Doc Films (University of Chicago) - Friday, 7pm
When someone becomes a master
in a commercial craft that becomes technologically obsolete, what is
there left to do? For one thing, they can make films about places that
have also outlived their original purpose, as Pat O'Neill does in this
2002 feature film. An optical printer by practice and occupation,
O'Neill casts L.A.'s now demolished Ambassador Hotel as the protagonist
and explores the corridors and cavities that were once the playground
of Hollywood elites. Black and white ghosts float through the Cocoanut
Grove nightclub providing snippets of dialogue of classic Noir films,
and attempt to breathe life into the now empty opulence. Chants of "we
want Bobby" are heard as we track through the kitchen that was the site
of RFK's assassination, and a woman hypnotizes countless men in one of
the upstairs suites. In the end, only devils and angels remain as the
sun sets on our star, and perhaps on the glory of O'Neill's seamless
camera and metaphor, holding on to the golden era of machination. Pat
O’Neill in person. (2002, 74 min, 35mm) JH - Cine-File.info
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