge of not only movies but the city and its architecture, Andersen weaves a witty, passionate and erudite narration through a selection of film clips spanning the popular to the obscure. The narration is scholarly in tone, but it's so full of subtle humor, elegant digressions, and obvious affection for Andersen's subject that one's interest never flags despite the film's nearly three-hour running time (an intermission is included in a nostalgic nod to Andersen's childhood movie-going experiences.) This is a film so full of ideas and observations crackling off one another that it's almost essential to have a notebook handy to keep track of them all. Clips from Who Framed Roger Rabbit? and Chinatown lead to fascinating digressions into the historical events upon which both films are based. During a disquisition on Hollywood's habitual use of modern architecture -- of which he is a passionate and knowledgeable defender -- as shorthand for evil and decadence, he uses a clip from Billy Wilder's Double Indemnity to point out the bogus "authenticity" of the ubiquitous Spanish Revival houses so often used to evoke wholesomeness and tradition. Fond of taking on sacred cows, he delivers a detailed critique of L.A. Confidential's dubious politics and nostalgic sheen, and gives a tongue-in-cheek re-interpretation of Blade Runner's dystopian Los Angeles of the future as something more like an ideal version of the city, complete with thriving, multicultural street life. The film's most moving section is the final one, in which Andersen gives a detailed account of the work of Billy Woodberry (Bless Their Little Hearts), Charles Burnett (Killer of Sheep, To Sleep With Anger), and Haile Gerima (Bush Mama), a collective of African-American filmmakers who brought their own kind of neo-realism to the city's most disadvantaged neighborhoods in the late '70s, creating powerful, now nearly forgotten films about a dimension of the city never before shown onscreen. Andersen deserves credit for including their contributions alongside more well-known works and for creating a brilliant, provocative, one-of-a-kind cinematic essay of his own.