L. A. Story

L. A. Story, a 1991 film, is one of my very favorite films. I saw it when it was still in post production; the final sound check hadn't been done, and the credits weren't quite ready. I later saw the release version, and I bought the DVD. It's a film that stars Steve Martin, who also wrote the screenplay, and his then wife, Victoria Tennant. It was one of the first films Sarah Jessica Parker made, and, most importantly of all, it stars Los Angeles, and a digital billboard.

L. A. Story is usually described as a "romantic comedy." That's not a bad description; I think, were it a book, I'd call it urban fantasy, or possibly, magic realism. It's a film about Los Angeles, and love, and dreams. Martin plays Harris Telemacher, a "wiggy" weather reporter for a Los Angeles TV station. The inside joke of course is that in general terms Los Angeles doesn't really have any weather.

There are a lot of inside jokes in this film, beginning with the idea that the first day of spring means it's open season for gunfire on the freeway. Then there's the coffee scene when you see what happens when Seattle coffee arrived in L.A.; "I'll have a half decaf latte with a twist." You have a courteous line of ATM muggers introducing themselves; "My name is John, I'll be your mugger tonight."

You have a digital billboard that creates several word scrambles in an effort to unite Harris Telemacher, and the Victoria Tennant character Sara in true love. You have Sarah Jessica Parker as SanDeE* explaining the joys of a high colonic, and convincing Telemacher to join her for a tryst at "El Pollo de la Mar."

When they were filming, Martin and the director Mick Jackson seem to have invited all their friends to do cameos; the super bit from Dom DeLuise flying in with a jet-pack ended up on the cutting room floor in the released version. But Patrick Stewart as the ultimate snobby mître'd, with an accent that slides back and forth between French and German, is there, and utterly fabulous.

The film, much as I immediately loved it, essentially faded away silently a month or so after release. I'm not sure why; maybe because so much of it, to be really appreciated, requires you to be a little familiar with Los Angeles. I'd have expected the soundtrack to have helped; it was the first place I ever heard Enya, and the music actually works with the film; so does the more nostalgic parts of the track, like Django Reinhart singing "La Mer," in French. I think, in all honesty, that this film is a tribute to both L.A., and to Martin's then wife, Victoria Tennant; both are very much filmed with love.