Group 4: Los Angeles Final
Group Four: Nina Hang, Gabrielle Gallante, Sam Moran
Professor Awomolo
October 5th 2019
Description of La La Land:
‘La La Land’ is a fabricated term for “being out of touch with reality.” It also happens to be a nickname for Los Angeles, California. Los Angeles is known to be the City of Dreams, the City of Angels, a city blessed and cursed with a glorious dream and façade of hopes, glitter sprinkled on top if its sprawling expanse. It is a city without a center, a city with a rich and fabled past often bestowed with nostalgic memories not entirely based on fact; an erasure of memory.” (Fernandez, 2019). La La Land the movie portrays alike fantasy. This movie describes the idyllic version of Los Angeles. In 2016, this American romantic-drama-comedy-musical was directed by Damien Chazelle. The main characters in the film, Sebastian (Ryan Gosling) a jazz pianist, and Mia (Emma Stone) an ambitious actress meet in the city and fall in love. This happens all while on the pursuit of their dreams. The characters are drawn to each other for the sole fact that they are both on the same mission to make it big in Los Angeles. But as fate has it, as soon as fame begins to emerge, the dreams they have worked so hard to achieve will be the cause of their romantic demise.
In the film, some issues of city living are expressed but they are shown in a positive light.
As shown in this clip of the opening scene, the issue of traffic, that is associated with Los Angeles, is shown in the opening scene as the cast dances between bumper to bumper traffic. This is pretty unrealistic in but it contributes to the facade the movie is trying to conclude. The characters burst out into song on bright-colored, vintage cars with dance sets on clean, graffiti painted streets and theater stages decorated with vibrant props, intricate set design and extras who are too enthusiastic to be real. The main characters are called dreamers, finding themselves catching each other again and again at charming bars, backyard pool parties and bustling restaurants drowning out all any problems with jazzy, brass instruments. The overall tone of this film is romantic, allowing the viewer to see Los Angeles through rose colored glasses. The landscapes of La La Land are open and bright, encouraging its inhabitants to dance along sidewalks and sing their hearts out. Everything is perfect in this version of Los Angeles, each and every one of its residents is just another dreamer finding their footing and along the way, falling in love.
Description of L.A. Confidential:
L.A. Confidential takes a much different approach to describe Los Angeles. The film begins by mocking the idealized description many outsiders have of Los Angeles. Instead, it shows how these beliefs make the town a perfect area for crime, especially organized crime, flourish. The film comments on the regularity of police misconduct, a problem still plaguing cities today. It shows how officers are misled by payoffs and are encouraged to lie to protect themselves and other officers in legal matters. The film also shows how officers racial biases play out in their arrests. Violence and unprofessionalism are displayed by depicting a scene where the officers team up to beat up in-coming inmates who supposedly roughed up one of their coworkers. Issues of police misconduct ran rampant in cities and are often swept under the rug. It seems important to display that side of Los Angeles, even if it is not as charming as the city La La Land displays.
The film L.A. Confidential emphasizes a stark contrast from this romantic view by revealing what is actually hidden underneath the glamor and charm of celebrity Hollywood. Most of its scenes are set with the grimy, dark streets of Los Angeles, beautiful, cunning and seductive women, the grey and brown tones of the L.A. police precinct, the grueling reality of corruption in law enforcement and a myriad of scenes littered with bloody violence, seduction and deceit. As you can see in the movie poster (Handson, 1997), the dark edges, and defined crime thrill. The characters in this film are the bad guys themselves, bringing with them anxiety, tension and suspense, instilling a sense of uneasy environment in every space and person they come across. The landscapes of the film include dull, tight spaces that further the viewer’s feelings of uncomfortability, pushing the scenes’ dramatic disposition with neo-noir styled cinematography.
Real Elements of Los Angeles:
Economics:
When the state of California struck gold in 1848, the ideals of old age colonization traveled from East to West. Looking for another get-rich-quick scheme in order to attain the American Dream was a common thread amongst the flocks of Caucasian crowds who grew tired of urbanized civilizations populated with too many black and brown bodies. Los Angeles deemed to be a great hotspot for opportunity and growth for gold diggers and dreamers; now called corporations and starving artists. They sought out ways to emigrate towards lands untouched by urban renewal and economic development, destroying whole communities and environments with new innovative ideas to create a better, comfortable world for the rich and white. These ideas included excavating once healthy, thriving grounds and forests, establishing hip and trendy businesses and even settling down with the most powerful film industry in the world; each development excluding more people of color and people living in poverty with every new coffee shop and luxury apartment building.
What once was acres of forests by the beach became a bustling city populated with millions of mover and shakers or families who are just down on their luck. Before any shred of development in the West was even thinkable, newcomers with all kinds of backgrounds in different professions were actively looking for the next big thing. What was going to be the groundbreaking idea that would revolutionize the world forever? They came up with Hollywood.
Economic changes can be seen in La La Land with the closure of the movie theater, which goes from a grand structure to a then subpar venue that only supports small live plays with low attendance. This was most likely during the economic swing of the 1950s-1960’s. Another relation that can be made is in LA Confidential where the whole movie is based in the era where Los Angeles was trying to market itself once again as a destination meanwhile crime rates were significant due to the 1950’s-1960’s disinvestment.
Gentrification plays a substantial role in these two identities, beginning with the stark decline in minority populations and the booming emergence of the white and rich throughout the 1950s and onward. The growing popularity of television and low taxes on the film industry during this time pushed for white faces on screen, creating jobs exclusively for the privileged race. This example draws similar parallels to Rebecca Solnit’s article on the tech industry in San Francisco where the educated youth monopolized the city’s workforce, forcing low skill and uneducated populations to blighted slums: breeding grounds for illegal activity with little to no access for economic growth or academic opportunity. Other examples like the California Gold Rush of 1848 or white flight and urban renewal in the 1960s further the claim that Los Angeles has always been the city of segregation.
According to the U.S. Census Tract, the population in Los Angeles has doubled in size between 1950 and 2018, an increase of approximately 2 million people. Today, the city’s inhabitants are primarily made up of young, white Caucasians in their mid-20s; the white race being 2 million people. As one of the most populous cities in the United States, Los Angeles ranks high in poor communities with a poverty rate of 20.36 percent. The majority of households living in poverty are black and Hispanic families, whose high populations inhabited South California long before a majority white population emerged.
Culture:
According to Webster dictionary, culture has two meanings, ”the customs, arts, social institutions, and achievements of a particular nation, people, or other social group.” and “the arts and other manifestations of human intellectual achievement regarded collectively.” The purpose of this definition is to illustrate the two types of cultural impacts each assigned film has.
The reason why culture is one of the elements that matters most is because in La La Land jazz music is heavily mentioned. Some of the movie is narrated around jazz, and its progression. Throughout the duration of the movie, Sebastian, one of the main characters has a ravishing passion towards jazz music, it’s history and culture. He continues to explain the significance of the jazz music and how it has impacted his life. He proceeds to provide brief historical facts about many jazz artists and how the culture came to be. Sebastian also stresses why it needs to be preserved in present day. The passion towards this musical culture stands out.There are scenes in the movie that take place in jazz clubs. The picture being portrayed is the lively jazz night club culture that was popular during the prohibition era.
L.A. Confidential portrays a different outlook on culture. This film is considered a “Neo-noir film” which relates to the revival of the film noir genre. The significance of this genre highlights the glamorous Hollywood crime dramas, that mostly include ill and twisted dark wit with updated themes, content, and visual elements. This film culture relates to the perception of Los Angeles and its darker movie era. When discussing Los Angeles and Hollywood, many people have this presumption of the Old Hollywood lifestyle and this is the genre they are referencing. Throughout the film, there are many indications of this culture, since the movie takes place in the early 1950’s, it embodies impoverished neighborhoods filled with violence and crime.
Social Interactions:
The films La La Land and L.A. Confidential reveal two sides to a glimmering yet grimy Hollywood. In La La Land, Los Angeles was the place to be for aspiring musicians and artists; gleaming scenes decorated with vibrant props and beautiful, happy people revealed that the city is a dream, a love story dressed in fairy tales and musical numbers. Many viewers of this film described it as “white-washed jazz”, tying it to the dramatic yet true display of L.A. Confidential’s Los Angeles. The film’s scenes are an uneasy monochromatic grey and brown in uncomfortable, dangerous or serious areas and a satisfying dark red in nightclubs with glamor shots of beautiful women. Besides its drama and intensity, L.A. Confidential sheds light over many things that are left unseen today like the immoral under-workings of criminal policemen covered by the facade of justice or low-income slums located in the same city as multi-million dollar mansions.
There are too many ugly realities being hidden behind wondrous, glamorous, false success. Social Interactions in Urban Public Spaces by Caroline Holland uses a good example of this in Chapter 4 when observing the kinds of people that interact with certain spaces and how some developments can actually prevent groups like the poor and homeless from staying. We see this in today’s inhumane designs of park benches divided by arm rests in three or four parts, preventing the homeless from sleeping there or spikes on tree branches to keep birds from pooping on hundred-thousand dollar luxury vehicles. In La La Land, issues like these are never relevant because they are hidden. When interviewing local residents regarding the success of a public space in their area, many of the neighbors complained about foreign troublemakers ruining the aesthetic of their community landmark. It is always an outsider issue rather than a problem starting with the ideals of a community and the public opinion of who actually belongs. The inside community, no matter what argument made against them, will never be wrong in their own eyes. To them, the pre-existing issues in the area have been solved but in reality, have just been pushed farther away. L.A. Confidential gracefully proves this by displaying the ins and outs of a broken system, highlighting what the public is meant to see and think then squashing that romanticized idea with a hard truth.
Film Compared to Reality
A comparison between our observations of the films and our study into the reality of the city of Los Angeles reveals some stark differences and a few accurate depictions. One major issue in the films was the lack of representation of nonwhite residents. Los Angeles is a multicultural hub with a large Hispanic and Latino population. The large majority of the actors in the films are white. The few minorities represented are shown only as background characters. For example in La La Land Mia’s roommates are not all white but that is where the majority of the limited representation comes from. LA Confidential has predominantly white stars but does show the struggle of the Hispanic and black population living in Los Angeles. Both films could have done significantly better jobs demonstrating the true racial makeup of the city.
The most recent census information shows the reality of Los Angeles’s racial makeup. The census information reveals that nearly half of the population, 48.7%, is Hispanic or Latino origin (U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts). There is also a significant Asian population, 11.7% (U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts). Finally, there is also a notable Black population at 8.9% (U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts). None of these races were accurately or favorably shown in the films. There was an especially small amount of representation of the Asian Population. This lack of representation was one of the more unsettling oversights of the films.
One of the more accurately depicted issues of Los Angeles was the issue of income. The overcrowded city has unusually high living costs and many of the community members who move their struggle to make ends meet. The economic issues of the city are reflected in La La Land in the character’s money struggles. The lead characters in the film, Mia and Sebastian, struggle to make ends meet. They work underpaid jobs that do not offer the ability to move up and inhibit them from being able to follow their dreams. Sebastian is forced to play a setlist of uninspired Christmas songs for small amounts of tips in a restaurant. Mia works on a movie lot as a barista, serving the stars she dreams of becoming one day. The characters living situations reflect this too, Mia lives in an apartment with three roommates. Sebastian’s home is small and shabby. In LA Confidential we see the reality of lower-income neighborhoods and their interactions with the police through dramatic fight scenes within the jail. This is a dramatically different reality than the one portrayed in La La Land which comments on the issue of income inequality with a lighthearted tone.
La La Land, specifically, did a wonderful job of reflecting the high paced, rapidly changing city of Los Angeles. The film portrays the lack of certainty both characters feel in their jobs and futures. Along with that, we see the changing of the city around them. A majority of the film is spent following Sebastian’s desire for “the good old days” of jazz and Hollywood. He feels a deep attachment to the iconic jazz bar that hosted many of the greats. He is heartbroken and distraught over its quick removal to become a trendy samba and tapas restaurant, a common plight of city dwellers.
L.A. Confidential’s storytelling did a better job reflecting the grittier side of Los Angeles, something La La Land and many other depictions skim over. The film dives into the reality of police corruption in the 50’s. It highlights how the police acted unprofessionally and targeted specific minorities. This racially charged targeting resulted in incorrect assumptions about who committed the “night owl murders”. This incorrect assumption had deadly consequences resulting in the three mens deaths. This harsh reality of police corruption was an accurate depiction of the biases of the time, not only in Los Angeles, but throughout the country. L.A. Confidential is unafraid to comment on the less than ideal aspects of Los Angeles that La La Land, both literally and metaphorically, danced around.
Culturally the films both do a decent job of reflecting the ambiance that Los Angeles aims to create and the reality of this. LA Confidential’s opening scene does a wonderful job showing the stark difference between the public’s perception of the city of Los Angeles and the reality of a crime-ridden town. La La Land does a good job of this also by placing dramatic scenes in the middle of mundane daily activities. In a similar situation as LA confidential, La La Land uses its opening scene to show this divide. The dramatic and colorful opening number sits starkly in the middle of one of the city’s biggest issues, traffic. These films use the setting of Los Angeles to their advantage when it is convenient for them, but it is not always the most accurate portrayal. Overall, the films capture very narrow views of the city and crucial elements are left out.
Works Cited
Chazelle, Damien, director. La La Land . YouTube, ScreenWeek TV | , 2017, www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVVqlm8Fq3Y.
“Culture.” Merriam-Webster, Merriam-Webster, www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/culture.
Fernandez, Allie. “The LA History Archive- A Resource to Explore Southern California History through Primary Sources, Research Projects, and Illustrated Timelines. History of Los Angeles.” The LA History Archive, 2019, lahistoryarchive.socalstudio.org/.
Handson, Curtis, director. L.A. Confidential . YouTube, 2014, youtu.be/6sOXrY5yV4g.
“L.A. Confidential.” IMDb, IMDb.com, 19 Sept. 1997, www.imdb.com/title/tt0119488/.
“Los Angeles Population.” World Population Review, 28 Aug. 2019, worldpopulationreview.com/us-cities/los-angeles-population/. Accessed 29 Sept. 2019.
“Wilshire Grand Center.” Wilshire Grand Center, www.wilshiregrandcenter.com/.
“U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts: Los Angeles City, California.” Census Bureau QuickFacts, 2018, www.census.gov/quickfacts/losangelescitycalifornia.