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UNITED STATES · 2016
La La Land
Synopsis
Mia, an aspiring actress, serves lattes to movie stars in between auditions and Sebastian, a jazz musician, scrapes by playing cocktail party gigs in dingy bars, but as success mounts they are faced with decisions that begin to fray the fragile fabric of their love affair, and the dreams they worked so hard to maintain in each other threaten to rip them apart.
Cinematic DNA
Damien Chazelle has said that Jacques Demy — a French director who in 1964 made a film where every single word is sung — showed him that a musical could carry genuine tragedy rather than manufactured joy. The Umbrellas of Cherbourg ends in loss. Chazelle built the ending of La La Land from that lesson. Cherbourg is streaming on Criterion Channel and has the same color palette, the same impossible romance, and a sadder ending.
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Films with Similar Themes
ambition and success · doomed romance · artistic passion · sacrifice and compromise · dreams versus reality
