La La Land, A World of Color
April 5, 2023
Directed by Damien Chazelle, La La Land (2016) is a fantastic film that takes you through the relationship of Mia (Emma Stone), an aspiring actress, and Sebastian (Ryan Gosling), dreaming of owning a jazz club, as they grow on their own and chase their dreams. You get to observe each character’s point of view and understand where each character is coming from.
La La Land has won six Academy Awards, including best actress in a leading role, best directing, best music, best cinematography, best production design, and best original score. They have also gotten awards and nominations at Critics Choice, BAFTAs, Golden Globes, and more.
The wardrobe and color in this film are so well thought out and beautiful. Throughout the film, the wardrobe team continues to use primary colors that create a vibrancy without blending together. Mary Zophres, the head of the wardrobe on set, tried to find color and movement during the film. During the seven weeks they had to prepare for the wardrobe, she and her team went through the script to analyze the characters’ emotions in each scene. At the movie’s beginning, you can see that Mia and Sebastian have very different color palettes. While Mia starts the film very colorful, representing her role in the glamorous Hollywood-style music, Sebastian has less color signifying his love for genuine music like jazz.
One of the things I enjoyed most about this movie was how they went through each timeline. The film is over the course of about a year, and it shows each season with it. Within each season, you can see Mia and Sebastian’s point of view, and what was happening to lead to the moment they ran into each other. I also noticed lots of handheld shots making the dancing scenes feel more chaotic and authentic. The different ways they filmed the movie were excellent, and the way they keep these characters connected, even in the beginning when they are complete strangers, is genius.
The ending of this movie is truly what catches the viewer’s attention. While this movie doesn’t exactly have the happy ending that people would imagine, it is a very satisfying ending. One of the things Chazelle does extremely well is endings, each of them being relatively long and showing the viewer something they feel the whole movie has been leading up to.
Damien Chazelle is a phenomenal director and crafted this film so beautifully. This movie does have a PG-13 rating, but to anyone of that age, I would definitely recommend it. While this movie is newer, it has established itself as a classic that everybody should watch.
For those interested, consider watching the movie trailer here.
La La Land Quiz
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bea | Oct 25, 2023 at 10:15 am
hi