Final moments of GUY AND MADELINE ON A PARK BENCH (Chazelle, 2009) |
Final moments of WHIPLASH (Chazelle, 2014) |
Final moments of LA LA LAND (Chazelle, 2016) |
For the last few weeks, Barry Jenkins' masterpiece MOONLIGHT and its
inspirations from THREE TIMES (Hou, 2005) and IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE (Wong, 2000)
to KILLER OF SHEEP (1977) were heavily on my mind. And I urge anyone who
still has not seen MOONLIGHT to give it a try (around here, it only
just hit theaters, in the US
it is already available on blu-ray and Netflix, so no excuses there)!
But now to the other greatly deserved - aside from the rather
complex issues of whitewashing both L.A. and jazz-saving - awards season darling LA LA LAND,
aspects of which I analyzed from
mid-December to February: I have finally put together three clips for a
soundtrack analysis in Swiss German magazine filmbulletin.ch. The German text (which you can find here) goes far
beyond the aspects analyzed in the videos. But since LA LA LAND is still in
theaters I have limited myself to officially available tracks and clips.
I/III A Lovely Night
Mia and Sebastian cross paths twice before they finally meet cute like
Gene Kelly and Debbie Reynolds in SINGIN' IN THE RAIN (Donen/Kelly, 1952) at a
pool party. Despite superficially despising each other, Seb walks Mia to her Toyota
Prius. On their way through Griffith
Park, Seb subtly segues into a singing about how nice this
view at dusk would be if only they were "some other girl and guy" who
could appreciate the moment together. After a few seconds, this turns out to be
an homage to the mating ritual of Mark Sandrich's RKO musicals with Ginger
Rogers and Fred Astaire. The only difference being that when Astaire woos Rogers in their so-called
"integrated" (i.e. off stage) musical numbers we accept them to be world class dancers
(and suave singers) because we know about their meta personae. LA LA LAND on the other hand follows all the same moves
while celebrating the "authentic" by keeping the protagonists'
singing and dancing abilities within reach of what these characters (i.e. rehearsed and well-trained amateurs) would be able to do.
Nevertheless, "A Lovely Night" is the only swing induced song
and in the "Summer Montage" version also serves as an ideal example
of how Damien Chazelle stages jazz performances. In all his films, Chazelle
depicts jazz as an extension of his male protagonist's mindset. And for
nonverbal jazz dialogue scenes he likes to use the "jazz whip", a
whip pan back and forth between musical dialogue partners.
II/III The Melancholy of Michel
Legrand
The Music of LA LA LAND in Context II/III: The Melancholy of Michel Legrand from Oswald Iten on Vimeo.
Writer-director Damien Chazelle and composer Justin Hurwitz have
repeatedly expressed their adoration for Jacques Demy's French new wave
musicals LES PARAPLUIES DE CHERBOURG (1963) and LES DEMOISELLES DE ROCHEFORT
(1967). Apart from direct references to the overarching structure of PARAPLUIES
and the opening dance sequence from DEMOISELLES, Hurwitz' music is very much
influenced by Michel Legrand whose scores for Demy are impregnated with his
trademark cheerful melancholy. Legrand usually builds his easy listening
arrangements out of a tight jazz rhythm section with piano and vibes that is
overlaid with a romantic orchestra, woodwind solos and sometimes a big band. In
this second video I focus on some of the more straight forward influences on
Hurwitz' music*.
III/III Internal Monologue
The deliberate artificiality of movie musicals allows for storytelling
devices that go beyond dialogue scenes. Instead of voice-over monologuing,
characters often sing about their innermost feelings and worries. One
particular genre convention is the interior monologue after a protagonist has
fallen in love. In WEST SIDE STORY, Tony belts out Maria's name in expectant
ecstasy, for example. In many movie musicals, however, these songs feel like
guarded introspective questions brought forth in a seamless transition from
dialogue to song, often in a solitary or indifferent environment. By means of a
clip from Stanley Donen's FUNNY FACE (1957, a film that LA LA LAND literally
references in the epilogue) where Audrey Hepburn sings in her own natural voice
- as opposed to the trained voice of Marni Nixon who dubbed all her singing in
MY FAIR LADY (Cukor, 1964) - we see how Chazelle and Hurwitz adapt this musical
staple into "It Happened at Dawn" (GUY AND MADELINE ON A PARK BENCH,
2009) and "City of Stars". Despite the superficially obvious
difference between Sebastian's "City of Stars" and Mia's "Someone in the
Crowd" the two interior monologue songs share surprisingly similar
structural elements. And considering the duet version of "City of Stars", both songs
express a solitary as well as an exuberant collective version of the same
interior feeling.
* In my opinion, Hurwitz' personal style of arranging and orchestrating is also heavily influenced by Danny Troob's orchestrations of Alan Menken's 1990s Disney scores.
* In my opinion, Hurwitz' personal style of arranging and orchestrating is also heavily influenced by Danny Troob's orchestrations of Alan Menken's 1990s Disney scores.
No comments:
Post a Comment