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Lost LA

Orson Welles’ Venice

In poet Lawrence Lipton’s imaginings, Renaissance-era mathematician Giordano Bruno visits 20th-century Venice, California. The poet's vivid imagery links Renaissance Italy (where Bruno was persecuted by the Inquisition) and also gives us a lyrical description of Orson Welles’ Venice, captured in his film “Touch of Evil” where the beach town became a stand-in for a Mexico border town.

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