download la la land true love story damien chazelle

Until that day arrives he is forced to earn a living plunking out Christmas carols in a restaurant.īoth are dreamers who have come to LA – the 'La La Land' of the title – to make it big, but success is elusive. Sebastian is a jazz pianist who fantasises about opening his own club where the real thing can be played. We learn that Mia is an aspiring actor and playwright, feeling crushed by a depressing routine of auditions. This grumpy opening is the inevitable prelude to love, although it takes two more encounters until they click. Only when the dancers return to their cars and the jam clears do we meet Mia and Sebastian, who snarl at each other from their respective vehicles and exchange insults. She is joined by one driver after another, in a number called Another Day of Sun, until the freeway is one big stage.Įmma Stone (Mia) and Ryan Gosling (Sebastian) make us believe in the power of love in a sweet letter to the city of Los Angeles and a celebration of the musical. Amid a sea of fuming motorists a girl starts to sing, emerges from her car and struts down the white line. The movie begins with a startling song-and-dance sequence set during a traffic jam on a flyover. Yes, it's as corny as that, and it's irresistible. The film's great achievement is to conjure a romance that makes us believe in the power of love and the need to hold on to your dreams. The slick production numbers of the past have been replaced by routines with a touch of sadness, as if the lovers recognise the anomalous nature of these songs and dances. Corny yet irresistibleĪt the same time, Chazelle is addressing the status of the musical today, when it has become a comparative rarity everywhere but Bollywood.

Their frail voices and careful steps convey an emotional charge that disarms our critical capacities. They sing and dance because they're driven by a surge of feeling. Does it matter? By making the lovers so palpably human, Chazelle allows us to identify with them in a way that was not possible with the screen deities of the past.

Download la la land true love story damien chazelle