Summary
This chapter begins with an "iris in" shot on Mia writing a script: a play for a one-woman show. We hear a horn beep: it’s Sebastian outside in his car. Then follows a montage with different scenes where Sebastian and Mia spend time together, Laura (Sebastian’s sister) has an engagement party, and finally at The Lighthouse, where we realize that the music that’s been playing over this section is Sebastian on the piano. Mia is in the audience dancing and enjoying the jazz. When he and Mia eventually sit, a man introduces himself: Keith, an old friend of Sebastian’s, and fellow musician. He offers Sebastian a job playing keys with his new band. Sebastian declines.
Mia performs her one-woman show for Sebastian and he thinks it’s incredible, while she suggests to him that instead of "Chicken on a Stick," his jazz club (to be) should be called "Seb’s," with a musical note for the apostrophe.
On the phone to her mother, Mia explains that she’s paying to put her one-woman show on. She also talks about Sebastian and how he’s going to open his own jazz club, adding that "he’s nobody yet" but "he’s saving up." At that moment, Sebastian looks up to see a stain on the ceiling. And in the next scene he goes to see Keith. He’s going to take the job on keys: $1000 a week, plus a cut of the ticket revenue and merchandising. The music is different from what Sebastian is used to, but Keith explains that to get young people involved in jazz, you have to update and let go of the past—"jazz is about the future." Back at home, Sebastian plays his own music—"City of Stars"—for Mia and they sing together. In the next montage we see their lives moving on and their tracks slightly moving apart. Sebastian is busier than he was, and Mia finds herself waiting up to hear from him.
At The Messenger’s concert, we see the new jazz that Keith talked about wanting to make to entice the younger generation. Mia is surprised, especially when the dancers come on stage and the crowd cheers for Sebastian. She is pushed aside by fans wanting to get closer.
Analysis
When Sebastian picks Mia up, they drive confidently off together: it is the image of the perfect romance, the sun is shining and the road is clear but just as they drive off out of shot, we hear Mia shouting "it’s one way!." And they have to reverse in the opposite direction. This may signal that they are not headed in the direction they think, and, for this scene, is certainly a comic and more realistic depiction of the imperfect world they inhabit. It’s not all smooth sailing here. The jazz music that comes in at the start signals real confidence and optimism: this, after all, is the music Sebastian dreams of sharing with his own audience in his own club one day.
When Mia shares her concerns with Sebastian that her one-woman show might be too nostalgic, we cannot ignore the resonance of his response in a film that pays homage over and over again to the old movies. Sebastian is clear about what he thinks: "that’s the point." When she asks if people will like it or not he simply says, "fuck ‘em."
It is important that Mia thinks Sebastian’s club should be called Seb’s and not "Chicken on a Stick." Throughout the film we find these two people trying to find their own voices in a world that can dominate and overwhelm the individual. By encouraging him to leave behind the past—and the reference to Charlie Parker and his love of chicken—Mia suggests that Sebastian start afresh with his own voice, and makes it truly his own. She’s also keen to point out that Sebastian doesn’t need the club to be at the Van Beek, desperate as he seems to be to protect it’s history. This suggests Mia wants Sebastian to forget a little about the past and look to a future—one that's his own, and independent.
It’s significant that at the moment Mia articulates the brutal truth that Sebastian is (in the eyes of the world) "no one yet," he catches sight of the stain on the wall. Suddenly a harsh light is cast on their real situation (and this scene is lit much more clearly and brightly than many, and certainly the moody romantic scene in the jazz club before), and things take a turn. He goes to see Keith.
When we first see Sebastian play with Keith and the band, they play jazz music, pure and simple, just as Sebastian says he likes it. But then the synthesizers come in. We are just as surprised as Sebastian; after all we’ve heard about his vision, we immediately realize—however lucrative the offer—that this wasn’t exactly what he had in mind.
"City of Stars" is sensitive and delicate and this scene between Mia and Sebastian feels raw and intimate. They are still happy but there’s a vulnerability to this song that marks a departure from the brash confidence of their relationship earlier: it’s just their two voices and the piano, and it has been shot live, so we get the charming imperfections of the performance, the actors’ actual vulnerability and nakedness. This becomes a nostalgic moment by the time we get to the end of the film: it’s still uncomplicated for Mia and Sebastian. The music continues over the next montage which sees a shift for them: Sebastian’s band is becoming successful and Mia quits her job and finds a venue for her one-woman show. There are obvious signals of the change, as we see Mia in her room with the Ingrid Bergman poster rolled up and Sebastian on Youtube doing an interview with his band The Messengers, and then Mia drives past the cinema they went to together, which has now closed down. Times are changing. At this point, the music slows tempo and the intervals are dissonant, and we see Mia waiting up alone for Sebastian to message her. Their lives have started to move apart.
At The Messenger’s concert, the first image we see is of Sebastian in a spotlight. He was in the same spotlight when Mia first meets him at the lounge, only this time, he is further away in the distance, not only signaling the size of the space he’s now playing in, but also symbolically positioning us, and perhaps Mia, further away. He is also in reverse in this image—the mirror image of where he was in the club. This is the other side of the coin. Not only is he playing music he didn’t set out to play, but he has success and recognition. Another aspect of the other side of this coin is that life will show him new challenges. The crowd goes wild for the band, and for the first time we see that Mia and Sebastian do not respond in the same way. We’re reminded of her first audition in the film where she cries and says "I’m happy for you." She doesn’t look it here.
