Simultaneity and conflict are incessant qualities one is confronted with when looking at things. Shifting from familiar to foreign, from present to implied. There seems to be a tendency, if not necessity to embrace this multiplicity. Using the film theory construct of extra-diegetic and relative qualifier 'sort of' to investigate Pulp Fiction, Bose Wave CD player, Sunset Boulevard, American Apparel, and The Uncanny.

In film, the construction of Los Angeles as a character has been defined through a series of specific theories that have seemingly misrepresented the unique and diverse nature of the city. Broken into two discussions, my paper will attempt to address 1) the way in which urbanization has influenced the landscape of the city of Los Angeles and how the creation of a heavy materialist culture in Amy Heckerling’s Clueless, the illusionary nature of Hollywood in Billy Wilder’s Sunset Boulevard, and corruption and abuse of power within the LAPD in Curtis Hansen’s L.A. Confidential manifest themselves as products of the this process and 2) the dominant narratives and themes that have been used to construct Los Angeles as a character in film.