La La Land (Damien Chazelle)

La la land is an American musical written and directed by French American director Damien Chazelle in 2016. This romantic film stars Ryan Gosling (Sebastian Wilder) and Emma Stone (Mia Dolan). The story takes place in Los Angeles, California. There, Sebastian and Mia, who want to fulfill their dreams, fall in love.

Both Mia and Sebastian have a dream: she wants to become an actress and he dreams of being a jazz pianist. When the story begins, they do not know each other but one evening, as Sebastian is playing at a party, they make friends.

Mia works at the Warner Bros studios as a barista and she has a real passion for acting, but all her auditions fail. Sebastian encourages her to write her own play, what she does. As for Sebastian, whose dream is to open a jazz club, he joins a band but dislikes the style of music they perform. Now Mia and Sebastian have moved in together and Mia reproaches Sebastian with abandoning his dreams for a steady income.

Mia’s play is a failure. As Sebastian missed it because of a photo shoot he had forgotten, she decides to end their relationship and returns home to Nevada. But a few days later, a successful casting director who has seen Mia on stage wants to hire her for his next movie. He calls Sebastian and the latter leaves for Nevada in order to persuade her to attend the audition. It is a success! They promise they will always love each other, though they do not know what their future will decide for them.

Years later, Mia has become a famous actress, but she is married to another man and she has a daughter. Sebastian has opened his jazz club. When they meet for the last time, he plays a love song and they imagine what their lives would have been, had they stayed together…

La la land is a nickname for Los Angeles, taken from the acronym L.A. But it also describes a place that is not serious, a place where the people are disconnected from reality. As the movie is a musical, the title may have another meaning, “la la la” referring to a person singing.

La la land was praised by the critics and received eighteen awards. It was nominated fourteen times at the 89^th Academy Awards and won in six categories, including Best Actor for Emma Stone. It was also selected as one of the best ten films in 2016. The production of the film cost Chazelle $30 million and brought him in $446 million!

La la land is a musical about love. Even if Mia and Sebastian do not get married at the end of the movie, nor live happily ever after as is the case in most romances, their love is stronger than everything. Do they not promise to always love each other?

Like most of the greatest love stories (Romeo and Juliet, Cleopatra and Mark Antony, Tristan and Isolde, Lancelot and Guinevere…), there is something (fate?) which prevents the lovers from being united. But love is still present and will be forever. It outlives them.