EDITORIAL

D

ear Mr Chazelle,
I’m writing from Italy’s deep South, the “heel” of Italy, from a beautiful region called Puglia, surrounded by two seas.

Like a great many cinema-goers all over the world, I went to see your film, La La Land, and found it magnificent. There’s nothing surprising about that: the film received enthusiastic reviews from the world’s most reputable critics, great interest from the media, an overwhelming popularity and armloads of prizes. And for many people, the mistaken announcement of the Oscar for Best Film remains a sort of indisputable foregone conclusion, in spite of the many qualities of Moonlight.

The experts have analyzed every passage, every scene of your film, recognizing the numerous homages – even with nearly identical shots or costumes – to musicals of the past, especially of the Fifties and Sixties, from Singin’ in the rain to The band wagon, to Funny Face; from West Side Story to Le demoiselles de Rochefort through to Grease, of 1978, and to Moulin Rouge, of 2001. A journey that reveals a thorough knowledge of the genre but, far from producing “a copy”, has generated a totally new, original, unique work.

But what surprised me, Mr Chazelle, especially since you are only 32 years old – and therefore not a nostalgic old fogey – is that you went back to giving us something that seemed to have disappeared. A simple story, without excess, a romantic story of two common people, who however have the sensational charisma of Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone, who give their characters, Sebastian and Mia, a depth that will win them a place among the legendary movie couples like Rossella O’Hara and Rhett Butler or Lara and Zivago. 

The story of La La Land is one that the dancing and magical scenic design transport into a dreamworld but that stays firmly anchored to reality and to the practical, psychological situations of any couple. The charm of the film lies in this brilliant balance between dream and reality, in the ability to make a common story special, in this brazen new romanticism – totally against the grain – and yet so balanced that it is never, never corny.

Watching La La Land was cathartic; I think many of us realized how sick we were of splatter, of the 50 shades of soft-pop sadism, of special effects and of a kind of cinema that, in attempting to amplify everything, ends up making every drama trivial. 

What surprised me, Mr Chazelle, is that in an America where the worst of every thing is triumphing, from insolence to racism, there is a young director like you who is capable of dreaming and of making us dream.

An aspect of your film that cannot go unmentioned is the marvelous soundtrack by Justin Hurwitz. Here, too, seemingly simple tunes of great charm go straight to the heart. Also worth mentioning is the surprise ending to Mia and Sebastian’s story, the “vision” of the protagonist, who for one long moment, imagines “the other life” that the sliding doors of destiny have precluded.

La La Land is also capable of making Los Angeles magical. Previously it has been the perfect background mainly for disturbing films: think of Blade Runner, sublime but bleak, or Falling Down. Who would have thought it could be transformed into the legendary City of Stars of the pier where Gosling sings at sunset, or the enchanting view of Griffith Park, in front of which he and Stone dance in the lamplight, or the rousing opening scene where a traffic jam becomes a pretext for an enthusiastic dance in which they sing the praises of  “another day of sun”.

And what about the beautiful lyrics of Audition (The fools who dream), in praise of artists, painters, poets, rebels, all the dreamers and the mess they make. 

Hats off to you.

Being fully aware of belonging to the ranks of the fools who dream, I am officially inviting you, with Bridge Puglia USA, which for years has nurtured relations between Puglia and the US, to come and visit our region and consider it as a location for your next film.

Puglia is endowed with a magic that I’m sure you, with your sensitivity, would capture in all its nuances. This might be the setting where your creativity and talent could create another memorable film.  

Here’s to the ones who dream / Foolish, as they may seem