APRIL 2020 | TOTAL FILM
LIONSGATEThe 42-day shoot took in 60
locations, as jazz pianist Sebastian
(Gosling) and aspiring actress Mia
(Stone) fall head over heels in love
and then try to protect that love as their
careers take off. Chazelle liked that his
stars had already shared the screen in
Crazy, Stupid, Love and Gangster Squad
(“They feel like the closest thing that
we have to an old Hollywood couple,
like Spencer Tracy and Katharine
Hepburn or Fred and Ginger”), and felt
their authentic chemistry and emoting
trumped any technical shortcomings in
the hoofing and crooning departments.
It was a view shared by
choreographer Mandy Moore, who
took a similar approach when she
orchestrated the climactic dance in
Silver Linings Playbook. The single-shot
ethos asked a lot of the stars, and
nobody minded when Stone stumbled
over the bench in one of the many
takes it took to sing ‘A Lovely Night’
while gliding across the screen.
Audiences would connect if they could
relate was the theory, so Mary Zophres’
costumes eschewed couture to be
income-appropriate – Mia’s colour-
blocked dresses might have been
plucked from H&M.
And relate people did. La La Land
took $446m from a $30m budget, won
six Oscars from 14 nominations, and
made millions of cinema-goers dance
into the night, hopelessly in love...
much like Mia and Sebastian in this
instantly iconic scene. JG