«La La Land», a musical masterpiece

Cinema screens are currently showing a film that leaves no one indifferent, and which can even represent a single episode in a lifetime. La La Land, a musical comedy, but also a musical masterpiece, enchanting and existential.

First and foremost, a musical masterpiece. In this feature-length film by Damien Chazelle, music is not a sound dimension added to the rest, a feature among others in the film: it is the central theme. Both object and subject, the music in Justin Hurwitz composes the very essence of La La Land. The music is no longer an outgrowth of the film; the film becomes an outgrowth of the music. The two protagonists, Mia (Emma Stone) and Sebastian (Ryan Gosling), fade into the background, and evolve only in the context of a veritable eulogy of jazz - the same eulogy that Boris Bian managed to achieve in literature, and that Damien Chazelle has just achieved in film. Surrealism is another thing these two geniuses have in common.

An enchanting masterpiece. If only for the musical dimension we've just been talking about. The song City of stars and the Mia & Sebastian's Theme are dispelling the notion that good music isn't being created any more. Perhaps it's just that we need to look harder than we used to, given the vast and diverse range on offer. And here, such exceptional music, combined with such breathtaking images and colors (a mauve twilight, a flight into the stars, a Parisian cellar), can only have an enchanting effect on the audience. The very title of the film suggests both the Los Angeles (L.A.) setting and a wonderful world («to be in La La Land» meaning «to be in one's own world»), where one gives one's la.

An existential masterpiece, at last. Because this magic only makes sense when it interacts with reality, with human existence. Underneath this joyful, euphoric musical comedy, the film offers a serious and profound reflection. Through Mia and Sebastian, and above all through this sublimation of jazz and music in general, the film's purpose is aimed at just one thing: that melancholy so familiar to contemporary man, torn between the desire for glory and the desire for happiness, between professional ambition and passionate feeling. In short, between the call of art and the call of love.

Write to the author: jonas.follonier@leregardlibre.com

Image: (© FilmJerk.com)