Summary
A pool party. A-ha’s song ’Take On Me’ is playing and Mia wanders through the party, avoiding small talk with a writer whose self-congratulatory monologue propels her, alone, to the bar within about 10 seconds. Then making her way to where the band is playing, she sees Sebastian, on keys. She can’t believe he’s here, a pianist for hire, playing covers of commercial songs, given her first encounter with him playing at the lounge, which moved her so deeply. She mocks him by requesting "I Ran" which, from a serious musician, he later explains ‘is just too far.’ Outside at the end of the party Mia teasingly shouts out ‘George Michael’ to get his attention. They walk back to her car together, on the way acknowledging the lovely night and lamenting that it’s wasted on them, as there’s clearly no chemistry between them, in the next musical number, "A Lovely Night."
And yet—Sebastian breaks into the Warner Brothers lot to find Mia at her waitressing job. She shows him around, pointing out features including "the window that Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman looked out of in Casablanca." She explains how she got into acting: her aunt, who was in a traveling theatre company, introduced her to all the old movies. He talks to her about jazz and she admits to not liking it. Appalled, he drags her along to a jazz performance explaining how exciting and in the moment jazz can be: properly creative in its mixture of improvisation and collaboration. During their time at the jazz club, Mia finds out she has a callback for a TV series that she says is a bit like Rebel Without a Cause. Excited, they agree to go and see the old film together the following Monday. Mia has her callback and is stopped after a few lines. She gets back in her car, disappointed again, but passing the cinema, her sadness eases - she remembers her date with Sebastian. Getting ready for the date at home, her boyfriend Greg arrives reminding her she’s supposed to be going out for dinner with him and his brother and girlfriend. She gets ready and at dinner sits vacantly listening to their conversation. It looks like she’d rather be anywhere else than here, but there’s somewhere in particular she’d rather be. Making her apologies, she races out to meet Sebastian at the cinema to see Rebel Without a Cause. During the screening, just as they are about to kiss, the film cuts. It’s a little awkward, but Mia has an idea and they set off to the Griffith Observatory which also features in Rebel Without a Cause. And here they perform the musical number "Planetarium," and they’re so light with the experience that they begin to dance on air. And finally they have their first kiss, as the shot "irises out," contracting in on the two of them.
Analysis
We start again with the blue sky. L.A. is still sunny, so even though the opening does not create a visual distinction, we are told it is Spring—a new chapter. When Mia is beckoned over by her friend wanting to introduce her to Carlo (a writer) we see very quickly how superficial many relationships are in this world. Carlo is keen to present who he is as a writer, what stage he’s at and his status, dashing off a speech that he’s probably spouted many times before—there’s no room or interest in forming a genuine connection or indeed asking anything about Mia. Her quick exit from the situation suggests this is nothing out of the ordinary - she’s encountered enough people like this before. He takes her rejection in stride, as though quick encounters and snap judgements are expected here: Carlo doesn’t seem in the least bit hurt and goes back to his previous conversation, and in fact tries his luck again with Mia at the end of the party, telling her about his pitch for an idea about "The Three Bears" from the perspective of the bears. So, when Mia sees Sebastian again, she must be reminded of what she felt when she first saw him: how soulful, how different to these people he had seemed, and so to see him here now, a pianist for hire, is a let down. And she mocks him for it. The lead singer asks for requests from the guests at the party. Sebastian is at the mercy of the crowd here; he has no autonomy at all. Mia takes advantage of this, showing him what he’s let himself become. It is interesting to see the basis of Mia and Sebastian’s relationship after these two brief encounters. The conversation that emerges from Mia seeing Sebastian in two very different contexts—giving the performance he wants to and then completely compromising—is fundamentally about art and what’s of value as an artist. Having been moved by his performance in the lounge bar, Mia clearly feels protective somewhere of Sebastian’s talent and so when she mocks him, it does something more than simply indicate her disappointment: perhaps it also shows her desire to force him to reconsider what he’s doing with his talent. And so begins a relationship where each tries to push the other to do the work they dream of doing, and not what others ask of them. After the party they do finally spend some proper time together on the way back to Mia’s car, as though cars and driving are a metaphor for journey, movement and change in life. And this is the start of something new, and it starts with an initially cautious but fundamentally flirtatious musical number ("A Lovely Night"). After the song, they dance together, but it doesn’t start confidently; it’s more tentative and childlike. Sebastian kicks dirt at Mia as she changes her shoes but as they begin dancing, they quickly mirror each other, as though they can’t ignore their similarities and the fact that their bodies are in tune. They don’t sing during much of this musical number—it’s all about the bodies communicating with each other.
It's interesting that in their first duet together, they are both at pains to point out that there’s nothing between them, as though L.A. has taught them how quickly rejection guts hope. The fact that they’re so tentative suggests that their connection might be real. When her phone goes off and interrupts the musical number, it’s the intrusion of the modern world—and crucially, Mia’s current boyfriend Greg—that takes us away from the fantasy, the dream, the ideal. The "real world" cuts in just at the wrong moment on this initial proper connection between the two of them. And then they both get into their separate cars, reinforcing the fact that despite this connection, their journeys are separate, and so indeed are their destinations.
When they meet again on the Warner Brothers lot, we see how the many layers of the film overlap. Behind Sebastian and Mia, the actor and actress on set, though seemingly lovers, argue as soon as "cut" is called, drawing our attention to real and fake. Sebastian, soon after, is at pains to point out the difference between real jazz and the synthesized, diluted jazz that Mia has spent time listening to on K-Jazz 103. These two are constantly engaged in a discussion about real vs. fake and what makes art genuine. And the fact that Sebastian defends real jazz so fervently, must mean that he is aware of and passionate about the difference. Throughout their relationship, Mia points out this difference to him, and him to her.
The lines Mia acts out for her callback audition are interesting and echo the lounge director in the club where Sebastian was playing: "You either follow my rules or follow my rules, capeesh?" As though neither one can get away from the fact that others are in control of their lives, that they aren’t able to express what they want to. In the audition room, it’s suggested that a judgment has been made about Mia before she even starts. The man auditioning her looks at her picture and credits and then she gets a few lines in and is cut off. It’s a scene that demonstrates the frustrations of being an actor and of bearing your soul only to be knocked back.
At the (very fancy) dinner with Greg and his brother, Mia feels totally alienated by the conversation, and, it seems, the surroundings. She doesn’t look like herself. She’s wearing a smart green dress and looks tidy in a way she doesn’t when she’s wearing her day to day clothes and when she feels relaxed with Sebastian. Greg’s brother has bought a sound system that will enable him to feel like he’s in a movie theatre at home. He’s delighted with it and thinks it’s preferable to being at the movie theater, which he says is often dirty or too hot or too cold. His obvious rejection of any communal theatrical experience and his isolationist, superior attitude, separating him from the experiences of everyday men and women, who perhaps aren’t earning all that much, seems to sit badly with Mia. In the background we hear the type of jazz that turned Mia off the medium when she first heard it—it’s background and people are just talking over it. But soon Sebastian’s jazz music ("Mia and Sebastian’s Theme") takes her over. Her passion for Sebastian—signaled by the music he played when she met him—cancels all else out, and she runs off to meet him.
After seeing Rebel Without a Cause Mia has the idea to go to the Griffin Observatory, which is also featured in the sequence we watch in the cinema Sebastian and Mia are in. And so the layers of film within a film are significant here: Mia and Sebastian reenact the sequence in the film they see within the film we’re watching (by driving up to Griffin Observatory)—as if history is being repeated, and as if we are sharing a communal experience as they did in old movie theaters, as Mia and Sebastian are doing, and as we, as we watch the film now, do. And yet, what is also clear is that this is a fresh story and we too are a new audience. There’s a deep connection to history and there is a departure from it in every film and every experience. That this scene comes straight after the scene at dinner with Greg and his brother is also important—they discuss the value of avoiding the cinema, but the joy of the communal experience suggested here strongly repudiates that sentiment. And, after all, Mia chooses to be in the cinema and not at dinner. It’s clear where our protagonist’s heart lies.
At the planetarium together, Mia and Sebastian are alone against a backdrop of stars, reminding us again of the scale of our world, and their feelings at this time that it’s only the two of them in it. The musical number ("Planetarium") breaks entirely with reality as the two—at the height of their passion—float on air with the lightness and joy of their experience together. They exchange their first kiss here and the shot ends with an "iris out," in the style of the old romantic movies.
