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La La Land (Chazelle, 2016) - Coggle Diagram
La La Land (Chazelle, 2016)
Spectatorship
Opening scene
- Opening scene immediately encourages the spectator to become passively immersed in an idealised version of LA
- Chazelle uses whip pans to disguise edits between shots and hides the mechanics of the film, whilst mise-en-scene combines familiar situations and realist settings (traffic on freeway) with a heightened sense of colour (bright blue sky and coordinated block colour outfits) to create a world both familiar and perfect - mixing of realism and idealism
Mia and voyeurism
- During both coffee shop scenes where a famous actress buys coffee on the Warner Bros lot: the actress is shot from behind, she is positioned centre of the frame which focuses the spectator's attention on the starstruck faces of those who turn toward her and therefore towards the camera - repositioning the spectator as a passive viewer, drawing attention to voyeurism
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Youth identification
- Mia and Seb are both millennials establishing their careers - young people may identify and align with their positions
- Growing up and realities of adulthood are key themes
- Final scenes portray a nostalgia of yearning for your first love
Oppositional readings
Racial politics
- The film serves as an example of 'white nostalgia' - where white characters hark back to a mythic past of segregation and pre-civil rights
- Seb's 'white jazz saviour' narrative appears to whitewash jazz history - represented when Seb takes over the piano from a Black musician, he is erasing Black art and history
The nostalgia
- Despite the film's criticised apolitical agenda, the portrayal of Mia and Seb could indicate a more intelligent and questioning treatment of nostalgia - both characters achieve their dreams ultimately but Seb is forced to live in a frozen past, whilst Mia is forced to embrace the new
- There's a suggestion living in the past is not as easy or safe as the nostalgia of the film's surface style suggests
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Ideology
Opening scene
- At a passive level, the film appears to exemplify apolitical Hollywood escapism - the opening scene's encouraged passive engagement disguises the fact the cast is almost entirely white - the film has been criticised for the whitewashing of both LA and the jazz genre
Politics
- The film draws parallels between the nostalgia it seeks to create and the aggressively regressive 'MAGA' politics of Trump - when Mia asks Seb if her play is too nostalgic, he simply responds "Fuck them" - perhaps criticising Trump's regime
Apolitical agenda
- Traditional romance and glamour of 'Fred and Ginger' 1930s films may distract from reality of racial discrimination, gender inequality and homophobia in Los Angeles at the time
- The film's desperate wish for a return to the 'nostalgia' of 'simpler times' is considered problematic - the film was criticised for only serving as escapist for white middle class people
Seb and jazz
- Seb's character has been criticised as a 'white saviour' of jazz - the kind of jazz he aims to save is a symbol of a dangerously apolitical agenda
- Seb wishes to return to a world where jazz is apolitical, a time during 1940s LA where Black and Latin jazz fans were racially targeted
American Dream
- The 'American' idea anyone can succeed with hard work and determination - Mia's arc particularly embodies this
- This is demonstrated by the coffee shop scenes which bookend her narrative - a famous actress (Mia at the end) buys coffee from the cafe at the Warner Bros lot
- The reprise of this scene's message is clear - Mia has achieved her dream, however the spectator soon becomes aware she has had to leave Seb behind to do so
- This bittersweet approach subverts the typical 'happy ending' or narrative resolution implied by the concept of the 'dream' - reflecting a pessimistic undertone which contradicts the film's surface escapism
Postmodernism
- The film is a 'love letter' to LA - it is full of cinematic history and explicit film references (eg to Casablanca, Rebel Without a Cause, Broadway Melody of 1940) the film is a homage or pastiche to many of these films
- The film is full of intertextual references - Chazelle recreates many shots almost identically
- However the feelings of love for Hollywood and the American Dream are contaminated by the anger and frustration Mia and Seb experience in their search for love and their dreams
- Spectators' response is informed by knowledge of the films referenced - this could enhance the audience's enjoyment of the film, or could distance them from the film's emotional impact
- A postmodern critic may argue the film is essentially constructed from existing pieces of other films (bricolage), because that is all that is left for artists in the postmodern age, where the idea of 'pure art' is impossible
- It could be argued that the referential nature of the film means its emotional effect is nullified - it simply refers to nothing but other films
- However Chazelle would argue this is the work of a fan - where artists can take inspiration from the past
Gender
- A feminist approach the film could read Mia's experiences as privileged and promoted over Seb's - Mia is as devoted to cinema's history and the film industry as Seb is to jazz, she also achieves her success through her own ingenuity - her one woman play could represent her independence and agency
Dinner scene
- Mia is shot at the right side of the frame, whilst Seb is shot centre frame, representing how he is sidelining or pushing her aside for his dreams - Mia and Seb's love is compromised by their pursuit of the American Dream
- Use of shot reverse shots and mid shots - the proxemics emphasise Mia and Seb's separation, which is a result of the pursuit of their dreams - this contrasts the twin shots used in the earlier romantic fantasy sequences
- ECU of the record coming to an end signifies the end of their relationship and the fantasy
- The vibrant green contrasts and dominates the warm candlelight (which has romantic connotations) - also contrasts the golden hues used in the fantasy sequences
- Both characters are dressed in black to represent death - possibly of their relationship, their dream and fantasy
- Diegetic jazz music intensifies throughout the scene and abruptly cuts off when Seb says "You're an actress! What are you talking about?" - the silence emphasises this defining moment in their relationship
- As Seb gets up and walks away from the table, he is flooded in green light instead of the candlelight, representing his exit from the relationship and their fantasy
- The first shot of both Mia and Seb shows him walking away from Mia (and their relationship) with his back facing her, she is left sitting alone at the table
- The smoke alarm which Seb leaves to turn off could represent the expiration of their relationship - this is then followed by Mia quickly leaving Seb's apartment, representing her departure from their relationship
- Seb walking away from the table and Mia could represent how he walks away from their relationship and fantasy, he is forced to choose his career path over Mia, who also then leaves on her own separate path (links to love in the modern age)
Key scenes
The ending/Epilogue
- Mid shots of Mia aligns the audience with her, the audience join Mia in her role as a passive spectator of Seb - encouraging the audience to become a passive spectator of the epilogue
- The row of lamps which separate Mia from her husband represents their division - contrasts the later scene where Mia and Seb lean into each other across the lamps and kiss
- Feminist reading - despite Mia achieving success by the end of the film, she is still placed in the audience and forced to watch Seb perform (links to male gaze)
- However the montage sequence appears to be told from Mia's perspective, where Seb is perhaps the passive love interest to be 'won' rather than Mia (female gaze)
- The vignette lighting and slow zoom into Mia's face aligns the audience with her
- Mia's intense emotional performance portrayed through her facial expressions encourage the audience to empathise with her
- Mia's role as a passive viewer is subverted during her play, when she performs and Seb is an audience member
- Freeway in the set references the opening scene - the brightly coloured sets and costumes and many dancers remind the audience of the opening
- The camera pans out to a long shot which shows the coordinated performances and makes Seb and Mia indistinguishable amongst the other performers - representing the homogeny of Hollywood
- The long objective shot during this scene does not appear to position the audience with anyone - we are passive spectator marvelling at the beauty of Hollywood
- The audience continued to be positioned with Mia - the silhouette scene of Mia seemingly singing to her parents align the audience with her as we continue to watch from Mia's perspective
- Close up shot of Mia and zoom out during her photoshoot in Paris continues to align the audience with her - she is shot centre frame without, she is active here not him
- This contrasts the following scene where the camera briefly whip pans to Seb playing the piano, he is shot in the left of the frame - he is passive and less relevant to the fantasy (perhaps compared to her career)
- However the objective cinematography used in the Midnight in Paris scene and the VHS-style footage Mia and Seb watch in the cinema does not necessarily align the audience with either character
- The cinema sequence encourages the audience to be passive by positioning them with Mia and Seb as viewers of their fantasy, the golden hues and warm aesthetic emphasise this idealistic dream
- However active viewers would recognise this sequence as an unrealistic fantasy, the fact Mia and Seb are watching this in a cinema tells the audience this is an unachievable dream - the golden hues and aesthetic simply reinforce that this sequence is a fantasy - active viewers would recognise this fantasy is unachievable due to Mia and Seb's career ambitions
- The cut from the kiss between Mia and Seb (the end of the fantasy sequence) to a close up of Seb playing the piano could represent how this is also his dream, it is not just told from Mia's perspective - the shared smile between Mia and Seb could also suggest that the fantasy is shared and told from both perspectives - both characters are active as they both appear to acknowledge this dream