Institute History
Description
LAUREL CANYON looks at the conflicts of morality and passion between a record producer, her pop-star lover, her psychiatrist son and his psychoanalyst girlfriend. Set in Los Angeles and in the specific environments of a recording studio and a psychiatric hospital, LAUREL CANYON tells the story of Sam, a Harvard medical school graduate who reluctantly returns to his native California to begin his residency in psychiatry. There his internal world starts to unravel when he unwittingly finds he must face his tangled relationship with his sexually promiscuous,
ethically confused mother.
A bohemian enclave of Los Angeles, Laurel Canyon has served as home to a host of the city's most well known rock stars and folk stars from the late 60's on. It is here that Jane Bentley lives and works. At 49, this veteran record producer is still enjoying her excesses and successes, producing acclaimed albums and seducing young musicians — men and women alike. But beneath her bravado is the lingering regret that her hedonism and recklessness has created a deep, enduring division between she and her only son.
When the self-styled conservative Sam returns to Los Angeles with his sophisticated but sheltered girlfriend, Alex, Jane's influence begins to have a dramatic and unanticipated impact on their seemingly secure relationship. Suddenly, against the backdrop of Jane's libertine lifestyle, the upright couple must evaluate their own codes of morality as they are unexpectedly drawn into an odyssey of infidelities. As the couple muddles through their transgressions — with the accompanying pleasures and horrors — Jane, ironically, is faced with her own unexpected desires for honor and commitment.
LAUREL CANYON deals with the mores and ethics we learn from our families, reject in our families and ultimately come to define for ourselves. It is an exploration of youthful rebellion, the power of reconciliation, the risks of infidelity and the perils of repression. The story is an examination of two seemingly disparate lifestyles — one Bohemian and the other conventional — and the ways in which fundamental issues of trust and loyalty similarly affect both.