LaLa Land (Damien Chazelle, 2016) USA

Reviewed by Pierre Balloum at the Santa Barbara Film Festival

With Whiplash, Damien Chazelle achieved three notable performances. He made Miles Teller a credible actor for a movie (now the effect has faded because Miles is ranked in the movies category as his impassiveness and lack of expression tarnish his game). Then, he transposed the great Vernon Schillinger into a musical universe and offered to the excellent J.K Simmons a role to match his talent. Finally, he made music the motor of a personal and spiritual quest to the rhythm of an indefatigable battery that was a reflection of the blows of buttons, the daily bread of the duel between Simmons and Teller, with a bonus a beautiful development Of the jazz. With La La Land, Chazelle ventures into the musical with a duet of actors that was not expected there. Indeed, Ryan Gosling is not known to be the most expressive actor in the world (well it’s not Ben Affleck either … nor Miles Teller) but it seems since several roles have found a style that suits him A ghent. We obviously think of his performance in the excellent The Nice Guys where he excels in failed cop. Here, it reproduces some of its facets and manages to shine on the screen without being convincing in crucial moments. Facing him, the solar Emma Stone amazes and dazzles. She has this ability, which few actresses, to speak with her eyes as she manages to make dispensable dialogues like an Amy Adams (See Big eyes or First Contact). Undeniable in the film, this duo is in perfect osmosis and offers La La Land an unmistakable force.is what John Legend says by referring to the break between jazz purists and the evolution of music through new technology (see the scene with the MPC). The story of love finds its evolution in the two asymmetrical careers of Seb and Mia who begin by dreaming about their future before coming up against the harsh reality of the trade. Moreover, on this point, we note the technical break in the realization of Chazelle which initially set up a multitude of musical passages by making use of sequences shots to go from Seb to Mia as to mark the link that unites them. But when the duo cracks (the scene of the meal), the cuts are frank and the musical scenes have practically disappeared as to make us fall on the ground.

The qualities of La La Land can not be limited to this, as the film offers a multitude of interesting ideas. First of all, the film’s purpose is reminiscent of Stanley Donnen’s legendary and magnificent Singing in the Rain. Indeed, the first minutes do not deceive with this effervescence of colors coupled with a perpetual movement where the dance interferes in the foreground. First highlight of Chazelle which shows a mastery of the striking sequence plan slaloming among the cars with rare grace. To return to the subject, it is distilled at the drop-drop with first of all the birth of this love story to which one wants to believe throughout the film. But Chazelle became the heir of Donnen by mixing a 50’s atmosphere with a modernism as anachronistic as well thought. Indeed, Gosling’s outfits, retro nights or Gosling’s car all send us back in the past while the omnipresence of mobile phones suggests that the story is happening nowadays. Then comes the real subject of the film, the evolution of fashions through those of jazz and the love story between the heroes. This is what John Legend says by referring to the break between jazz purists and the evolution of music through new technology (see the scene with the MPC). The story of love finds its evolution in the two asymmetrical careers of Seb and Mia who begin by dreaming about their future before coming up against the harsh reality of the trade. Moreover, on this point, we note the technical break in the realization of Chazelle which initially set up a multitude of musical passages by making use of sequences shots to go from Seb to Mia as to mark the link that unites them. But when the duo cracks (the scene of the meal), the cuts are frank and the musical scenes have practically disappeared as to make us fall on the ground.

Behind Chazelle’s unsurpassed frame with these old-fashioned film sets, this old-fashioned Jazz music and Seb’s tap dances, you can see the outlines of a profound melancholy that culminates in this final scene. It is true that the purpose of the statement flows from source but does not denote. Neither bitterness nor regrets have their places because the thing has been lived with passion and joy. On this point, the film comes closer to Casablanca (which is referred to several times), notably with this piece of piano played by Seb and which recalls (not in its composition but in its symbolic form) the sublime As time goes by. With La La Land, Damien Chazelle signs a remarkable film of technique that transpires the passion of cinema and music. One may regret some minor defects which do not tarnish this epic, which, if it is tinged with deep melancholy, warms the heart and fills the eyes with stars.