My film of choice was La La Land by far. It’s one of my favorite films for a lot of reasons such as the music, costumes, settings, dances, and romance that gets me to tear up every time. Having seen the film before, I knew that it also offered a lot of material when analyzing the depiction of Hollywood and what it is like to “make it big” in L.A.. A big theme of the film and sort of ending message I get from La La Land is the idea that you have to choose between true love and your dream career. You can have a good relationship and a good career, but not a deeply romantic love and your dream career. It’s all about time and place. Mia and Sebastian had an intense love for each other, but because they met before both of their careers really took off, it didn’t work out. Maybe if they had met once they were both already famous and well off, things would have went differently. between them
La La Land presents Hollywood at first as this place of young happy people dancing in the traffic of the freeway, wearing vibrant colors under the bright sun, and constantly attending various cocktail parties through the day and night. However, the more the film gets into detail of both Mia and Sebastians careers, the less glamorous it becomes. At first we see these fancy and stylish parties as well as cute dates between the couple at Griffith Observatory or an old-fashioned looking movie theatre. But the more the movie becomes more centered on their careers, the more ugly and real Hollywood becomes. The motion picture industry is depicted as extremely tough, totally unpredictable, and pretty much impossible. Mia is only able to try out for so many roles as they are looking for a certain appearance with every character, and getting a call back is rare. One time when she tried out for a role, she wasn’t even able to speak for more than 5 seconds before being kicked out.
The ending scene ties back to my original theme I caught from the film- you can’t have the love of your life and your dream career. Years after Mia and Sebastian split, Mia and her husband enter a mysterious bar to check it out for fun. Mia is in shock when she walks down the stairs and sees the graphic design she created for Sebastian’s dream jazz club. She looks around for him while walking to sit down. Suddenly, Sebastian is on stage and he locks eyes with Mia in the crowd. He’s in absolute shock as well. He sits at the piano for a while in silence and hesitates before he plays “their song.” It’s completely dark with one stage light purely on Sebastian- probably not how it would have looked in real life- but what it looked like from Mia’s point of view. Then that scene dissolves into a montage of what could have been between Mia and Sebastian. In scenes that took place when they were together, the dialogue is altered to be more perfect than things ever really were. For example, when Sebastian gets fired and Mia tried to compliment his piano skills but he walked right past her. That same scene plays with a new ending of them kissing and the customers dancing. Or when Mia has puts on her play, Sebastian was there with a big cheering crowd instead of the lousy crowd and no Sebastian present. I interpreted this as a reel of their potential relationship if they had prioritized each other over their own careers.
Ava Ganz 