Orphaned after a botched distribution deal, never officially released in the US, and uncatalogued for decades, Franco Rossi’s 1962 feature Smog—the first Italian production shot entirely in Los Angeles—has been freshly restored in 4K. This stylish and sardonic outsider’s look at the city as a whir of lights, plastic, and chrome also serves as a tour of its midcentury architectural wonders, from the Stahl House (1960) to the Theme Building (1961) at LAX. To watch the movie today, after it languished six decades in obscurity, feels akin to breaking the seal on a long-buried time capsule.
The film centers on Italian lawyer Vittorio Ciocchetti (Enrico Maria Salerno), who experiences a taste of sunny California gridlock when his connecting flight to Mexico City is delayed. He ventures out on foot and explores an alien desert of concrete, further mystified by the garish storefronts and endless stream of cars. “I didn’t meet anyone on the street. I’ve been walking for ages,” he tells one of the Italian expats he improbably encounters along his journey. Ciocchetti finds him…