Los angeles plays itself documentary. Fontcentury gothic colordarkorangelos angeles plays itself was a great documentary that was released last year. The film is a remarkable documentary charting the history of how los angeles is portrayed in the movies. It shows us how how movies distort and.
The documentary goes to great lengths to explore the role of los angeles in american film. A scene from thom andersens film essay masterpiece los angeles plays itself. This is probably still the best los angeles plays itself has ever looked.
A documentary on how los angeles has been used and depicted in the movies. It shows us how how movies distort and even create reality the cities sense of itself altered by its on screen persona. There was obviously some work put into collecting and categorizing the countless clips from films as well as matching the names dates and locations portrayed in them.
This is probably still the best los angeles plays itself has ever looked. With encke king ben alexander jim backus brenda bakke. A cinematic history of los angeles 2004 2 hrs 53 mins thom andersens landmark documentary los angeles plays itself explores the tangled relationship between the movies and their fabled hometown as seen entirely though the films themselves.
In the process it reveals much about the las real history its politics its architecture its culture. Directed by thom andersen. Los angeles plays itself 2003 once dubbed the best documentary about los angeles youve never seen this film composed of almost three hours worth of film reels remained relatively obscure for over a decade until its netflix debut last year.
Consisting almost entirely of clips from other films with narration the film was not initially released commercially as it was only seen in screenings presented by andersen occasional presentations at american cinematheque and copies distributed via filesharing and other person to person methods. The whole idea of this 25 hr documentary like film is to explore how los angeles is portrayed in movies. Los angeles plays itself is a video essay by thom andersen finished in 2003 exploring the way los angeles has been presented in movies.