Hi guys, it's Debbie! Today I would like to speak
about one of the most acclaimed films of
the last months, which is "La La Land"
directed by Damien Chazelle and starring
Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone. Emma Stone
portrays Mia, a young woman which
dreams of becoming a movie star.
She attends dozens of castings but never
manages to get an important part, so unfortunately
she still works as a barista at a cafe in
Hollywood, serving the rich and famous.
A series of events brings her to meet
Sebastian, a talented pianist
which has just recently been fired for
improvising and playing his own music at
local clubs instead of following a
preset list. Although their first encounters are
a bit rough, they quickly bond and
together fight to pursue the careers they've always
dreamed of. "La La Land" is a nickname for Los
Angeles, the city in which Mia and
Sebastian live, this dream land where
anything can happen, where your dreams can come
true and even hidden talents can reach
fame. But it is also an unfair and
extremely competitive city where talented artists are
often excluded or ignored. As a
matter of fact Mia and Sebastian often
struggle against the odds and have to
temporarily accept a series of "common"
jobs, for example Sebastian plays in an 80s
tribute band at parties to make ends
meet. "La La Land" portrays Los Angeles and
in particular Hollywood as it used to
be during the Golden Age of cinema,
so extremely glamorous and as I said before, a
city in which all dreams can become true.
And this fact is underlined by "La La Land"
being a musical. Musical tends to have this surreal
and dreamy appearance, they are often
exaggerated with entire neighbourhoods dancing in the streets.
And this is because they tend to mimic
theatrical performances, with the characters
acting as if they had a real audience in front of
them. And this surreal and dreamy
atmosphere is constant throughout all of
"La La Land" with Mia dreamily looking at
her sad reflection in the mirror, which then
becomes a dark stage, Sebastian and Mia flying
through a room hugging and singing,
background actors become singers and
dancers, and even a traffic jam can
become a stage, with car horns becoming
music. The director though always keeps us with
our feet on the ground, showing us
that the characters dream of belonging to the
Golden Age of cinema but they actually
live in a reality made of tablets,
overworked baristas, aggressive
competition. So although everything from
the clothes to the transitions, from the
music to the dance moves brings us back
to another era, there's always an
element which wakes us and the
characters, such as a simple mobile phone ringing
or the lights in the cinema suddenly
switching on. As a matter of fact Chazelle, the director,
said that he wanted to bring back
old musicals in a "world where things
don't always exactly work out", the real
world. One of the most iconic songs in
the film is "City of Stars", which already from the
title refers to Los Angeles, city of lights,
celebrities and also of less
famous artists, whose dreams and hopes
shine just as bright. "City of Stars" is
actually the background music you can hear
in this video. This is a piano cover
performed by an Italian composer and
orchestra conductor, Pietro Salvaggio.
Please check his works out because
all of his art is absolutely amazing and
he's also filmed many covers of
film soundtracks which he has been
uploading on his channel. I'll leave the link to his
channel in the description box below.
Another important feature in "La La Land"
is the use of colour. All the characters
use extremely bright clothing and the two
main colours are a dark blue/purple
and bright yellow. In my opinion this again
underlines the concept of a "city of
stars". Because when we see shots of L.A. from
high above, we see this dark purple sky, this blue haze and
then thousands and thousands of bright lights
which are the stars in the sky but then
also all the clubs, restaurants, hotels in
the city underneath. These thousands of golden
specks of light could also be a metaphor
of stage lights and also of the dreams
of aspiring artists. Also Mia often
wears very bright clothing. But she
actually only tends to wear them when
she's happy or her expectations are high.
Instead when she's at work or sad or
has lost her hopes, she prefers to
wear plain clothes.
Also when she dresses up with these
bright dresses, they all have a
retro-vintage look, again underlining
the fact that she is probably dreaming
of belonging to that glamorous
Golden Age of cinema. This use of colour and
its important was also present in
another Golden Globes winner, "Moonlight", where
specific colours such as red, blue and
white where used in certain moments.
This proves again how beauty and different topics
don't necessarily have to be conveyed through
dialogue. The main topics in "La La Land" are
struggle and choices. But it is also a
romantic film, bringing in the concept of
a very powerful love that helps the
characters but which also can turn
against them and be an obstacle in the
moment of difficult choices. Both Emma
Stone and Ryan Gosling admitted to
bringing a lot of their own personal
experience into this film, as at a
certain point in their life they
were probably in exactly the same position
that Mia and Sebastian are right now.
The first choices for the film's lead roles
were actually Miles Teller and Emma Watson. After
not being able to make it, Chazelle then
changed his ideas to older
characters which could have already
had a lot of experience in struggling to
achieve their goals. Chazelle is also the man
that a couple of years ago gave us the
beautiful "Whiplash", the story of a young
talented drummer which struggles in his
extremely competitive field, giving up
everything he has
in order to reach his goals. "La La Land"
follows along similar lines and
although it is extremely less aggressive
and more romantic, it still questions what people would
do in order to fullfill their dreams, if
there is a point in which they give up,
and what (or who) they would give up in
order to reach their goals. In "La La Land"
we also briefly see J.K. Simmons which actually was one
of the best actors in "Whiplash", winning an
Academy Award for best supporting actor.
"La La Land" has already broken a record by
winning seven Golden Globe awards and
up until now it has already been nominated for
another 150-160 awards and it will potentially be
competing the next month for the
Academy Awards, the Oscars. I usually
don't like when people's expectations
get hyped too much even before seeing a
film, so I was a bit worried about what actually "La La Land"
would be, but after seeing it I
realised I absolutely enjoyed it, I loved the
use of colour and symbolism and the
general feeling of magic that it conveys, as if
everything is set in a dream world where
everything is possible.
Also I appreciated the more
down-to-earth compromise between an
artist constantly having dreams of being
in the spotlight but also the real-life
issues of choices and living and making
ends meet in one of America's biggest
and most competitive cities. I hope you
enjoyed this video, if you did feel free
to share it and make sure to subscribe
for more reviews of films and series.
I'll see you soon in a new video, bye!
For more infomation >> Pessimismus am Land - Reportage aus der Oststeiermark - Duration: 4:25. 
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