Andersen's inspired ruminations about his city as a filming location and as a repository for other filmmakers' daydreams and nightmares.
Los Angeles Plays Itself
2004 · 2h 49m · NOT RATED
Documentary
Directed by
Thom Andersen
Overview
From its distinctive neighborhoods to its architectural homes, Los Angeles has been the backdrop to countless movies. In this dazzling work, Andersen takes viewers on a whirlwind tour through the metropolis' real and cinematic history, investigating the myriad stories and legends that have come to define it, and meticulously, judiciously revealing the real city that lives beneath.
Director and cast
Critics on Rotten Tomatoes
Top critics, in their words
One of the great films of the century to date, poignant and affecting.
CalArts professor Thom Andersen poured a lifetime of moviegoing (and his own complex affection for the city he calls home) into this revelatory two-part documentary, a film that trains you to look at things askew.
Using well-chosen clips from roughly 200 films, many of them obscure, Andersen makes a powerful and impassioned case for reassessing his beloved city.
It's like being squired through town by a wisecracking cabbie with a PhD in semiotics.
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