Archive shelves the superficial to show a more real L.A.
By Andy Etzkorn
May 12, 2004 9:00 p.m.
Living in Los Angeles, UCLA students have come to accept certain
stereotypes associated with the city: sun, gangs, traffic and
Hollywood.
The UCLA Film and Television Archive is trying to smash those
stereotypes with their new film series “Los Angeles: Sight
Unseen.”
“Sight Unseen” is an attempt by the Archive to
present films that appeal to L.A. residents and offer a more
realistic view of the city that does not perpetuate stereotypes
that often run rampant in recent movies depicting Los Angeles.
What many may notice missing from the series is the film noir
genre that has made its mark by using Los Angeles as its backdrop
in many memorable films, including “Double Indemnity,”
“Chinatown” and “L.A. Confidential.”
Mimi Brody, a programmer at the Archive, felt that many people
were already familiar with these movies.
“We wanted to dig a little deeper and find films that
dealt more with everyday life,” said Brody.
“Many of the (film noir films) tend to be associated with
Los Angeles being heavy in crime and … the murder capital of the
world. We wanted to show films that did not perpetuate that
stereotype.”
By looking at films that deal with everyday life, the Archive
hopes to show a side of Los Angeles many average residents have
already come to recognize.
“The films we have chosen look at artists, the unemployed
and housewives in suburbia, just to name a few,” said
Brody.
“Los Angeles is either fabulously wealthy or crime-related
in many films, so we wanted to look at the marginalized communities
or parts of Los Angeles that have changed over the years, such as
downtown L.A.”
While the film series attempts to move away from the superficial
Hollywood stereotype, “Cisco Pike” takes a closer look
at the reality of Hollywood, away from all the glitz and glamour
that many see. The film follows the rise and fall of a rock star in
1970s Hollywood.
Director Bill Norton saw this theme as something that still very
much exists in Hollywood 30 years later.
“I read this article about the lead singer for a band
called The Birds and got this idea about how this fleeting
phenomena of fame in pop music was a very strong theme at the time
in the Los Angeles music scene,” he said.
“An artist reaches great fame and success and then all of
a sudden is down on his luck again.”
While the film possesses a timeless quality about how stars rise
and fall in Hollywood, it also takes a look at the social
revolution of the early ’70s.
“A select group at the time was rebelling against a
society that they felt was feeding them a bunch of
falsities,” said Norton. “In the film, I wanted to show
how Los Angeles at the time was a struggle between the pop industry
and the events of rebellion.”
The Archive hopes that the films presented in “Sight
Unseen” will strike a chord with many residents as they show
the struggles of everyday L.A. people.
“Hopefully people can see that Los Angeles is not just one
big stereotype,” said Brody. “We want to show people
how truly unique Los Angeles is.”
