The author of this article: Chuan Meimei
If it weren’t for a friend’s recommendation, I wouldn’t have watched the American love music movie “La La Land” for the first time. The opening scene was full of singing and dancing rhythms, which made me suspicious. With such joy, how could there be sadness that cannot be loved? Anyway, it fits in with the current domestic New Year’s Eve celebrations.
The movie was over. In the video hall, the post-00s generation (two of us) who met by chance and I waited for a few minutes in front of the big screen. We didn’t get the Easter egg. We both looked back at the screen in disappointment as we walked and thought about it for a long time. . He asked me if I looked good? I blurted out, "Isn't this just a replica of real life?" He nodded and said the music was nice.
When we are young, we chase our ideals, we worship passionately, and unexpectedly meet the person we like, and maybe we will have an intersection with him or her and have a romantic or devastating love. But by some mistake, the person you marry after many years is not the same person, or in other words, the love is not so unforgettable. But he has become the person you spend your whole life with, the father of your favorite child, and there seems to be the hand of God controlling your marriage.
1 Sparks fly
"La La Land" director/Dami Chazelle, starring/Ryan Gosling/Emma Stone. The story takes place in Los Angeles, USA, in the 1980s and 1990s, between two young people, Sebastian and Mia. The latter is a "Lobster" who works as a waitress in a cafe on the Warner Bros. set. One of them likes jazz and is a pianist; the other dreams of being an actress and wants to star in a movie written by herself one day. She often skips work and goes to various studios for auditions, but fails repeatedly.
They met again at a party and fell in love with each other. They went to the observatory together and danced a waltz. They fell in love. They talk to each other, express their ideals, encourage each other, work hard and never give up, and one day your dreams will come true.
They are together, each busy with their own careers. Sebastian joined a modern jazz band. He often toured and disappeared without a trace. Mia completed her script and prepared a one-woman show, but the response was mediocre. They began to face difficulties and challenges in pursuing their careers: Sebastian did not like the music style in the orchestra and felt that it deviated from his understanding of jazz, but in order to survive, he had to participate in performances in exchange for remuneration; Mia's solo The show failed to attract an audience and she was frustrated and disappointed.
2 Love but hate
They had differences and quarrels because of each other's careers and lifestyles, which corresponds to the saying "Love but hate". In fact, love needs to be learned, and love also needs to be managed.
One day, Mia dragged her tired body home after get off work at the cafe. She saw the lights of her home in the distance, and she guessed that Sebastian was back. Sure enough, her pianist was cooking, and the warm smoke from the fireworks made her heart soften. She hugged him, are you back? However, people who love each other are hurt all the time. Before they can be tender after seeing each other for a long time, they argue again, and they are both young and energetic, and they don't give in to each other. Mia picked up her bag and slammed the door and left. As for this one, she was so angry that she didn't chase her.
They broke up. Mia returned to her hometown of Nevada and gave up her dream of becoming an actress. Sebastian continued to perform in the jazz band. He sometimes called Mia, but Mia was perfunctory and didn't want to talk to him.
One day Sebastian received a call from a director and asked him to inform him of Mia's whereabouts. He had seen Mia's one-man show and felt that she was very inspiring and wanted to use her. Sebastian still loved Mia in his heart. He found Mia without any effort and told her to go to the audition. Maybe there would be a role this time.
Mia looked sideways at the pianist, "How did you find me?" Sebastian said in a short and powerful voice, "Listen to me and have a good interview. I will pick you up at this time tomorrow." Mia obediently auditioned, but the result was that she couldn't come out that day because there were several girls and they had to compare before making a decision.
3 Falling in love and killing each other
They rekindled their love. They went in both directions, for art and for the dreams in their hearts, encouraging each other not to give up. Dreams will eventually come true.
The movie footage reminds us that after the four seasons of winter, spring, summer and autumn and the winter five years later, for five years, this pair of literary young people were noisy, separated and reunited. They loved each other, from the bud of love to passionate love to the indifference that gradually drifted away, until they broke up. This process is the process of chasing dreams, and it is also a test for their love growth and personality cultivation. Ideals are skinny, love is fragile, and they are often caught off guard in the face of reality. They love and kill each other, they love each other to the death and hurt each other, and they are miserable.
This may be the battle between dreams and reality. Dreams are an important force in promoting individual growth and realizing self-worth, but the cruelty and unsatisfactory reality are often the bloody knife that kills love.
We know that love is a two-way street, a mutual achievement, and a common growth. Relatively speaking, Sebastian's status as a pianist is a strong support for his lover Mia's dream of becoming an actress. However, he was just a poor pianist. He left home to tour around, and his pursuit of financial interests to some extent also chilled Mia's heart. Isn’t it said that the longest love is companionship? He was unable to protect his sweetheart. They drifted apart and lost each other. This was the most severe challenge in reality.
Five years later, when Mia took her husband's arm and met Sebastian unexpectedly at a street corner in Los Angeles called "Serbas Jazz Club", they were both shocked. Time has passed, and Sebastian has successfully opened this jazz bar. He and his band play tasteful and elegant music, attracting guests from all over.
And Mia has become a famous movie star, a wife and a mother. If he could go back in time, Sebas would wish that the arm held by his first love was his, and he would have a cute little baby with her. At that moment in the movie, the male protagonist and the female protagonist came together happily and sweetly in the tunnel of time. Fantasy montage tells endless beauty and regret. Sebastian Mia, they have already missed it.
Tears filled Mia's eyes, crystal clear. She stared intently at Sebastian sitting in front of the piano. Sebastian's hands hung empty for a moment before falling on the keys and played the familiar song. The song "city of stars". At this moment, the emotional storm that swept through my chest was not an exaggeration to say it was a hundred thousand levels. Mia's husband seemed to feel his wife's strangeness, "Do you want to listen to this piano music again?" No, Mia said, it's time for us to leave.
This ending is so classic that it ends abruptly. Shocked, moved, burst into tears, lamented...
What I want to elaborate on is that the male protagonist played by Ryan Gosling is really magical. He is born with a pair of melancholy blue eyes that make people obsessed, and his artistic tension as a pianist, He performed the role with all his heart; Emma Stone won the Academy Award for Actress, and her powerful acting skills conquered the Oscar judges. To be honest, I think her appearance is still a bit lacking compared to A-list stars such as Nicole Kidman and big-mouthed Julia Roberts, but she transformed Mia from a "Luo Piao" rookie to a dream come true and firmly established herself as a movie star. The story is vividly interpreted. I noticed that her facial expressions are rich and top-notch, and she won the "Little Golden Man" for this. This is the result of the two-way blessing of her acting talent and personal efforts. I am impressed.
Finally, the music of the film is refreshing throughout. The classic starry sky walk and dancing scenes in the film pay tribute to "Broadway 1940" and the Disney animated classic "Cinderella". The red jacket of the male protagonist Sebastian is the same style as James Dean in "Rebel Without a Cause". The scene where the female protagonist Mia uses the curtains as a costume pays tribute to the 1961 classic musical "West Side Story" .
From the popular "Singin' in the Rain" and "Moulin Rouge" to the unpopular "Boogie Nights" and "Come on", the singing and dancing sections in "La La Land" are almost the entire history of the development of Hollywood musicals.
"La La Land" won 6 awards at the 89th Academy Awards, including Best Director, Best Actress, and Best Cinematography. It earned US$440 million at the box office, and its production cost was only US$30 million, which is unprecedented in the history of musicals. The movie
writes about love regrets, reluctance, nostalgia, etc., which are all part of life. It is precisely because there are so many uncertainties that love makes people so obsessed.
pays tribute to those aching hearts and those who pursue their dreams. Love may be a dream, but we have chased it...
