La La Land

• La La Land was released on the 9th December 2016
• It has been nominated for 7 Oscars including Best Picture, Director, Actor (Ryan Gosling), Actress (Emma Stone) and Original Screenplay.
• Damien Chazelle directed La La Land
• The film is set in modern day Los Angeles
• Mia is an aspiring actress who works as a barista at a coffee shop
• Sebastian is a jazz pianist who dreams of opening his own club
• Spectator


  Audience. The film builds a relationship with every individual who experiences it. Answering the question of how do films create pleasure within the audience.
• Empathy


  Seb - has to follow a career path he doesn't directly want. But before, he came across as rude and mean, so do we feel empathy..???

  Mia - Arguably feels the most pressure, has to be convinced to go out, she has a bad job, her auditions fail whilst Seb goes on tour, she is left at home, she facilitates Sebs dream by helping him but he says mean stuff to her.
• Nostalgia


  Space scene, the observatory - old fashioned colours, 60s feel to the clothing. Sebs old car, a love for jazz, which appeals to older audiences, not just young. Final scene is nostalgia for the relationship they once had and could've had.
• Aligning us with Mia


  Young girls - societal struggles of getting where you want to be. Relatable character, she's cynical, sarcastic. Puts others first. Her colour yellow is significant as it represents change and she is usually the one wearing it.
• Aligning us with seb


  Struggles to do what he wants due to societal pressures, money. Colours are much deeper. Nostalgia through passion for something, through jazz through his car. Has to accept something not so good to get where he wants to be.
• Active or passive


  Active because we can form an opinion on their relationship, especially at the end where we see what they could've had and feel sad. Active as it is a musical, invites interaction.

  
  

  Passive because we have to accept what has happened, such as. The end scene, but it is mainly active as we have to form an opinion on it.
• Appealing audience


  White people. Young. Male and female due to both characters screen time, two characters to align with, it's easiest for white young people to align though as it's based upon them. Little to no old people or minorities.
• Issues


  Gender politics of Mia having to be the observer mostly - such as whilst seb is on stage, although she knows what he wants she doesn't say anything against it for a while and when she does seb gets mad. The guardian states "it's impossible to separate jazz from black history and it's foolish to do so in a film largely about white people"
• Seve chambers


  Accuses Damien Chazelle of ideological snobbery saying that real jazz fans agree that traditionalism is not the best way to revive the genre, but this is perceived as bad in la la land.
• Black history


  Disregarded in a film largely about white peoples. It seems as though Keith, one of the only black people isn't traditional, yet he's diminished for it by seb who is a traditionalist in jazz, when he is white.
• How does the cinematography reject conventions of a romance film when Mia meets Seb?


  Camera tracks behind Mia to empathise with her anticipation and halts when Seb moves past her

  Signals that the film isn't the romantic dream the spectator may expect
• What does the production design do to reflect the title?


  The title is a pun on the Los Angeles location, the nickname for Hollywood and being lost in dreams

  The film uses gritty LA locations (highway) as well as romantic, dream like locations (observatory)
• How is lighting used in Seb's first piano scene?


  A spotlight is used to pick out Seb and reflect his aspirations to be a jazz star

  The lighting of the restaurant dims as he begins his solo and the spectator becomes lost in his composition

  When he finishes we expect applause but the light returns to normal
• What does the editing use to distinguish dramatic sections?


  The fast pacing of the editing creates a sense of claustrophobia so that the musical sections are like 'an exhaled breath'.
• Who is the composer of La La Land?


  Justin Wurwitz, collaborated with Damien Chazelle on 'Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench' and 'Whiplash
• What do the lyrics of 'Another Day of Sun' mean?


  It establishes the main theme of sacrifice that creatives make when they move to LA

  Foreshadows Mia and Seb's relationship later in the film
• What was the critical backlash of the film about?


  Some critics said Mia appears to be a passive character as most key plot events are caused by Seb

  Lack of racial diversity in a diverse city was criticised, especially for a film about jazz culture
• How does the political context affect La La Land?


  52% of Americans felt life was better in the 1950s and Trump used slogan 'Make America Great Again'

  La La Land is a homage to 1950s Hollywood Musicals
• What are the main binary oppositions in the film?


  Tradition vs Innovation, Professional Success vs Personal Relationships, Dreams vs Reality, Integrity vs Selling Out
• Ideolgies in La La Land


  -work ethic - work hard and become successful. lazy workers looked down upon

  -feminism - Mia watching seb preform

  -art can take from the old and make something new

  -mia ends up most successful

  -personal sacrafice to achieve goals(?)

  tradictional male rules

  -women dependent on a man - mia and seb

  nostalgia

  - La La Land looks backwards (jazz, older films)

  -Mia watching seb for most of the film - unprogressive and seen as non-feminist. Mia spectates art, is inspired, then creates her own art - "a true artist inspires others"

  devoid of poltical and religious ideologies - La La land --creates LA as a place devoid of politics. With this ignorance, the film is criticised for ignoring real world problems and making the world innacurate

  -La La Land is deliberately apolitical - to make the world more of a fantasy? a world without problems and ruled by optimism
• Spectatorship


  - Audience age - aligned/active if spectator is older. if younger, film may be seen completly as a fantasy

  -Diversity of responce - spectatorship will be different depending on the spectator's personal experience. men might be aligned with seb, women with mia

  -Positioning with Mia (the protaginist) throughout the film - her ideologies and responces are inficted on the spectator. spectators align with her idelogical/critical views

  -Choose to align with seb or mia

  -Question of a gendered view of spectatorship - is alignment caused by relating to the same sex?

  -Meta - Audience watching seb watching mia/ Spectator watching mia act
• Active Audience


  Film is meant to represent classic Hollywood, bleeds through too much, main characters are both white this raises representation issues and makes the audience wonder why this choice has been made.

  Racism and ideas, Sam is like Keith he is the voice of reason and are both secondary characters to white leads. Could be said that the two white leads makes it hard for people of other ethnicities to relate to the characters.

  Stuart Hall - range of readings: preferred, negotiated and oppositional

  Feminist perspective - Mia is her own person, questions as to who is the lead, Mia just watches from the sidelines whilst Sebastian performs (could this be sexist)
• Ending Sequence La La Land


  blue lighting

  light fades out - spotlighting on seb

  mia lone in a dark, then slowly lit up by another spotlight

  light fades back in, shows Mia and seb at a past event ninth film

  seb and mia kiss, turns into a fantasy

  another day of sun + someone in the crowd melodies mixed together during fantasy

  ending just a timeline of what would've happened if mia and seb had a lasting relationship

  stars on the floor during "another day of sun" studio - reference to hollywood

  blue/red - separates Mia and seb for their different aspirations

  seb and Mia dance together - scene around them reminiscent of stars - dancing in a city of stars

  Mia watching a series of clips together - shows their family life. family video

  seb stops plating the piano, fantasy ends

  mia knows the song was about her, knows it was about her and Sebastian's relationship. the look could mean that?

  Van Gogh/monet art references

  fantasy starts with Mia, ends with seb

  the "look" in Frances Ha, looks to the "look" at the end of La La Land

  the husband Mia is with looks conventional and boring