La La Land Is a Hit, but Is It Good for Jazz?
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La La Land Is a Hit, but Is It Good for Jazz? Krin Gabbard Abstract: The debates around La La Land (2016) tell us a great deal about the state of jazz today and perhaps even in the near future. Many critics have charged that the film has very little real jazz, while oth- ers have emphasized the racial problematics of making the white hero a devout jazz purist while char- acterizing the music of the one prominent African American performer (John Legend) as all glitz and tacky dance moves. And finally, there is the speech in which Seb (Ryan Gosling) blithely announces that “jazz is dead.” But the place of jazz in La La Land makes more sense if we view the film as a response to and celebration of several film musicals, including New York, New York (1977), the Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers films, and especially Jacques Demy’sThe Young Girls of Rochefort (1967). Both La La Land and Demy’s film connect utopian moments with jazz, and push the boundaries of the classical Hollywood musical in order to celebrate the music. Damien Chazelle, a serious jazz aficionado since childhood, has made the music central to both the plot and the score of his filmLa La Land (2016). If nothing else, the omnipresence of jazz in a film so widely honored suggests that jazz still has some resonance with audiences. But like almost every other American film that would represent jazz, La La Land runs smack up against racial issues. The film’s appropriation of jazz in the face of the music’s complicated racial histories has driven a backlash against the film.1 Critics objected to the prominence of two white stars in a film about that krin gabbard is an Adjunct uniquely African American cultural practice, jazz. Professor of Jazz Studies at Co- To make matters worse, Keith (John Legend), the lumbia University. He is the au- one important black character in the film, creates thor of Better Git It in Your Soul: commodified pop music and even features tacky An Interpretive Biography of Charles dance routines in his stage shows. Mingus (2016), Hotter than That: Although I found much of the film exhilarating The Trumpet, Jazz, and American Culture (2008), and Black Magic: and moving, I am more than a little uncomfort- White Hollywood and African Amer- able with La La Land’s racial politics. Neverthe- ican Culture (2004) and editor of less, I argue that the film navigates some treacher- Jazz Among the Discourses (1995). ous waters with intelligence and charm and that it © 2019 by the American Academy of Arts & Sciences doi:10.1162/DAED_a_01745 92 ultimately makes a strong case that jazz Chazelle had this scene in mind when ar- Krin does indeed still matter. ranging La La Land’s opening song “An- Gabbard other Day of Sun” to be passed from one Any understanding of La La Land as motorist to another as they step out of a “jazz film” must begin by situating it their cars to sing in the middle of a gigan- within larger traditions. A work of pro- tic traffic jam. found cinephilia, La La Land references A more crucial influence onLa La Land multiple films, most of them in the mu- is the work of the French director Jacques sical comedy genre. But Chazelle does Demy. In interviews, Chazelle regularly more than just quote from classical mu- singles out Demy’s The Umbrellas of Cher- sicals, and he makes no attempt to recre- bourg (1964) as his favorite film. The use ate their aesthetics. As he has said in in- of bold colors for costumes, interiors, and terviews, Chazelle was as devoted to seri- even cityscapes in La La Land recalls the ously representing the emotional lives of look of Demy’s film, as does an emotion- his characters as he was to paying homage ally charged conclusion in which the lov- to American musical cinema. He wanted ers are not reunited. Demy’s The Young Girls “to smash into that old-fashioned mu- of Rochefort (1967) also comes up in Cha- sical logic” by finding magic in the “grit zelle’s interviews. As in Umbrellas, actors and texture” of everyday life.2 sing in a quickly articulated style with a A catalog of the many films and cin- conversational tone, much like the vocals ematic traditions that Chazelle has ad- of French performers Charles Aznavour dressed in La La Land should start with and Jacques Brel. “Another Day of Sun” his joking reference to Frank Tashlin’s features several actors singing in English The Girl Can’t Help It (1956). At the very but imitating the conversational style of beginning of La La Land, the outer edg- the songs in Demy’s films. And like the es of a square space containing the word agile motorists at the beginning of Cha- “Cinemascope” suddenly expand to the zelle’s film, actors seem to spontaneously traditional wide-screen ratio, recalling break into singing and dancing through- the opening scene of Tashlin’s film in out Young Girls. In Umbrellas, of course, no which actor Tom Ewell appears to phys- one ever stops bursting into song. ically push the walls of the image to the The soundtrack of La La Land has much outer edges of the screen. Chazelle has in common with the scores that French claimed another minor bit of inspiration, composer Michel Legrand wrote for De- admitting that “Another Day of Sun,” the my’s films. Justin Hurwitz, who played production number that follows the Cin- in a band with Chazelle when they were emascope gag, was based on the scene teenagers and has composed the music in Rouben Mamoulian’s Love Me Tonight for all four of Chazelle’s films, has talk- (1932) that begins with Maurice Cheva- ed about his borrowings from Legrand’s lier singing “Isn’t It Romantic” in a sim- cinematic compositions. The best exam- ple tailor’s shop. Different groups of peo- ple may be Legrand’s practice of record- ple hear the song and sing it themselves ing a jazz trio of piano, bass, and drums so that anyone passing by can also pick it in front of a symphony orchestra. The up. Thanks primarily to a singing troupe music behind “Another Day of Sun” is of soldiers marching across the country, an excellent example of how Hurwitz the song is finally passed to Jeanette Mac- has made use of this practice. As a devot- Donald, who gives it her own operatic in- ed jazz enthusiast, Legrand regularly bor- terpretation from high up in her chateau. rowed from great American traditions. 148 (2) Spring 2019 93 La La Land Chazelle and Hurwitz have paid off that to sacrifice some of the surface sheen of Is a Hit, debt with their own tributes to Legrand. the conventional Hollywood film. So, but Is It Good for when Mia joins Seb at the piano for a Jazz? Chazelle has also mined the rich veins short performance of “City of Stars,” of American musical comedy, especially when Mia briefly sings “Someone in the the well-established trope of soon-to-be Crowd” in a lady’s room, and when Mia lovers transcending early stages of hos- sings her climactic aria, “The Fools Who tility through dance and song. We see Dream,” they are singing in real time and, this in the Fred Astaire and Ginger Rog- as in the dance sequences, without edits. ers filmTop Hat (1935), for which Cha- Although directors can do as many re- zelle has expressed admiration. Chazelle takes as they wish in these situations, has also spoken of his affection for Singin’ the performers take great risks when in the Rain (1952), another film in which they present themselves live and unedit- an attractive couple are joined in song ed. In some ways, Gosling and Stone are and dance before finding romance on the like jazz musicians flying above the music other side of their initial antagonism. In without a net. terms of mise-en-scène, La La Land prom- There are not many examples in cin- inently looks back to Hollywood musi- ema of actors singing in real time, but a cals in “Epilogue,” the long production few that do exist are worth mentioning. number that closes the film and recalls For Pierrot le fou (1965), Jean-Luc God- the stylized, color-drenched scene de- ard recorded Jean-Paul Belmondo and signs for the extended ballet sequences Anna Karina singing outdoors, mak- that conclude An American in Paris (1951) ing sure that their vocals reflected their and The Band Wagon (1953). body movements, including the moment To their credit, Chazelle and actors when Belmondo continues singing as he Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling labored to jumps down from a tree. This is as good create the seamless dance numbers that an example as any of Godard’s project of distinguish many of Hollywood’s classic exposing and problematizing the con- musicals. Compare the extended dance ventions of dominant cinema. In a com- takes of Mia (Stone) and Seb (Gosling) pletely different appropriation of this tra- with the screen performances of Fred dition, Anne Hathaway laboriously tugs Astaire, who insisted on long, unedited at our heart strings when she exudes takes when his dances were filmed. Then “I Dreamed a Dream” live and in tight compare these sequences to the numbers close-up in Les Misérables (2012). in a film such as Rob Marshall’sChicago Robert Altman’s Short Cuts (1993) also (2002), which are cobbled together from deserves mention for one of the most el- numerous shots, few of which last more egant performances ever by a singer- than a second or two.