Two or three things . . .

Deux ou trois choses que je sais d'elle (1967) played tonight at the Nuart in Los Angeles. This was the first of Godard's films I ever saw, at UCLA's then-Melnitz Theater circa 1997; an essay more than a motion picture, it ruined me for traditional narrative. Surprisingly, this time no one walked out.



This morning I was at Edith Szalay's house and brought Erich Lessing's book of photographs from the Hungarian Revolution, which the photographer signed when I saw him speak at USC. Edith and her husband were both in the streets of Budapest in 1956, so it was interesting for them to see the pictures and to remember.

WSJ: 'Joyfully Inefficient'

I had a letter in today's Wall Street Journal, in praise of film photography, among other old-fashioned delights.

Their copy editors gave it the heading "Joyfully Inefficient."

I guess that sounds about right.


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Los Angeles Plays Itself

A trip to the Egyptian Theater to see Los Angeles Plays Itself (2003) was only slightly ruined by the 75th Hollywood Christmas Parade, featuring George Lopez and the cast of “The George Lopez Show,” which trapped me between Hollywood and Sunset for an hour or two after the movie ended Sunday night.

Los Angeles Plays Itself is an essay composed of clips from movies filmed over the years in the city director Thom Andersen describes as “a series of villages that grew together . . . joined together by mutual hostility.”

At three hours, there is something in the film for anyone who loves or hates Hollywood, or who loves or hates Los Angeles. Included are clips from the early days when the southern California region served as a convenient stand-in for everywhere from Switzerland, to Chicago, to China; analyses of Chinatown, Die Hard and the films of Altman and Cassavetes; as well as an appreciation of the old Bunker Hill.

Well worth trying to find.


Laurel and Hardy: Kicking it Old School in Silverlake.