Venice opens with Damien Chazelle’s film “La La Land”
Author: Gianfranco Missiaja
At 7pm of 31 August was inaugurated the 73rd Venice Film Festival with the presentation of the movie schedule, of the various sections and their juries. In the “Sala Grande”, it was chosen for opening the Damien Chazelle’s film, “La La Land”.
It is basically a musical romance set in the United States with some references to Paris. It inspires optimism and joie de vivre from the opening scenes when drivers and passengers of a row of vehicles still in the column on the highway instead of cussing started to get out of their cars dancing and singing.
That will also be the moment when the two main characters will meet for the first time in an overtaking by him and her raised middle finger gesture.
By this time takes shape the music and ballet, very striking and sometimes surreal, like when flying into a starry night sky or over the Seine River in Paris. The different actions of the love story are punctuated by the passing of the 4 seasons that will appear in the credits to emphasise the time passing.
The two main characters, after being in love, they leave with a great and selfless spirit in pursuit of their dreams: he in the field of jazz music, she in the show becoming a major and renowned personality.
This step is really poetic the interpretation of the specimen of the aspiring actress who is tasked to come up with a story to interpret. She tells the story of the aunt who tries to commit suicide several times and where it seems to paraphrase the historic phrase “stay foolish” by Steve Jobs, when urges, in the words of her aunt, to chase their own dreams and fantasies. The foolishness must find its own space in life to be worth living.
The film ends with a call to reality: the two interpreters have chosen different paths and she is married to another man with children. Coincidentally, while in the car with the new husband, she takes a different route to prevent a column of cars: that will lead the couple at a club where, fatality, in a jazz band plays his old flame.
The two protagonists look each other and imagination takes over. You see him to get up from the piano, she leans over and kissing him they flee together hand in hand. You then view them in their house to greet their children and go right into that same club. Here reality comes back where she is married to another man and his former love, in front of her, ends up playing the piano: it was just fantasy.
A film shot with mastery of the camera that knows how to express the great feelings of the female protagonist: a simple figure who manages to convey her emotions effectively. Very impressive music and the dancers’ performance that accompany the film.
