The heart of Hollywood’s star-studded film industry for more than a century, Los Angeles and its abundant and ever-changing locales—from the Santa Monica Pier to the infamous and now-defunct Ambassador Hotel—have set the scene for a wide variety of cinematic treasures, from Chinatown to Forrest Gump , Falling Down to the coming-of-age classic Boyz n The Hood. This volume marks an engaging citywide tour of the many films shot on location in this birthplace of cinema and the screen spectacle.   World Film Locations: Los Angeles pairs fifty incisive synopses of carefully chosen film scenes—both famous and lesser-known—with an accompanying array of evocative full-color film stills, demonstrating how motion pictures have contributed to the multifarious role of the city in our collective consciousness, as well as how key cinematic moments reveal aspects of its life and culture that are otherwise largely hidden from view. Insightful essays throughout turn the spotlight on the important directors, thematic elements, and historical periods that provide insight into Los Angeles and its vibrant cinematic culture. Rounding out this information are city maps with information on how to locate key features, as well as photographs showing featured locations as they appear now.   A guided tour of the City of Angels conducted by the likes of Robert Altman, Nicholas Ray, Michael Mann, and Roman Polanski, World Film Locations: Los Angeles is moreover a concise and user-friendly guide to how Los Angeles has captured the imaginations of both filmmakers and those of us sitting transfixed in theatres worldwide. Each of the chapters/Scenes is followed by a succinct but authoritative essay that explores a significant aspect of filmmaking pertinent to the city. Gabriel Solomons is a graphic designer and senior lecturer at the Bristol School of Art and Design at the University of the West of England, UK. He is the editor of the film magazine Beneficial Shock! World Film Locations Los Angeles By Gabriel Solomons Intellect Ltd Copyright © 2011 Intellect Ltd All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-1-84150-485-8 Contents Maps/Scenes, Scenes 1-8 1923 - 1955, Scenes 9-16 1955 - 1977, Scenes 17-24 1978 - 1991, Scenes 25-32 1991 - 1994, Scenes 33-40 1994 - 1997, Scenes 41-48 1998 - 2007, Essays, Los Angeles: City of the Imagination Michael S Duffy, California Slapstick: On Location Film-Making Gets Rolling Nicola Balkind, Black Dynamite: Film Noir and Los Angeles in the Shadows Andrew Spicer, Getting Played: Hollywood, South Central and the Space Between Benjamin Wiggins, Welcome to Hell-A Martin Zeller-Jacques, Living in A Mann's World: Michael Mann's L.A. Wael Khairy, Eurovisions: Alternative Views of the Hollywood Landscape Michael S Duffy, Backpages, Resources, Contributor Bios, Filmography, CHAPTER 1 LOS ANGELES UPFRONT City of the Imagination Text by MICHAEL S DUFFY LOS ANGELES IS INDEED a "city of the imagination," but in its population it has engendered feelings equally ambiguous and dogmatic. In cinema, as in life, it remains at odds with itself, its local cultures, and the portrayal of its landscape on screen. But Los Angeles has one thing that no other film location does – it is the creative and spiritual center of the Hollywood filmmaking industry. Since Thomas H. Ince established assembly line production and the first fully functioning studio in Culver City, Hollywood has been the place where mainstream American cinema is formed and fabricated, art is transformed into a commodity, and casting couches are broken in – and these days, given points on the gross. Hollywood's "imagineering" has visualized Los Angeles as both the destination of dreams and a psychological dead end, Heavenly port ( City of Angels, 1998) and a literal Hell on Earth ( Constantine, 2005), and in studio back-lot terms, "virtually" everything in-between. From science fiction conspiracy ( Blade Runner, 1982) to contemporary urban menace ( Training Day, 2001), Los Angeles continues to be utilized as a complex cinematic destination, with real-life locations made iconic through the imaginings of filmmakers. Just a few of the many local landmarks creatively captured by Hollywood cinema include Griffith Observatory ( Rebel Without a Cause, 1955), the Vincent Thomas Bridge ( To Live and Die in L.A., 1985), and Zuma Beach ( Planet of the Apes, 1968). In the early years of Hollywood, location shooting encouraged the development of silent slapstick comedy and gave the burgeoning local film industry a unique "claim" to the surrounding land. With wide-screen technologies, landscape photography became an aesthetic and thematic counterpoint to the dense urban sprawl featured in many downtown L.A.-set films. The bustling backlots of studios like Paramount and MGM were occasionally featured on screen in variously successful attempts to comment on Hollywood's inside machinations ( The Bad and the Beautiful, 195