Filming a scene from SWORDFISH, starring Halle Berry,
John Travolta and Hugh Jackman, in downtown Los Angeles, (January 28, 2001),
as seen in LOS ANGELES PLAYS ITSELF.
Photo credit: Deborah Stratman |
LOS ANGELES PLAYS ITSELF
Produced, Written and Directed by Thom Andersen
USA, 2003
169 MINUTES
Film Source Information
An epic meditation on the role of Los Angeles (“the
most photographed city in the world”) in the movies and the impact
of the movie industry upon its own capital city -- as well as a fascinating
deconstruction of both movie-making and movie-going. Filmmaker Thom Andersen,
a life-long Angelino, works in a tradition pioneered by Godard, Chris
Marker and Agnes Varda. His enthralling essay investigates ‘50s
B-movies that use Los Angeles as the epitome of urban sleaze, science
fiction classics that revel in destroying its tallest buildings, and film
noirs that paint it the nation’s capital for adultery and murder.
Ever think about why Los Angeles’s modern architectural classics
(by Neutra and Frank Lloyd Wright) are favored housing for villains? It’s
a movie for anyone who loves (or hates) Los Angeles and who wonders what
they may have missed by not spending more hours in the dark.
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