So I watched La La Land a couple of days ago. I’ll start with two things
It was a great film. One of the more transporting experiences I’ve had at the cinema in a while, and I’m really not a musicals kind of person. I found it quite emotionally effecting, as I’m sure most of it’s audience will. But while the love story between our very charming leads is quite delightful, it was not what I found the most got me the most. I’ll get to why in a second.
The world building in this film is just gorgeous. I do really love seeing colour used in a such an intentional way. Using mostly primary colours no less, a lot of saturated red yellow blue. Dreamy colours for a dreamy world, visual delight, etc. And then as our protagonist drop out of this dreamy world the palette follows them, becoming more mundane, less designed. a really nice subtle transition in the background.
And while this movie is framed as a romance, at heart it is not about the love of two people for each other. Its about the love of two people for their dreams, and for each others dreams, and the things we’re willing to give up to get them. The ending is very bittersweet, our leads having parted ways. But they both ended up with who they, and we, REALLY wanted them to have: the dream.
There is also a borderline fourth wall breaking moment, when John Legend gets a great little monologue about jazz, and the force of tradition vs the new. In a movie that is itself a throw back to a form that has fallen by the way side, this reads a lot like a comment from the director to any fans of classic musicals that don’t like his update.
It makes me think though, about how modes of creation pass through the population and into history, and how worthwhile it is for them to keep on, even a niche. Theatre, radio, jazz, poetry, novels, opera, symphonies, rock, all these were at one time mainstays of popular cultural. Vital, current and broadly popular. And now their not. Some hold on a little more. Novels still step into broad popular culture periodically (looking at you harry potter) people still read. But something has gone out of it. Theatre even more so. Every form seems to have a lifespan. Jazz gave way to rock, gave way to hip hop. Theatre gave way to movies, which seem to be giving way to tv.
History is important, and the history of an art form is partly contained in it’s performance. We need people to keep the genres, the mediums, that have stepped out of the mainstream alive. Partly so that we can mine them to create the new, and so that we simply don’t forget. Because Sebastian is right about jazz. Every time it’s new, every time its fresh, and you only really get that live.
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