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.
