CITY OF ANGELS, FROM EVERY ANGLE.

Byline: Bob Strauss Film Critic

THOM ANDERSEN loves L.A. and, to a great extent, hates Hollywood.

More precisely, the CalArts faculty member hates how the movie industry often depicts the City of Angels. ``Los Angeles Plays Itself,'' his long, absorbing and mostly marvelous film essay on the subject, is as steeped in Andersen's aesthetic opinion as it is in obsessive cultural scholarship.

This makes for some provocative narration (spoken by fellow filmmaker Encke King) that, though often enlightening, can just as easily sound effete and cranky. Andersen is convinced that the studios regularly trash the best aspects of their own hometown, from installing villains in architectural masterpieces to, well, ``Earthquake''-ing and alien-decimating the whole dang place.

But in a myriad of more interesting and subtly examined ways, Andersen and company make compelling commentary on both the L.A. that was and that was just imagined, and how both kinds of history may influence the way we live here now.

The movie's real kick, though, comes from its wide selection of old footage culled from movies famous and obscure, significant and utterly disposable (until, that is, Andersen found the sociological merit in it).

Brilliantly edited by Yoo Seung-Hyun, ``LAPI'' spends appropriate time deconstructing the attitudes and geographies of such signature civic nightmares as ``Double Indemnity,'' ``Rebel Without a Cause,'' ``Chinatown,'' ``Blade Runner'' and ``L.A. Confidential.'' But it also uses rarer, B-movie footage to re-create life on Bunker Hill in the original Angel's Flight era, and takes a look at all-but-vanished working-class life via independent African-American films of the 1970s.

We're shown lost buildings and a McDonald's that's only used for filmmaking. We're told smart things about car culture and its impact on SoCal, along with a great montage depicting the evolution of gas stations. There is even a side trip into TV that assesses that most emblematic of L.A. cop shows, ``Dragnet'': Andersen figures it exemplifies the utter contempt our police force feels for the populace the cops' motto charges ``to protect and to serve.''

More than capable of praise as well as criticism, Andersen can also help us appreciate a trash classic like ``Kiss Me Deadly'' even more for its accurate depiction of a drive down 1955 Wilshire Boulevard.

We only have room to list a fraction of all the ideas, opinions and fascinating pictures that make up the nearly three-hour experience of ``Los Angeles Plays Itself.'' Every famous site in the city is gone over from multiple visual (and, sometimes, intellectual) perspectives, as are more everyday locations. All told, the film can't help but be an invigorating nostalgia bath. Its formidable intellectual heft aside, there's great pleasure to be had in just looking at this guided tour of L.A, fact and fiction.

Bob Strauss, [phone]

bob.strauss(at)dailynews.com

LOS ANGELES PLAYS ITSELF - Three and one half stars

(Not rated: violence, sex, nudity)

Director: Thom Andersen.

Running time: 2 hr. 49 min., plus an intermission.

Playing: Egyptian Theatre, Hollywood.

In a nutshell: Exhaustive examination of how the movies have depicted our fair city is an awesome act of film scholarship, editing and critical examination.

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``Los Angeles Plays Itself'' explores the cultural and intellectual ramifications of the film industry's portrayals of the city, surveying scenes from movies including ``Swordfish.''