Zeroville

Zeroville is a 2007 novel by Steve Erickson on film's upheaval in the 1960s.

Plot

Ike Jerome, a twenty-four year old architecture student inspired by the few films he has seen, rides the bus into Hollywood. Jerome is almost autistic (later, his friend dubs him a "cineautistic") in his interactions with the world, and is deeply affected by his childhood with his insane father. With a tattoo of Montgomery Clift and Elizabeth Taylor on his right lobe, he makes an impression on the people around him. Soon breaking into film as a designer and eventually a film editor, Vikar (as he is nicknamed) begins a dreamlike journey into the world of films that eventually ends in tragedy and almost horrific discovery.

Themes

Zeroville discusses the supernatural power of films over people and how films become like gods in our worship of them. Vikar's bizarre discovery of the frame found in every film ever made confirms this;

Zeroville is partially a critique of the ways movies and Hollywood changed in the 1960s, as the old studios are taken by young renegade filmmakers (symbolized by the veteran editor Dotty Lander). Vikar laments on the disappearance of film from Hollywood: "'I'm in the Movie capital of the world,' Vikar says, 'and nobody knows anything about movies'".

Notes

Appropriately, many actors, writers, and directors make appearances, including: Robert DeNiro, John Milius, Arthur Penn, Ryan O'Neal, Ali McGraw, and Luciano Damiani.