“Here’s to the fools who dream. Crazy as they may seem. Here’s to the hearts that break. Here’s to the mess we make”
Damien Chazelle’s La La Land (2016) reimagines the classical Hollywood musical through a contemporary lens, blending nostalgia with modern realism to explore the themes of ambition, love and artistic identity. Through an interplay of colour, movement and music; the film makes everyday spaces feel like stages of hope and longing. The film situates its narrative within the landscape of Los Angeles, a city that is a blatant display of aspiration and disillusionment. It is not merely a nostalgic revival of Hollywood’s era of beauty and compromise.
The cinematography of La La Land, crafted by Linus Sandgren, is central to the film’s tone and emotional architecture. Shot on 35mm film in CinemaScope, every frame is thoughtfully designed to blend fantasy with reality. The film often uses colour temperature to shift tones; warm yellows and pinks during romantic sequences and cool blues or purples in moments of solitude or disillusionment. The lighting transitions between naturalistic and expressionistic, reinforcing the film’s movement between everyday life and emotional fantasy. Artificial lighting in the jazz club scenes and the line between life and performance blurs.
Mia, played by Emma Stone, wears bright, contrasting dresses which portray her individuality and youthfulness. While Sebastian, played by Ryan Gosling, is often seen in muted or neutral tones; emphasising his nostalgia and emotional restraint. As their relationship deepens, their colour palettes subtly harmonise; reflecting emotional connection and shared aspiration. Throughout the film, the camera acts as an emotional counterpart. Chazelle and Sandgren use long takes, sweeping camera moves and rhythmic editing to mimic the choreography of a musical. It beautifully captures their connection and their distance.
The composition often plays with symmetry and isolation that reflects the central tension between shared dreams and individual ambition. The early scenes are frequently divided by architectural lines or negative space that suggest emotional and professional barriers. With the evolution of their relationship, this becomes more balanced. The film is a dialogue between eras; the visual style of the frames is an act of narrative memory that honours the old while confronting the new.
Music is the beating heart of La La Land. Damien Chazelle and composer Justin Hurwitz collaborate to create a soundscape that bridges classical Hollywood musicals with contemporary jazz. The film treats jazz as both dying and immortal; the way this genre of music relies on improvisation reflects the uncertainty of both love and chasing dreams. One of the film’s most sophisticated techniques is its fluid transition between cinematic and non-intertextual music. “Mia & Sebastian’s Theme” is the film’s emotional centre. And “City of Stars”, performed by both leads, functions as a narrative refrain. Its simple melody and melancholic tone capture the tension between personal dreams and shared love. Music and sound design in La La Land operate as emotional architecture; it becomes both a narrative and a memory.
One of La La Land’s greatest achievements is how it transitions between real and imagined spaces. Montage sequencing is a recurring technique in Chazelle’s work, allowing him to illustrate growth, desire and disappointment. The cyclical nature of dreams and relationships is significant to the film; it is very well portrayed with a structure that follows a classical seasonal framework. The cuts are treated as emotional punctuation rather than basic editing techniques; forming an invisible choreography between music, time and emotion. Hence, the editing and structure are as musically orchestrated as its score.
The film is a mosaic of contradictions; love and loss, illusion and truth. One of the central conflicts lies between pursuing personal dreams and replete human attachments. Mia and Sebastian are both dreamers, embodying two sides of artistic pursuits. Symbolically, dreams are treated as a double-edged melody; they give life meaning but they also demand sacrifice. The love story is grounded in realist romance and inevitable divergence. Mia and Sebastian’s relationship nurtures their creativity yet that very inspiration becomes the reason they must part. Their love becomes symbolic of art itself; ephemeral, painful yet profoundly meaningful.
The film draws on old jazz, golden-age musicals and the idealism of classic cinema but it does more than just imitate them; it engages in a thoughtful dialogue with the past, reflecting on what those traditions mean today. Nostalgia thus becomes both comfort and constraint. The title La La Land itself carries a double meaning: it refers to Los Angeles but also to a state of dreamy delusion where fantasy blurs with reality. The city’s sprawling geography mirrors the emotional distance between characters and its shifting light symbolises the transient nature of dreams. Los Angeles is not just a backdrop; it is a living metaphor for the dream itself!
La La Land explores itself as a discourse on modern creative identity. It interrogates how passion is sustained within a culture of commodification and how nostalgia functions as both refuge and restraint. It is a refined take on the musical, blending the style of classic Hollywood with the emotional depth of modern cinema. Rather than simply celebrating artistic success, the film reflects on the delicate balance between dreams and reality, love and sacrifice, memory and experience. The musical form, traditionally associated with unity and resolution, is here transformed into a site of fragmentation and longing. Chazelle’s thematic framework extends beyond romantic narrative into an exploration of impermanence and nostalgia.
Here, the ephemeral nature of dreams becomes the measure of their enduring significance!