Dancing in the Stars

I'm going to spend a little of your time discussing a film from last year.  We just recently saw La La Land (2016) with a live orchestra providing the score, and this second viewing even further solidified my appreciation for the influence of classic cinema on director Damien Chazelle. Let's spend a few minutes looking at some of the references to film's past that appear throughout the movie.

The plot is a simple boy meets girl story. Mia (Emma Stone) is a would-be actress, working as a barista at a film studio coffee shop. Sebastian (Ryan Gosling) is a gifted musician with a passion for jazz music. Their first meetings are problematic, but when they finally get to talk at a party, love grows. Complications ensue when Seb takes a job with a contemporary music group. Making more money than he had ever hoped to see, but playing music he dislikes, Seb is also constantly away from Mia. They begin to drift apart as their lives and careers collide.

The film opens with a a dance number on the LA freeway, as Mia, Seb, and half of the city are caught in a traffic jam. With rich colors and enthusiastic, athletic dancing, the segment is a tip of the hat to the 1967 Jacques Demy musical The Young Girls of Rochefort. The images below will give you a look at the two scenes side-by-side. For an audience unused to a film opening with people singing and dancing (for no good reason!) on a highway or bridge, this must have been a shocking opening. I found it wonderful!  Another Demy film, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, also provides inspiration for La La Land. The endings of The Umbrellas of Cherbourg and La La Land are also remarkably similar. This article from PopSugar has a very interesting analysis of the two movies.

La La Land

The Young Girls of Rochefort

Two days after the release of La La Land (December 25, 2016), Debbie Reynolds, the star of Singin' in the Rain, died at the age of 84. In January, La La Land was awarded the Chairman's Vanguard Award at the Palm Springs International Film Festival.  It  was accepted by Ryan Gosling, whose acceptance speech focused on Ms. Reynolds and the inspiration her performance provided to the cast. (Slate.com). There are several nods to Singin' in the Rain in the film - Seb and Mia strolling through an active movie set, as Don and Cosmo do; Seb swinging around a lamppost, reminiscent of the Singin' in the Rain title number; and the concluding fantasy sequence which summons up images of the "Gotta Dance" number. (Slate)

Other films - both musical and non-musical - make appearances. A fantasy epilogue towards the end of La La Land brings to mind the "Our Love is Here to Stay" number from An American in Paris, as well as the Ballet Sequence in that film. Emma Stone carrying a bunch of balloons in the sequence is a clear pointer to Audrey Hepburn in Funny Face. We even see a little boy in that epilogue carrying a Red Balloon.

As Seb and Mia dance in the stars, both the "Begin the Beguine" number from Broadway Melody of 1940 and the "Never Gonna Dance" number from Swing Time are benchmarks. Mia's bedroom contains a large mural of Ingrid Bergman, and her cafe if just across the street from a stage set that was the window of the Cafe Aurore in Casablanca. Seb brings Mia to see Rebel Without a Cause; then the couple visits the Griffith Observatory where much of the action from that film occurs. The Slate article previously referenced and this discussion in New York Times provide an excellent outline of the many classic film references.

La La Land is a film that one can watch multiple times and each time see something new. I'll leave you with a trailer and my favorite song from the film: