For me, as a film critic who thinks he loves music more than cinema, every project in which music and cinema are intertwined is a treasure. At the end of 2014, we saw a film that surprised us: Whiplash. We were even more surprised to learn that a 1985 born filmmaker, who was able to explain the relationship between an obsessive and ambitious drummer student and his sickly harsh teacher walking through music and discipline with a great sense of cinema.
Damien Chazelle’s second feature was Whiplash and, fortunately, he had a journey that went back to Oscars. The director’s first feature was a musical that had not been released in Turkey. Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench is a 35 mm, black and white musical on the streets of Boston and New York. Chazelle, a music student himself, first made a short film and then decided to turn it into a feature film. According to Variety magazine, this production was produced by Godard and Miles Davis; It’s like a musical feast where Morris Engel and The Umbrellas Of Cherbourg are intertwined.
Even though it will be released at the end of the year in our country, La La Land is a film that we have heard and wondered for a long time. After the Whiplash success with Chazelle began to come in interviews with tips, and then the film ends as soon as the festival wandered the festival, compliments, we received news of the collection. The film was shown at İKSV premieres before us.
The film, which has a Turkish name which I found successful as the City of Lovers, takes place today, mostly in America. But the filmmaker created the texture of the film in a very retro style. At this point, we can throw hats on art director Austin Gorg. If we don’t see the characters in stuck traffic and mobile phones in their hands, we can easily think that the film went on in the 60s.
Yes characters; We meet with our main characters Mia (Emma Stone) and Sebastian (Ryan Gosling) with great speed, almost obsessed with jazz music, who works as a waiter in a busy café of a Los Angeles street movie booth and dreams of becoming a famous actress. We watch a pianist who loves playing piano music in restaurants to earn money, in his own life, when they cannot intersect their inner values with the outside world. Then fate brings these two mortals who are looking for their way together with coincidence, and of course love is next! A love that raises one another is almost plus two minus.
As love slowly sprouts in our characters, we witness their flirt with musical choreographies. The film is followed by the Winter-Spring-Summer-Autumn seasons. Swedish cinematographer Linus Sandgren captured exquisite images in musical sequences. We realize that these songs are not jazz songs previously known. Yes, one of the most original parts of the film is that it has pieces written specifically for the film.
In the meantime, I’d like to take a look at the film and say two words about Ryan Gosling’s musician. Last year when I discovered a great group called Dead Man’s Bones on Spotify, and I looked at who they were, I had Ryan Gosling. It turns out that Gosling had been involved in music since 2006. So, all the keyboard and piano performances you’ll see in the movie really belong to Gosling!
Not used any stunt or different fiction! You will understand why I write exclamation exclamation point when you watch the film. Emma Stone, who has played Cabaret on Broadway and has been singing extensively for some time, and Ryan Gosling, already using her voice professionally, gave us a brand new musical soundtrack. Dance performances should not be overlooked. Colorful costumes, the use of the body language of the two players, and the difficult chemistry between them makes them look very tasty.
If you want to create a modern musical with brand new jazz music in a retro 21st century painting, of course you need some respect for the classics. Don’t worry, young director, who didn’t make a mistake in respect. Casablanca, Rebel Without a Cause, All That Jazz, Chicago, 8½, Singing In The Rain, Meet Me In St. He carefully sprinkled the references he got from films like Louis.
There are conflicts, breaks in the story, personal decisions and weaknesses that generally overshadow the love of our characters. One of the most creative and creative parts of the film is the sequence “what if it wasn’t and not so” at the end. It is a fantasy that is so beautifully constructed, designed and thought out that you think that it happened in the parallel universe. In our own lives, if I hadn’t made these mistakes, I would have said that if I hadn’t said that, I wouldn’t have experienced the losses… Is it a matter of not losing. A magnificent visual delight, accompanied by exquisite music. Well, what more do you get. Long live the cinema!
La La Land (2016)
Directed by: Damien Chazelle
Starring: Emma Stone, Ryan Gosling, Finn Wittrock, Sonoya Mizuno, Rosemarie DeWitt, Sandra Rosko, Jessica Rothe, Miles Anderson
Screenplay by: Damien Chazelle
Production Design by: David Wasco
Cinematography by: Linus Sandgren
Film Editing by: Tom Cross
Costume Design by: Mary Zophres
Set Decoration by: Sandy Reynolds-Wasco
Music by: Justin Hurwitz
Studio: Summit Entertainment, Lionsgate Films
Release Date: December 9, 2016
Visits: 129
