Hancock Park Locations Featured in The Artist

I saw The Artist the other night and was intrigued – no – better than that – I was infatuated.

The experience of seeing a silent film was a luxury of sorts. Without dialogue and sound effects, one’s focus turns to the faces, the wardrobe, the acting and the music with greater intensity and for me, pleasure. Not to mention the locations!  With much of the film shot in and around the Hancock Park area, the familiar sites suddenly take on a new shine dressed to the nines in their 1920s finery.  Oh – to wear even one of those dresses and flit down one of those staircases!

The revered Ebell Club of Los Angeles Italianate building on Wilshire at Lucerne is used for multiple scenes – as a hospital,  as an auction house, and for it’s stunning staircases. Many of us have enjoyed the interior of the Beaux-Arts mansion at 104 Fremont Place (the current owners have been generous in using it for local fundraisers) so it was lovely to see it used as the leading lady’s swank manse after her ascent to fame. The film takes a wild ride down Hudson Ave and follows the starring pooch down Oakwood Ave, all set-dressed as the late 1920s with impeccable taste and charm.

In case you’re not going to see The Artist (and my husband will not recommend it as I have) you can see B&W photographs of some of the familiar locations in an LA Times story