'La La Land' and the dream of reviving musical films

One of the brightest spots on Vietnamese screens in the last days of 2016 was the unexpected reception of La La Land (Vietnamese title: Dreaming fools) - a musical-style film that has never been easy to watch for the majority of Vietnamese audiences.

Although it has not become a "fever", the film has been in theaters for 4 weeks and is attracting more and more audiences after setting a record on January 9: Winning all 7 Golden Globe Awards for which it was nominated! Currently, theaters in Vietnam have added more screenings for it...

Below are 3 important characters that made La La Land successful - people that you will hear a lot about during the upcoming film association award season in the US and UK, as well as at the 2017 Oscars at the end of February.

Director Damien Chazelle

A talented jazz drummer himself, Damien Chazelle also has a strong passion for musical films. He came up with the idea for LaLa Land while he was a student at Harvard University, along with his classmate Justin Hurwitz. To pay homage to musical films and to make the idea known, Chazelle moved to Los Angeles to pursue his dream.

Dancing on the highway - a scene from the movie “La La Land”

Chazelle began writing the script for La La Land in 2010, when his film dreams were still out of reach. He persisted in pursuing the project for years, but no studio was willing to invest in new contemporary songs for the film. They only wanted the film to be based on popular songs that already had a fan base. On top of that, Chazelle wanted the songs in La La Land to be in the jazz genre - something The Hollywood Reporter considers "an extinct genre".

Chazelle put La La Land on hold to write the script for Whiplash, which was an easy sell and less risky investment. With only $3.3 million in production, Whiplash unexpectedly achieved a "huge" revenue of over $50 million worldwide, along with 5 Oscars and a bunch of other film awards. The unknown guy Damien Chazelle, overnight became one of the most investable names in Hollywood!

Immediately, the La La Land project he had been nurturing for five years began to attract the attention of film studios. Summit Entertainment and Black Label Media agreed to invest in the film and distribute it, along with producer Marc Platt, after studio executives were impressed by the critical and commercial success of Whiplash.

Then, Patrict Wachsberger of Lionsgate decided to increase the budget for La La Land at Chazelle's request, a budget that shocked everyone: $30 million for La La Land - 10 times the budget of his debut film Whiplash! And the rest as we know is history!

Actress Emma Stone

Emma Stone plays Mia, a barista at a Warner Bros. studio complex who has ambitions of becoming a stage actress. Stone herself has loved music since childhood, going to see Les Misérables when she was eight, and later said that "it was always a dream come true to burst into song."

She studied Pom Dancing as a child, with a year of ballet. At 15, she moved to Hollywood with her mother to pursue her career, and tried her best to get into auditions, many of which she was rejected for singing a line or saying a line… Emma Stone borrowed many real-life experiences for her character Mia, some of which were later incorporated into the film La La Land.

'La La Land' Director - Hollywood's New Genius

Damiel Chazelle (31 years old) is a shy filmmaker, but he is increasingly asserting himself in this year's awards season with his latest film, La La Land.

Emma Stone met Chazelle in 2014 when she made her Broadway debut in Cabaret. Chazelle and Hurwitz traveled to New York to see her perform the night she caught a cold. The two met at the Brooklyn Diner, where the director outlined his vision for the upcoming film.

It wasn't until Emma Stone achieved success during her run in Cabaret that she began talking seriously to Chazelle about the La La Land project, and seemed to gain the director's immediate trust.

She eventually accepted the offer because Chazelle was so passionate about the project. To prepare for her role, Emma Stone watched a number of films that provided inspiration for the film, including the French film The Umbrellas Of Cherbourg, and especially classic films by the legendary dance duo Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.

Actor Ryan Gosling

Ryan Gosling plays Sebastian, a jazz pianist who makes a living playing potlucks at a seedy bar and dreams of opening his own club. Like Emma Stone, Gosling brings real-life experiences from his own auditions to the film.

One detail that was included in the film was the scene where Mia was sobbing during her audition, when the casting director called and talked about his lunch plans, causing Mia to lose her emotions and lose the role!

Chazelle met Gosling at a bar near his home in the Hollywood Hills, while Gosling was filming The Big Short. Chazelle auditioned both Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling, and their chemistry made him "feel like he was looking at a classic Hollywood couple like Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, or Myrna Loy and William Powell.

La La Land marks the third collaboration between Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone, after Crazy, Stupid, Love (2011) and Gangster Squad (2013). When Chazelle asked the two what the scariest and most difficult thing about auditioning for La La Land was, they both said, learning how to sing, dance and act in all six main tunes of the film.

According to TT&VH