janae 🎞️𖦹₊ ⊹’s review published on Letterboxd:
this is easily going to be the longest review i’ve written on here—honestly, a retrospective of damien chazelle’s filmography may be a more apt description of this, but nevertheless, please just indulge me.
now, i just about have the memory of a goldfish mere moments away from the end of its lifespan (that is to say, i have a ridiculously terrible memory), but i remember in vivid detail the promotion of la la land in late 2016/early 2017. i remember it being toted as the return to the golden age of musicals—and to 14 year old me who practically lived on the turner classics movie channel, that was pretty much all i needed to hear. i remember listening to the soundtrack as soon as it was released, seeing commercials of mia and sebastian waltzing in the stars during the planetarium scene as lionsgate boasted the movie’s 14 oscar nominations. and i remember wanting to sob my eyes out when my mom finally took me to see it in theaters for my 15th birthday—which, holy shit, makes me feel old because i’m turning 21 in literally 5 days, but i digress.
to me, la la land is always going to be one of those perfect movies. from emma stone and ryan gosling’s performances, the costumes, the cinematography, the soundtrack—i just never seem to get tired of this movie and have been in love with it since day one. as many times as i’ve seen this movie (and i’ve long lost track of just how many times i’ve seen it), i somehow gain more and more appreciation for it on each new rewatch; however, i have to say, this time was easily the greatest, and i largely have to credit my recent watches of guy and madeline on a park bench (2009) and babylon (2022) for this.
firstly, guy and madeline: i may have some gripes with the movie, but as i mentioned in my review for it, this was clearly a film that meant a lot to chazelle and something he put a lot of himself into. personally though, the best part of guy and madeline is the movie’s score by justin hurwitz; and good lord, does hurwitz throw in some references to that movie in la la land. i’ll start with the most obvious, the “summer montage / madeline” sequence—i mean, it’s right in the name. this one i actually have to credit both chazelle and hurwitz for, because whilst the tune that plays is directly lifted from guy and madeline’s “overture”, all those shots of the l.a. scenery during this scene are recreations of chazelle’s shots of boston in the opening sequence of guy and madeline.
hurwitz also includes bits of the guy and madeline score:
- literally at the beginning of the film, one of the cars is playing “it happened at dawn”
- “holy hell!” and “new york” are practically the same song
- sebastian is listening to “boy in the park” in his apartment towards the end of the movie
- when mia walks into seb’s, the band is playing “cincinnati”
the reason i bring up guy and madeline so much in this review is because it’s quite literally a trial run for la la land and different parts of both of these movies exist within each other, and i find that so insanely beautiful. so many of the ideas for this movie were sprinkled into guy and madeline and so much of guy and madeline that was originally hampered by chazelle’s relatively small, student budget, were fully realized in la la land. but, at the end of the day, both showcased chazelle’s (and hurwitz’s) love of classic hollywood musicals and jacques demy-esque romances.
now, in my opinion, la la land and babylon are also two sides of the same coin; and as i like to think, one represents chazelle’s early and romanticized view of hollywood, the other a post-oscars, more realistic view of the city and its greedy, grotesque underbelly. one line in la la land specifically stood out to me after having seen babylon: “That’s L.A.. They worship everything and they value nothing.” and to me, this one throwaway line from sebastian sums up the los angeles that damien chazelle presents in babylon. of course, babylon is part two of chazelle’s love letter to cinema and filmmaking that he had begun in la la land, but i think it also allowed him to depict los angeles in a completely different light than he had in this film; and honestly, it’s a bit sad. if babylon is a nightmarishly realistic depiction of los angeles, then la la land is a “la vie en rose” version of it.
all of this is to say that each of these three films affects the other, and watching them in quick succession of each other will surely change your view of each of them. i think each of them in a way represent a different facet of chazelle’s filmmaking and directing, as well as hurwitz composing talents. i didn’t think it was possible, but having seen the rest of the films in chazelle & hurwitz’s partnership (first man excluded), i’ve somehow fallen in love with la la land even more.
tldr; in my eyes, guy and madeline on a park bench, la la land, and babylon are all interconnected and make for an amazing collection of films when watched together.
