What constitutes a movie into becoming a classic. Is it the themes, the music, or the story?
While many are divided between love and hate for this movie, let’s take a deep look into the potential that this musical has to become a classic and whether it’s themes can prove to transcend through generations.
So, what exactly are the parameters a movie needs to meet to become a classic? According to Filmsite.org, a classic is a movie that transcends time and trends, and has indefinable quality.
Does La La Land Meet Any of These?
While the movie was only released in 2016, it has sparked a lot of controversy between its viewers. Many people love this movie while others feel like it disappoints in many ways.
La La Land Directed by Damien Chazelle stars Emma Stone as Mia Dolan, and Ryan Gosling as Sebastian Wilder. This movie follows the journey of two ambitious people finding their way in Hollywood while falling in love. Mia is a struggling actress with imposter-syndrome who isn’t able to book any roles while Sebastian is an aspiring Jazz pianist trying to make ends meet and conserve the tradition of Jazz. These two characters end up seeing each other by chance a couple of times and we see their relationship evolve.
Let’s get into what features of this movie may qualify it to become a classic.
Does It Transcend Time and Trends?
For a movie to transcend time it’s themes should remain relevant for many generations to come. Relevance can be achieved through a couple of different methods. Themes can be a huge factor in attracting new audiences. In La La Land’s case there are many themes that will always resonate with generations to come. Some of the strongest themes are identity, passion, and love.
The movie constantly shows Mia and Sebastian torn between following their heart and their passion versus pursuing what is comfortable and reasonable in order to make a living. In the beginning of the movie we see Sebastian’s sister talking about how he should give up and find a real job that will help him pay his bills and will allow him to live comfortably rather than following his dream of opening his own Jazz club. Throughout the movie we see Sebastian’s internal fight to stay at a well established and successful group or give up the money and pursue what actually drives his purpose.
This is a theme all too common to younger generations who oftentimes have to decide between money or passion.
Mia’s character also goes through her own struggle as she faces rejection at most of her acting auditions. The casting directors laugh, or cut her off, discouraging her more after every audition she goes through. Mia often describes never being good enough, or being in a room with people who she presumes to be prettier and more talented. In today’s society we call that Imposter Syndrome.
Imposter Syndrome is a common phenomenon in our society and it’s a very real feeling that our generation is led to believe they aren’t good enough because of the unrealistic standards in the media.
The complexity of La La Land goes beyond your average trope of head over heels lovers whose sole purpose is to be together. This film dives deeper into the reality of what love actually is when you’re young which is filled with trial and error.
The film is almost set to feel like two films in one. The first part is the honeymoon; everything is perfect, the sun is out, and flowers are blooming. The second part of the movie is reality, there are arguments, timing isn’t right and mistakes are made. This is shown by the seasons changing.
Spoiler Warning
One of the biggest themes is love.
Love is undeniable what brings people together. But is that enough to keep us from reaching our own goals and desires? Spoiler Alert: No, love is sometimes not enough to keep us from moving far away and achieving our dreams. At least it’s not enough for Mia and Sebastian as they ultimately decide to call it quits.
However, just because they call it quits does not mean that they weren’t in love. As we see Mia and Sebastian’s story unfold we see how distant they grow because they put focus on their career and Sebastian isn’t able to attend Mia’s play that she’d been working at for months. The play ends up being a failure as only a handful of people show up to the theater. We later learn that of those handful of people a casting director ends up being in the crowd
At the end of the movie we see Mia and Sebastian contemplate getting back together but Sebastian pushes Mia’s needs before his own and encourages her to go to Paris to pursue a movie deal with everything she’s got, and Sebastian steps to the side and allows her to chase that dream.
We later learn that Mia ends up becoming a huge celebrity, finds a husband, and has a daughter with her husband in Paris. While Sebastian ends up opening his own successful Jazz club. They end up meeting one day by chance at Sebastian’s Jazz club, and they exchange a nod and a smile knowing that they both changed each other’s lives through love despite them not ending up together.
That’s what love is in this movie.
Does It Have In-Definable Quality?
La La Land has so much quality, from its mise-en-scene to its colors, cinematography, poetic storylines, and its music.
The mise-en-scene has such a distinct style that is met with a very distinct style. The style is described as “a dreamscape grounded in an old Hollywood Technicolor fantasy.” by Nofilmschool.com.
So what exactly made this film unique? The shots. La La Land uses a plethora of shots. La La Land scenes take place at “magic” hour. The cast only had thirty minutes to an hour to film certain scenes.
There were many shots used including lens flare, and whip pans. They also used “dreamlike shots, such as the Panavision E50 50 mm T2.O lens, [that] distorts the edges of the frame ever so slightly” per Nofilmschool.com.
One of the most beautiful scenes is the epilogue where we see Mia imagine what could have been if she and Sebastian had ended up together as she’s sitting through Sebastian’s performance with her husband by her side.
This whole movie feels like a fever dream in the best way and there is always something new to notice after every watch. This is a movie you should see at least three times to truly understand the plot, shots and purpose.
Could this movie be a serious contender to be considered a classic?