Guest
The documentary, Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles (1972, 52 min.), takes the viewer on a tongue-in-cheek tour of the city’s cultural landscape. The trip includes stops at iconic landmarks such as Simon Rodia’s Watts Towers and the Lovell “Health“ House designed by Richard Neutra (a photograph of the latter is on view in the Getty Research Institute’s current exhibition Julius Shulman, Modernity and the Metropolis), as well as mini-malls, drive-thrus, and strip clubs. An entertaining and thoughtful examination of a metropolis in motion, the film documents a city situated at the divide between the modern era’s clean lines and faith in progress—as captured in the work of architectural photographer Julius Shulman—and what has been described as Banham’s “Pop Art“ view, with its sparkle-front houses, Tiki huts, and jarring juxtapositions.
