La La Land – Deep Dive

Context

La La Land (Damien Chazelle, 2016) is a homage to old Hollywood and the iconic studio films of the golden age. It’s a film whose premise is completely based on the idea of cinematic ‘nostalgia’ as filmmaker Chazelle affectionately indulges in the pristine and glamorous artistry, techniques, and romanticism of a films from the past. Being nominated for multiple awards and most famously for Best Picture at the Academy in which the famous ‘mix up’ took place, the film tells the heartfelt, and heartbreaking, love story between the characters of Sebastian and Mia (played by Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone). Mia is an aspiring actress and Sebastian a jazz musician. It’s these respective ‘dreams’ that serve as the conflict between their love and their individual life paths and Los Angeles serves as the perfect setting to encapsulate emotions of hope, wonder and passion for both their work and one another. Chazelle tells this story with such passion and energy, driven from such a clear admiration towards classical, genuinely empathetic storytelling.

Aesthetics

Clearly taking inspiration from legendary directors such as Vincent Minnelli (I’d argue The Band Wagon (1953) appears to be the biggest aesthetic inspiration) the film sweeps the audience up and into a completely overwhelming and wondrous world of struggles and artistic expression and the visuals of Damien Chazelle’s film are something to behold. The vibrant and dynamic set and costume design combined with the soft widescreen anamorphic cinematography by Linus Sandgren makes for sweet, glossy and always moving viewing experience. Shot in the unusually wide aspect ratio of 2.55:1, the frame bursts with life an energy as it’s this unique visual trait that allows there to be extra details at each side of the composition. Unlike other innovative filmmakers such as Akira Kurosawa and, much more recently, Michael Mann who effectively twist the concept of the widescreen format on its head to create something more unusual and visually claustrophobic, Chazelle is using the widescreen format for exactly what it was designed for in the mid-20th century. It transforms the presentation of a story to something grand. The wider frame opens up new possibilities for Chazelle to explore. It gives images a more expansive sense of aesthetic complexity in terms of composition, and an anamorphic lens generally provides a film a softer more gentle look.

The film, of course, is also shot on film providing Chazelle with the organic look required for a film such as this and adds to the soft yet detailed presentation. The film stock used is a lot more sensitive than what would have been used in classic Hollywood movies. Film stocks with an ISO of 500 were not commonly utilised in the 40s and 50s as filmmakers like Vincent Minnelli would have favoured greater dynamic range, more pronounced shadows and colours, and a more high contrast look for shooting in studios. The oldest films in existence were shot at extremely low film sensitivities such as ISO 25 or 50, meaning that a great deal of light was required for anything to be captured on the film. As cinema evolved, higher sensitivity film stocks became the norm and Damien Chazelle purposefully takes advantage of this to give La La Land a less extreme appearance. Colours and light variations may not be quite as expressive and overwhelming as some films shot in the 50s, but it provides this modern-day filmmaker with a lot more control during post production. He’s able to maintain the classical look whilst not experimenting with extremes (meaning that La La Land’s visuals consist of less contrast, and more detail in the darker areas of the image that one may wish to manipulate in post production). From a practical perspective, it also means that less artificial light is required for the shooting of a scene. Whilst a great deal of this movie was shot on sound stages, it simply gives Chazelle more flexibility in terms of light than the filmmakers of the era he’s attempting to replicate.

Representation & Ideology

Diving head first into what’s considered nostalgic about a particular period in a medium’s history comes with a great deal of issues. Damien Chazelle has constructed this film in such a way, in terms of both style and subject matter, that he leaves himself no choice other than completely indulging in a certain ‘feeling’ that comes with the past. If he did it any less, then La La Land wouldn’t be nearly as engaging or as enjoyable. We, as the audience, can genuinely tell that the filmmaker is having fun choosing to include elaborate musical set pieces, subjects of romance, and beautiful visuals in his movie. However, to accomplish this he chooses to ignore the problems that inevitably came with a big cooperate industry such as Hollywood thriving at a time when such things as racial discrimination was even more prevalent than it is now. I can understand why he would choose to ignore such issues as the ‘magic’ of the film comes with its feeling of ‘escapism’, however; this remains problematic no matter how you look at it. I truly love how stylistically indulgent and enjoyable this movie is and, whilst those topics are not what this film is attempting to tackle with, it should definitely be noted that this is an important political subject relating to the time the film feels nostalgic for that’s not included. A more diverse cast or recognition of the discriminatory behaviour taking place in the world could have been included and would definitely assist in making this film feel as sensitively and compassionately towards those discriminated against as it does towards its central protagonists of Mia and Seb.

Spectatorship

The last thing you could call this film is objective. The clear strengths Chazelle is playing off of is making the film as subjective as possible and not in a disorienting or draining way, but in a stylised, emotional, and hypnotic way. We are completely encouraged to empathise with the two main characters meaning that, in their moments of conflict, the viewer feels all the more sad and torn in the same way that Sebastian and Mia do. This is done through intimate, empathetic moments of vulnerability as both characters can be viewed as ‘underdogs’ with both a driving passion and love in their lives. These kinds of characters are the ones most filmmakers appear to be the most interested in, the reason being that it’s an effective way of getting the audience interested in both the characters and the story. It could even be compared to Steven Spielberg’s ‘philosophy’ of empathetic filmmaking as his films are famous for giving the audience time to like and route for the characters before the big ‘moments’ of the film takes place. We admire Mia’s passion and perseverance which is why her struggles become a lot more affecting.