Cinematic Los Angeles

Catalog description

This course provides students with analytical tools tailored to approach a selection of movies where Los Angeles stars as backdrop and character. Examples of films included are Double Indemnity, Chinatown, L.A. Confidential and Blade Runner. Students learn to identify and apply analytic frames appropriate to understanding the topic of Los Angeles as represented on film, while considering the fact that the city itself is the setting of America’s mainstream motion picture industry. The class format emphasizes peer conversation, group discussion and lecture, with many film excerpts.