I lost two cities, lovely ones. And, vaster,
some realms I owned, two rivers, a continent.
I miss them, but it wasn't a disaster. --Elizabeth Bishop
Film scholar Thom Andersen's "upside-down urban symphony," the documentary Los Angeles Plays Itself, sounds like the Celluloid Closet of cinematic architecture. Andersen's argument is that fiction film shot in LA has a great documentary value, even though the city is rarely cast as itself in mainstream Hollywood movies.
Unless, of course, it's being laid to waste. Then it's a race against the San Andreas Fault to see which art form can destroy the city first. In this week's LA Weekly "Best of" issue, FOC Anthony Miller's entry, "Best Imaginary Destruction of Los Angeles," runs down LA's greatest hits in literature, painting, film--even an "apocalyptic poster."
The cinetrix still plans to see Andersen's three-hour kino essay, but she suspects her friend has nailed its premise in seven paragraphs:
The denizens of this city so famous for its images and stories of its own destruction are transformed into survivors and endowed with something far less associated with citizens of Los Angeles — an identity.
