We've been totally mesmerized by this odd sixties-era video about Los Angeles, posted recently on The Atlantic Cities--according to YouTube, it was "Filmed as part of the French television program Point contrepoint." The clip is sort of haunting, sort of lovely, a little jarring, and not exactly complimentary (But is it uncomplimentary?), although in translation it does seem to get a sort of essential strangeness and twentieth-century-ness about LA. (Or as TAC puts it "The perspective is not pejorative so much as presented with a sense of discovery and wonder.") The music is very French and the visuals are great, showing Downtown streets, landmarks like the Griffith Observatory, billboards on the Sunset Strip, houses hanging off the Hills, the Rocky and Bullwinkle statue, and dozens of other things that make Los Angeles weird and awesome. And lastly just this: "If you would like to know ... what is waiting for us, threatening us, you must go to Los Angeles."
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