La La Land

It took Damien Chazelle just one film to establish himself as a gifted director and screenwriter. Since Whiplash (2014), a multi-award winner at numerous festivals and ceremonies (two prizes at the Sundance Film Festival (2014), three at the British Academy Film Awards (2015), three Oscars (2015)), we've been waiting with bated breath for his second film. The director, like Quentin Tarantino, is passionate about cinema, and La La Land bears witness to this deep attachment to the golden age of Hollywood cinema. La La Land is more than just a musical à la Jacques Demy or Stanley Donen. The director's passion for films about music (as in Whiplash) takes a back seat this time, and this is a love story between a musician and a young actress.

Fermented withpassion, the film's plot was first developed in 2010, and already testified to the young director and screenwriter's unfailing passion for cinema Behind the idea of remaking a musical, one senses the director's attraction to transplanting it to our current context, and thus reviving a past genre no longer favored by today's Hollywood industry. The film is also a vibrant tribute to the city of Los Angeles, and the many shots testify to the director's and screenwriter's fascination with the City of Angels. We also sense the same attraction not only to the golden age of Hollywood cinema, but also a fascination with several of Jacques Demy's landmark films. We are inevitably reminded of Les Parapluies de Cherbourg (1964) and Les Demoiselles de Rochefort (1967), with their many magnificent dance numbers. We also think of musicals such as West Side Story (1961) and Chantons sous la pluie (1952) as sources of inspiration for the director. Such a project is not only difficult to put together, but above all requires passion and a desire to offer something other than a simple product, in order to satisfy the greatest number of people, and in which the approach is already marketing before it is really founded on the director's vision. In this respect, La La Land is yet another success story, one that pushes forward the admiration we already have for his first film.

It's impossible not to see a clear filiation between Whiplash and La La Land, if only for the important place music (jazz) once again occupies in this film. The character of Sebastian, who is passionate about real jazz but no longer finds favor with the public, finds himself playing background music or even joining a band to really survive in a world that leaves too little room for dreamers. He represents music in its noblest form, that which comes from the heart and is a means of self-expression (allusion to the scene explaining how jazz was born in New Orleans). Once again, Ryan Gosling stands out as the best possible choice for the role. It's impossible to remain insensitive to his character and his desire for recognition and to finally find his place. Between parties where he has to content himself with a form of popular music and a simply unforgettable act on a seafront (City of Stars), his character represents the difficulties of living in Los Angeles, far from the glamour that this city maintains in our idyllic visions.

Similarly, Emma Stone gives her character Mia, a young actress going from audition to audition, all the charm of Hollywood heroines with tragic fates. La La Land was difficult to put together, and owes its salvation not only to the critical and public success of Whiplash, but above all to its director and screenwriter, who has supported this more personal and ambitious project for many years.

The care taken with the film is also evident in its cast, which includes Emma (Mia) Stone and Ryan Gosling (Sebastian), John Legend (Keith), J.K. Simmons (Bill), Rosemarie DeWitt (Laura), Finn Wittrock (Greg), Callie Hernandez (Lisa), Sonoya Mizuno (Caitlin). Mandy Moore is also responsible for choreographing the many dance numbers, demonstrating the director's desire to recapture the aura of those famous musicals.
Certain scenes, touched by the grace of a director who came to the end of his dream and succeeded in bringing it to life, remain in the memory long

after the film has been seen. The film's many locations, such as the Griffith Observatory, reveal the dark beauty of Los Angeles and show us what cinema should be: an invitation to travel, to search for true values and, above all, to express oneself fully through art, be it writing, music or acting. We can only love and admire such films, which are unfortunately all too rare in the cinema.

LA LA Land
Written and directed by Damien Chazelle
Produced by Fred Berger, Jordan Horowitz, Gary Gilbert, Marc Platt
Starring Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone, John Legend, Rosemarie DeWitt, Finn Wittrock, J. K. Simmons
Director of photography: Linus Sandgren
Editing: Tom Cross
Music: Justin Hurwitz
Production companies: Summit Entertainment, Marc Platt Productions, Impostor Pictures, Gilbert Films
Distributed by Lionsgate
Release dates: August 31, 2016 (Venice), December 9, 2016 (U.S.), January 25, 2017 (France)
Running time: 128 minutes

Seen December 20, 2016 at Club Marbeuf

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