La La Land Review
La La Land is a story about love, but not a love story.
Synopsis
La La Land is a 2016 movie directed by Damien Chazelle , starring Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling. The movie follows Mia Dolan (Emma Stone), with the dream of becoming a well-known actress, and Sebastian Wilder (Ryan Gosling), dreaming of owning a Jazz Club. As the story goes, Mia and Sebastian meet each other on multiple occasions, leading to an amorous relationship. However, as time goes by, their dreams start separating them from each other, where they face the dilemma, if they should stay together.
Musical Numbers
The movie opens with a huge music number - “Another Day of Sun.”- on the 101 Freeway in Los Angeles. Chazelle’s choice to open the movie with a musical number was to establish and show the audience the tone, mood, and message of the movie.
Chazelle’s idea of putting musical numbers in La La Land was due to his passion for Hollywood musicals and his desire to bring back the musical genre to modern audiences. As Chazelle said in an interview:
“I became fascinated by an era in Hollywood where the studios opened up their coffers and let filmmakers make weird, avant-garde movies in mainstream packaging.”
Chazelle also wanted to showcase the musicals to draw a line between Reality and Fantasy, as the musicals showed the character’s inner desires, dreams, and aspirations. Offering a glimpse of their emotional landscapes and dreams.
“There is something to be said for having even unrealistic dreams. Even if the dreams don't come true - that, to me, is what's beautiful about Los Angeles. It's full of these people who have moved there to chase these dreams.”
Damien Chazelle
La La Land is a movie with multiple beautiful musical numbers, but the most beautiful and well known one is “A Lovely Night.” As it was the first musical number between the main characters - Mia and Sebastian. The dancing scene established the tone of their relationship and the connection between them, as both of them danced exactly the same and shared an extreme chemistry.
Colors in La La Land
La La Land has an unique cinematography and showcase of colors on the background and even in the character clothes. Right from the beginning we see that Mia’s color is blue.
From this scene we can clearly see the usage of the color blue on Mia’s cloth and on the background.
As the movie goes on we see Sebastain’s color being red. The background of the restaurants where he plays piano has the lighting red.
Just as Mia passes by Sebastain’s restaurant we see the mix of the color blue (Mia’s dress) and the red lighting. Setting the mode of their relationship by their colors.
As the movie goes on, they start seeing each other, as Sebastain goes by Mia’s working place - the Warner Bros Lot Coffee Shop. They go to the movies, and even to the Griffith Observatory, where they have their first kiss; throughout those scenes we start seeing the usage of the color purple, which is the mix of color blue and red, meaning the start of their relationship.
(This exact scene is in the summer segment, which is the segment of the start of their relationship, as the dress Mia wears has purple flowers, the trash can, and also Sebastian’s car. All of those elements reinforcing their relationship).
However, even though the movie sets a fantasy and dreamy tone, their relationship starts deflating, as Sebastian was offered a job to a band and hardly sees Mia anymore. With their relationship decreasing, we often start to see the color green, which is the opposite color of purple in the color wheel, signifying the foreshadowing end of their relationship.
Unfortunately, after this scene, Mia and Sebastian split up, as Sebastian doesn’t even go to the solo woman play Mia has been preparing over the fall, being the last strike of their relationship.
Unfortunately, after this scene, Mia and Sebastian split up, as Sebastian doesn’t even go to the solo woman play Mia has been preparing over the fall, being the last strike of their relationship.
As this scene shows their breakup scene, from this frame we can see how Mia is ready to break up, and go to separate positions. As she says in the movie:
“It’s over.”
To reinforce this idea we can even see Mia in a green lighting of the frame, signifying the end of their relationship, compared to Sebastian in a purple lighting frame, as he tries to reconcile and not end their relationship. Still, they eventually break up.
The Monologue
After Mia and Sebastian break up, Mia goes back to Colorado where her family lives. Staying there a while trying to gather courage to go back to LA. Even so, Sebastian receives a call from Amy Brand - a casting agent - as she is interested in Mia due to her role in the solo woman play.
Sebastian then goes to meet Mia again and talk to her about it. As Sebastian explains to Mia that Amy would like to see her for a movie she’s got, Mia gives a beautiful and sad monologue, that defines the life, struggles, and hardships that any person related to film industry goes through:
“Because it’s another audition! I’ve been to hundreds of auditions. Do you want to know what happens? Either they interrupt me because someone ordered a sandwich, or they cut me off after two seconds, or I’m crying and they start laughing, or I’m one of a hundred lookalikes in the waiting room who never has a chance, because –”
“Maybe I’m one of those people who’s always wanted to do it but never had a chance. It’s a pipe dream. Maybe it’s like you said. Maybe I need to grow up.”
After such a beautiful monologue Sebastain says that he will be waiting for her tomorrow morning for the audition, and if she wants, she can be there. Later on we see Mia and Sebastian in the audition room, as Mia is about to do the audition she sings a solo musical number, about the “dreamers”, called “To the fools who dream.” After this audition, Mia and Sebastain officially break up, as Mia will go to Paris to shoot the movie.
The ending
The ending of La La Land is one of the most heartbreaking but most beautiful endings in modern movies. As we see Mia and Sebastian achieved their dreams, Mia being famous and Sebastian opening his jazz club, however, their dreams cost their relationship.
After we see those scenes, Mia and her new husband go to a jazz club after dinner, and to our surprise, the jazz club they go to is Sebastian’s club. After some moment Mia and Sebastain lock eyes and Sebastain says:
“Welcome to Seb’s.”
After such a moment he begins playing their musical score - “Mia and Sebastian’s Theme.”- and while the song plays we see a montage, about what would happen if they stayed together and didn’t drift apart, as Mia is still able to do her movie but doesn’t become famous and Sebastian isn’t able to open his Jazz Club. But, they are still able to have their own kid, their own house, and have a loving life. The montage immediately cuts back to reality, and Mia with her new husband and Sebastian on stage.
Mia decides to leave, and as they leave, she hesitates and immediately looks back at Sebastian as they both lock eyes, they both smile… is the kind of smile that they remember each other, their moments and their history. Then, she walks out of the door, and Sebastain goes back to playing.
The movie has one of the most beautiful but saddest endings, they end up achieving their dreams, but this costs their relationship, and we even see what would happen in their lives if they stayed together, still, they are not able to achieve their dreams in this “alternative reality”. So for their dreams to become true, they have to give up on their relationship, which is not what we wanted, but it’s what they wanted and needed, and if they’ve stayed together and didn’t accomplish their dreams, the whole message of the movie would be discarded.
Damien Chazelle’s Direction
Another major thing I wanted to point out of the movie is the direction of Damien Chazelle, it is so well done and so unique, he was able to show multiple references to old musicals and movies, such as: “The Sound of Music” and “Singing in the Rain”. But he still is able to show modern elements on his movie, and another beautiful thing in the movie is the usage of music (not only in “La La Land”, but all throughout Damien’s filmography), where music is able to emphasize the narrative of the movie, but also to showcase the emotions and feelings of the characters. All of these elements make me think how Damien Chazelle is one of the greatest directors of modern times.