“La La Land”, by Damien Chazelle, boasts wonderful cinematography by Linus Sandgren and extraordinary music by Justin Hurwitz (with lyrics by Pasek and Paul). Emma Stone gives an amazing performance and Ryan Gosling plays one mean piano. The directing, however, could use some work. This is a fastidious video essay about it, an analysis of three musical numbers, pointing out each tiny visual imperfection.

Chazelle has all the right references (“The Young Girls of Rochefort”, “An American in Paris”, “The Band Wagon” and then some), but there is something missing in his directing.

In this video essay, we’ll examine what doesn’t work in La La Land’s opening number, “Another Day of Sun”. It's mostly framing issues and bad choreography. You’ll see how that scene doesn’t look at all like a classical musical spectacle, but a little bit too much like an indie band video clip.

We’ll go through some scenes of “Brigadoon”, by Vincente Minnelli, the greatest musical director of all time, to show how masterfully he can frame his players and move his camera resulting in shots rich with harmony, precision and perfection. When Chazelle imitated him more overtly in the Epilogue, it was beautiful.

You’ll see why the first part of “Someone in the Crowd” works and why the second doesn’t. A snippet of Kenneth Branagh’s “Much Ado About Nothing” will illustrate something.

And the video will finish off by going through “A Lovely Night”, which isn’t bad visually (mostly) but continues the film’s habit of bad choreography. It truly is a waste of a lovely night. Why must they move so slow?!

And here’s a new important term:
COAT: Center Of ATtention
It’s what your eyes aim at on screen for a specific moment. A director is supposed to control you, the viewer, and guide your eyes through COATs. Let’s see if Damien Chazelle pulled it off in “La La Land”. Minnelli definetely did.

00:00 La La Land
01:47 Another Day of Sun
07:31 Brigadoon
10:14 Someone in the Crowd
14:21 A Lovely Night


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