La La Land Essay Questions

Discuss the ways in which Chazelle reimagines the 50s and 60s Hollywood musical in La La Land.

New, original-score big musicals have been hard to come by in recent years. There have been broadway adaptations including Mamma Mia! and Les Miserables, and titles including Enchanted have been successful, with the help of the Disney brand, but La La Land breaks the mold with its success as a fully original take on the classic musical.

Chazelle achieves the unique tone of the film by embracing both the old and the new wholeheartedly. Aside from being presented in CinemaScope, and the frequent references to the classics within the film, including Gosling's swing from the lamp post Singing in the Rain-style, Chazelle gives us the feel of the old musical as well. 1600 extras were employed for the film, which opens with a huge and spectacular number on the freeway. The scope and ambition of these joyous scenes, combined with Hurwitz's original score, is rare in today's cinema.

Chazelle also grounds the film in today's world by giving us performances and settings that feel naturalistic. Some of the singing in the film is live, and occasionally we hear the cracks in Stone and Goslings' voices. These are real people singing live and the feel of it is very raw. Stone and Gosling do everything; there isn't even a hand double used for Gosling's piano playing. They were put through a three-month rehearsal process so that they could shoot scenes in one take and give an authentic-feeling performance. These one-take shots also offer us a sense of an unbroken reality, making us feel very much a part of what is happening, with no manipulation from the filmmaker.

Discuss how the film foreshadows the eventual split between Mia and Sebastian.

The first lyrics in the film are: "I think about that day, I left him at a Greyhound station west of Santa Fe, we were seventeen, but he was sweet and it was true. Still I did what I had to do, 'cuz I just knew." We are immediately launched into a scenario where love is sacrificed in order for a dream to be realized. And of course this is exactly what happens with Mia and Sebastian.

For the first twenty minutes of the film we follow Mia's perspective. We then go back in time and re-play from Sebastian's perspective, as though the film is aware of the dual nature of their respective journeys, and that it will only be able to contain them when they're together. By the end of the film, on their separate paths, they only share one encounter, when they meet at Seb's. The film is not broad enough to follow their separate paths any longer, and so it ends. By starting in the way it does, we are made aware of their separate paths and perspectives from the outset.

The film is also keen to draw our attention to our vulnerability as human beings. We don't know what the stars have in store for us. This is echoed in the lyrics, "city of stars, there's so much that I can't see" (City of Stars). As the seasons change and traffic jams and baristas come and go, Mia and Sebastian keep moving together until it is no longer feasible for them to do so—and it seems that this is out of their control.

At the pool party when Mia and Sebastian first speak to each other, he is called off to continue with the next set and as he moves away from Mia says: "guess I'll see you in the movies." This quote foreshadows exactly what does eventually happen.

Explain how Chazelle uses fluid and circular camera movements to emphasize the thematic content of La La Land.

The fluidity of the camera movement echoes that of the dancing in this film. We often feel as though we are right in and amongst the action, so sensitive is the camera to the performances it captures. At times we are dunked into pools with characters at a party, other times we spring up high and watch the characters from a birds-eye perspective. There's playfulness and joy in these movements too: we move along and get swept up in the action with the characters.

The fluidity also echoes a greater movement, perhaps that of the spheres: a sense that the earth is moving, and though we happen to be watching these characters, there are many, many more out there, each with their own stories. This sense of circularity and unity is woven into the film, structured as it is with the changing seasons, and focused as it is on our wider universe and the stars.

The circular camera movements also echo the movement of the journeys in the film. Mia goes from barista to superstar barista customer; Laura gets married and has a child; the film pays homage to previous films, and also tries to pass that energy on to the future: "And some day as I sing the song, a small-town kid will come along. That'll be the thing to push him on and he'll go: behind these hills I'm reaching for the heights..." Movements in this film are fluid and circular, and we are all swept up in the current.

Explain how Chazelle uses spotlights in the film.

Spotlights are used in the film as an elegant way of giving us access to a character's perspective. After the house party she goes to with her housemates, Mia looks in the mirror and sings "Someone in the Crowd." The lights dim around her, and we see only her. We are given direct access to her perspective: she too only sees herself in the mirror; all else dissolves away. Similarly, when we see Sebastian playing the jazz piece he is fired for playing, it is from Mia's perspective. The rest of the restaurant goes dark: she only has eyes for him in this moment.

Chazelle uses the iris out and iris in effect, in which blck engulfs the frame except for an increasingly tight focus on the characters, to end "Spring" and begin "Summer": the spotlight effect is adapted here to fit an older Hollywood model, but it is still with the intention of emphasizing significance and focusing our gaze.

This effect bleeds into the aural aspects of the film in the scene where Mia is at dinner with Greg and his brother. The music in the restaurant fades away and is replaced by the music Sebastian plays when she first sees him. These effects allow us into the character's perspective where what is actually around them is replaced instead by what they are feeling and seeing.

Towards the end of the film, in the audition that changes Mia's career, the spotlight is on her and everything else goes dark. At that moment she is at last able to capture the attention of those auditioning her and is able to communicate her story; she has their attention and focus.

Explain how Chazelle solicits the audience's emotional involvement in the film's romance.

It is hard not to be seduced by the music in the film. The film opens with an unbelievable spectacle of dancers and singers in the opening number "Another Day of Sun." The music is infectious and joyful and all the way through we are swept along by the feeling it evokes. Sebastian's passion for jazz adds another layer to the musical canvas, and we root for him and his dream. Chazelle teaches to respect the past in this film: it is alive with the history of L.A. and the greats that went before. There's huge nostalgia within the film for the old greats—posters and references to old films and film stars. Watching the film, we are taken into the world and history of film, and seduced by it. And so we understand Mia's desire to make it in this world of dreamers. We too are a part of the dream—because it is the very fabric of this film.

And we are seduced by the lovers, by their commitment to each others' dreams and their chemistry. The world this film sets up seduces us twice, and it is this seduction that also captures the protagonists. So, as they separate from each other, we too mourn the loss: the loss of their romance which signals the end of the film and so also the end of one of the dreams.