Los Angeles Plays Itself (2003)

This is an essay I wrote for a school assignment that I would like to share on this blog.

I have always always had a certain fascination with Los Angeles. The warmth, celebrities, highways, and movie culture of L.A. has consistently drawn my interest to the city of angels. Since I was a freshman in high school, my fantasy of living in L.A. and working in the entertainment industry has stuck with me, and with college right around the corner, it’s starting to feel less like a dream and more like a reality. I am inherently tenacious, and have made it my duty to learn the in’s and outs of Los Angeles, which is why I chose to watch Thom Andersen’s 2003 documentary, Los Angeles Plays Itself.

Los Angeles Plays Itself is a documentary that discusses the representation of L.A. told through almost entirely snippets of film and television shot in L.A. Written by Thom Andersen and narrated by Encke King, Andersen discusses the differences between the the city real life and the city’s on screen depictions. Running at 2 hours and 49 minutes, Los Angeles Plays Itself delves deep into ideas of how influential film directors interpret and display Los Angeles, and the true history behind the city of angels.

I started the documentary with the sole intent of learning about the history of L.A., and I finished with it with so much more than that. Thom Andersen’s film is a nearly 3 hour journey of gorgeous and enticing clips of films shot in L.A. including “Chinatown”, “Annie Hall”, “Rebel Without a Cause”and “Blade Runner” with a critical and incisive narration that guide us through the segments of the film; “The City as Background," "The City as Character," and "The City as Subject." 

While the documentary is aided with visuals of fiction films, there is a wide amount of L.A. history packed into the narration ranging from the 1890s to the early 2000s. Through the film we learn in depth how Los Angeles came to be a major US city through one industry: entertainment, we also hear Andersen’s criticism of the impact that Hollywood had on Angeleno culture. Andersen comments on the cultural imperialism of Hollwood, California consumer culture, and the abbreviation of Los Angeles to just L.A. While the entire history and culture of the city surrounded by films, today, only 1/40 work in the entertainment industry. Something I wish Andersen discussed more in his documentary but I learned from another source, the TCM documentary, A History of Hollywood, was the reason people started to move to L.A. in the first place. The reason people started moving to L.A. to make movies was because in 1913, Thomas Edison placed impossible fees on movies makers in the east coast because of the patents he owned. Edison’s company had patents on film processing, projection equipment, and a ton of other necessary technology. His company’s demands were so aggressive and intimidating with demands for licensing fees that they sent filmmakers all the way west to Hollywood, California, where they could quickly cross the Mexican border when agents from the Motion Picture Patents Company came to issue subpoenas.

One of my favorite sections of the movie is when Andersen discusses the architecture of the city. “In a city where only a few buildings are most than 100 years old, where mostt traces of the city’s history have been effaced, a place can become a historic landmark because it was in a movie once.” Because of LA’s elusive, smoggy aestetic, beautiful historical architecture was never a priority for the city. To this day there are buildings that are reserved as movie locations. Andersen gives us brief history lessons in important historical film locations like The Bradbury Building, Griffith Observatory, and the Ennis and Millard Houses. He also talks about little the known facts about L.A. filming locations. Film companies will buy rundown buildings to turn into filming locations like the Abassador Hotel, where the assasination of Robert F. Kennedy took place. And how film companies will build permanent filming locations like the McDonalds in Studio City that has never been open to the public. 

Andersen’s strong opinions brush on many social and political perspectives of the city, expressed through the eyes of filmmakers and criticism or praise of Los Angeles through their movies. Another one of my favorite parts of the documentary was when Andersen discussed the differences between high tourist and low tourist filmmakers, meaning filmmakers who use L.A. as their playground and backdrop vs filmmakers who prefer to shoot in other locations. Film tourism is interest and clamour for specific locations that became popular due to their sufacing in movies and television shows. Andersen goes in depth in explaining the styles of low tourist filmmakers like Woody Allen and Alfred Hitchcock who rarely shoot in L.A. and high tourist filmmakers like Quentin Tarantino and Roman Polanski who have based many movies in L.A. 

I love the way that the film is organized into three categories, and I also love the question that guides us through the film. “How can we appreciate fictions films for their documentary revelations?” Many of my favorite films take place in L.A., Paul Thomas Anderson’s Magnolia (1999) being one of them. Magnolia is all about the interconnected stories of lost souls in Los Angeles. The opening scene takes place at the Bryson Hotel, Wilshire Boulevard, in downtown Los Angeles. It’s a nine-story building where the unsuccessful suicide of the prelude becomes a successful homicide. Learning about the achritechture of L.A. in Los Angeles Plays Itself was really interesting because through that movie I learned that downtown L.A. is one of the only areas in L.A. with tall buildings. 

I really enjoyed this documentary. It was an excellent window into the eccentric history of Los Angeles, movie making, and culture of one of the most influential American cities. While the documentary did feel quite long and I wish there was more of an emphasis on why people settled in L.A. in the 1890’s, I learned a lot of new information while watching scenes from iconic L.A. based movies. I definitely recommend to all Angelenos, cinephiles, and American historys buffs.