Fresh
Andersen's inspired ruminations about his city as a filming location and as a repository for other filmmakers' daydreams and nightmares.
Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune
Los Angeles Plays Itself
2004 · 2h 49m · Not Rated
Documentary, History
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
- Thom Andersen Director
- Encke King as Narrator (voice)
- Ben Alexander as Officer Frank Smith in Dragnet (archive footage)
- Jim Backus as Frank Stark in Rebel Without A Cause (archive footage)
- Brenda Bakke as Lana Turner in L.A. Confidential (archive footage)
- Barbara O. Jones as Dorothy in Bush Mama (archive footage)
- Gene Barry as Dr. Clayton Forrester in The War of The Worlds (archive footage)
- Richard Basehart as Roy Morgan/Roy Martin in He Walked By Night (archive footage)
- Hugh Beaumont as George Copeland in The Blue Dahlia (archive footage)
- William Bendix as Buzz Wanchek in The Blue Dahlia (archive footage)
- Ann Blyth as Veda Pierce in Mildred Pierce (archive footage)
Critics on Rotten Tomatoes
Top critics, in their words
96%
Tomatometer
Fresh
One of the great films of the century to date, poignant and affecting.
Calum Marsh, Village Voice
Fresh
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.
Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out New York
Fresh
Using well-chosen clips from roughly 200 films, many of them obscure, Andersen makes a powerful and impassioned case for reassessing his beloved city.
John McMurtrie, San Francisco Chronicle
Fresh
It's like being squired through town by a wisecracking cabbie with a PhD in semiotics.
Geoff Pevere, Toronto Star
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