Welcome to L.A.

Welcome to L.A. is a 1976 American drama musical romance film directed by Alan Rudolph and starring Keith Carradine and an ensemble cast. The film focuses on themes of romantic despair and shallowness in the decadent upper class during the 1970s, illustrated through a La Ronde-like circle of sexual adventures and failed affairs revolving around a womanizing songwriter, his businessman father, and their associates. It was produced by Robert Altman.

Rudolph called it "a street opera... with songs as stories. Personally, the film celebrates Altman’s great influence on me. I was proud of that influence and I wanted it known, I wasn’t hiding it. Being in the shadow of a great director was a privilege, not insecurity. My voice and fingerprints were my own, perhaps too much for many people while some strongly approved of the film, some strongly didn’t."

He also declared Welcome to LA was "one of the first true American independent films of the current era. It defined today’s movement, what the so-called independent label implies...Here was an American dramatic film with known actors playing in art houses and competing for national space with studio pictures. That wasn’t done then, not out of Hollywood."