In ‘The Aesthetics of Form and Convention in the Movie Musical’, Timothy Scheurer defines the musical as ‘a highly stylised representation of life where the reality is not revealed through the actions we normally associate with everyday living, but where a different mode of reality, the inner reality of feelings, emotions and instincts, are given metaphoric and symbolic expression through the means of music and dance’ (1974, 308). Scheurer points out that the aim the musical seeks to pursue is to harmoniously bring and merge together two worlds: a world in which it is natural to sing and dance about something when the feeling arises, or it is required, and the banal world of human problems (1974, 309).

Taking Scheurer’s claim as a starting point, discuss the extent to which it can be argued that the musical genre’s basic contradiction between the real and the expressive is acknowledged and resolved in one film musical of your choice. You may choose a musical screened as part of the module.

The musical genre provides escapism for audiences through spontaneous, expressive song and dance that allow insight into characters’ thoughts and feelings. These performances give rise to a ‘finely balanced interplay and synthesis’ between the musical and non-musical sequences, as outlined by Scheurer; this merging of two worlds (Scheuer, 1974, 308-9) is a pivotal convention of the integrated musical form. This is evidenced in Academy Award winning La La Land (Chazelle, 2016), and this essay will argue that the film’s adherence to the integrated subgenre, its postmodern nature and unconventional narrative resolution allows the text to acknowledge and resolve the musical genre’s basic contradiction between the real and the expressive, whilst employing methods to render the form appropriate for the modern- day audience.

Prior to analysing this contradiction within La La Land, the historical context must be discussed. Characters sporadically bursting into song, a convention audiences grew accustomed to after its entrenchment in the Astaire-Rogers musicals of the 1930s (Berliner, 2017, 208), is prevalent in the first act of La La Land. Yet, the 1960s saw the fall of Hollywood film musicals and their key feature due to ‘both the internal machinations of Hollywood and the external shifts in American society’ (Kennedy, 2015). Nonetheless, the opening number of Damien Chazelle’s musical feature, as stated in Variety, ‘unabashedly announces that it is an integrated musical’ (Burlingame, 2017). The musical numbers integrated into La La Land’s narrative are ‘artistic expressions of love and desire’ (Grant et al. 2001, 158). Another Day of Sun embodies the latter; a musical number which contributes to - in this case, establishing - the spirit or theme (Mueller, 1984, 28) - this theme being the relationship between reality and dreams - what people have vs. what they want (Jack’s Movie Reviews, 2017). The number takes place on a Los Angeles highway during a traffic jam, as this ‘banal world of human problems’ (Scheurer, 1974, 309) transforms and plunges viewers into a utopian environment belonging to a fantastical, idealised world. Richard Dyer argues, “Entertainment offers the image of ‘something better’ to escape into (...) Alternative, hopes, wishes - these are the stuff of utopia” (Dyer, 2002, 20) and the opening number is the film’s first instance of acknowledging the real vs. the expressive as the characters begin to spontaneously sing about achieving their dreams. The following six minutes of screen-time are filled with an elaborate, ensemble dance sequence, featuring a visual style that uses Panavision 35mm film, CinemaScope, long takes, and wide and long shots - drawing inspiration from Busby Berkeley’s filmography (see Figure 1 and Figure 2). The audience are immediately transported from their mundane, everyday lives into a utopian environment reminiscent of Hollywood’s Golden Age, in line with Richard Dyer’s theory. Chazelle is challenging the modern-day audience to accept and celebrate the expressive, unconventional nature of the musical genre through use of the integrated form, allowing a merging of two worlds: one where it is ‘natural to sing and dance about something when the feeling arises’ and the ‘banal world of human problems’ (Scheurer, 1974, 309).

However, whilst La La Land features this integration of songs and narrative - a rare approach for a modern-day musical - the film simultaneously dismisses elements of the integrated subgenre in favour of conforming to various trends of the 21st century musical. Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone are both non-singers and non-dancers, adhering to the fact that, in the post- musical era, it is rare for performers to train for years to appear only in musicals. This works in Chazelle’s favour as it means the lead actors have not been ‘tasked with effortlessness’ and the numbers are not pristine nor perfect (Koresky, 2017, 43); ultimately resulting in more realistic performances and smoother transitions from narrative into song. Such attributes are most notable in songs A Lovely Night, City of Stars and Audition (The Fools Who Dream) and aid the film in merging the two worlds of the real and the expressive (Scheurer, 1974, 309). Emma Stone’s modest, breathy vocals take inspiration from those of Audrey Hepburn. This furthers the creation of nostalgia the film strives to emulate and allows for a natural progression from dialogue into song. Audition (The Fools Who Dream) is particularly evident of this: Mia attends a call-back audition where she is asked to tell a story; she begins quietly speaking a plaintive monologue - vocal fry evident - and slowly moves into an acapella ballad. The lack of a powerful voice allows for an almost seamless transition into the poignant musical number, justified due to the audition setting and Mia’s role as an artist. Therefore, La La Land’s adherence to the trends of the 21st century, as evidenced by the performance in songs such as Audition (The Fools Who Dream), allows the film to successfully acknowledge and resolve the musical genre’s basic contradiction between the real and the expressive.

Chazelle’s choice to combine elements of integrated and 21st century musicals is evident within A Lovely Night. The hybrid nature of the choreography exhibits Rick Altman’s idea that ‘the musical has continued to champion new dance styles’ (Altman, 1987) as the dance references musicals from the classical Hollywood period, whilst simultaneously exploiting the amateur nature of Gosling and Stone’s performance skills. A Lovely Night features the leads talking about their perceived lack of chemistry; a duologue that transitions into the pair serenading one another, as done by Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in the ballroom-style duet Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off from Shall We Dance (Sandrich, 1937). The shadow footwork performed by Stone and Gosling as they sit on the bench is an ode to the same choreographic device that Astaire and Rogers perform in roller-skates (see Figure 3). Meanwhile, the setting of Griffiths Park at sunset is reminiscent of the Astaire and Cyd Charisse duet, Dancing in the Dark, from The Band Wagon (Minnelli, 1953). The leads famously dance through Central Park at dusk, choreographically settling their characters’ differences through ‘extravagant progression across the floor’ (Mueller, 1984, 36); La La Land echoes the sweeping choreography as Stone and Gosling tap-dance their way through the Los Angeles setting (see Figure 4). However, unlike its predecessor, the choreography in A Lovely Night is not clean and polished; Gosling and Stone’s performances exuberate effortfulness and spontaneity, creating a fine balance between the fantastical nature of the number and the realism of the characters in their position as aspiring artists. It is significant that Chazelle chose to reference these numbers because, although the ‘fully integrated musical’ was not established until the early 1950s, Astaire contributed heavily to the form due to his creation of ‘many numbers which advance the plot by their content’ (Mueller, 1984, 31). A Lovely Night and the iconic duets it pays homage to are all integrated in this way, as ‘the relationship between the dancers is importantly altered during the course of the dances’ (Mueller, 1984, 36). Thus, Chazelle’s methods of eliciting nostalgia and the non- performer status of the actors allow for a merging of the real and expressive in A Lovely Night. The narrative function and allusions to the Golden Age create ‘an awareness that this type of cinema is a relic of another age’ (Burlingame, 2017), rendering the number acceptable for the contemporary viewer.

Whilst La La Land’s use of integrated and modern-day musical forms allows for an acknowledging of the real and expressive, the film possesses its own method of exhibiting the subgenre: postmodernity. This is done through use of pastiche, defined as: borrowing ‘narrative and stylistic conventions and iconography from other works, usually of the same genre (...) generating meaningful themes themselves’ (Grant et al., 2001, 175-176). In line with this definition, one instance comes at the end of A Lovely Night. Unlike Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off and Dancing in the Dark, the narrative allegory of the lyrical banter and long-take dance number does not result in the protagonists realising they are meant for one another. Chazelle has instead chosen to subvert traditional genre conventions and audience expectations - although dramatic irony lies in the fact the protagonists’ chemistry is on full display for the viewer. This is done as the pair draw closer and the number comes to an end; Mia’s phone rings loudly, interrupting what would have been a conventionally ideal moment for the romantic realisation to take place. The abrupt ending to the musical number imitates the moment killer trope, a motif notably used in the animated features released by Walt Disney Feature Animation during its renaissance period of 1989-1999. In Aladdin (Clements and Musker, 1992), for example, Jasmine and Aladdin talk about feeling trapped within their circumstances and as they attempt to kiss, are interrupted by the palace guards coming to arrest the story’s hero. This is a significant allusion for La La Land to include as Disney championed a resurgence in the musical throughout the 1990s in ‘reviving its animated features’ (Griffin, 2017, 307), encouraging audiences to once again become comfortable with characters breaking into song out of nowhere. Furthermore, this moment of pastiche within the film is also evident of parody, another key feature of postmodernism (Jameson, 1991), which can be defined as ‘a humorous imitation of another (...) genre or style’ (Grant et al., 2001, 174). The exaggerated, unlikely act of the phone ringing at the end of A Lovely Night demonstrates use of parody through the coincidental, comedic nature of the moment. The sudden ending of the song means reality comes crashing back in as Mia takes the call; the use of postmodernist features allowing for a direct acknowledgement of the contradiction between ‘the banal world of human problems’ and the expressive nature of the film’s song and dance (Scheurer, 1974, 308-9), rendered acceptable for the modern-day audience through reference to the animated Disney musicals of the 1990s.

The use of pastiche and parody in La La Land is significant in merging the real and expressive, but also in foreshadowing that ultimately, Mia and Sebastian do not end up together. The film is also postmodern in its use of intertextual references to musicals from the Golden Age of Hollywood. Intertextuality is ‘the use of references within one film text to another (...) enabling the filmmaker to employ a set of meanings from another text to subtly suggest another dimension to the film’ (Grant et al., 2001, 133), allowing the text a self- awareness of the outlandish, expressive nature of the genre whilst creating a sense of nostalgia for classical Hollywood that justifies such elements as fantasy. For example, the film’s second number, Someone in the Crowd, can be interpreted as a ‘riff on the musical tradition that sees a young woman singing as she gets ready for the evening’ (Koresky, 2017, 42) reminiscent of iconic numbers such as I Feel Pretty from West Side Story (Wise and Robbins, 1961); Mia and her roommates dancing down the street in monochromatic dresses alludes to There’s Got to Be Something Better Than This from Sweet Charity (Fosse, 1969). However, the use of intertextuality is most evident in the epilogue that takes place five years later, a ten-minute dream ballet offering audiences a vision of what life could have been for Mia and Sebastian had they been able to achieve their dreams whilst remaining a couple. They step into a fantasised Los Angeles, complete with cut-out scenery and a vivid, painted backdrop that visually emulates the theatrical soundstages used in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer musicals of the 1950s (see Figure 5), notably sequences such as The Girl Hunt Ballet from The Band Wagon (Minnelli, 1953) and Gotta Dance from Singin’ in the Rain (Donen and Kelly, 1952). Chazelle has also recreated a scene from Funny Face, in which Aubrey Hepburn poses with balloons in front of the Arc de Triomphe for a photograph taken by Fred Astaire (Donen, 1957). Emma Stone poses identically (see Figure 6); communicating that, as the photograph made Hepburn’s character famous, the film Mia stars in and travelled to Paris for has done the same. The combination of these intertextual references creates a dream-like spectacle that pays homage to the iconic MGM musicals of the 1950s. Aware that Mia and Sebastian achieved their dreams separately, the audience can accept the epilogue’s expressive portrayal of their relationship in the knowledge that it is a fantasy, framed as a nostalgic love letter to the film musicals of classic Hollywood. This further demonstrates how postmodernism allows for a merging of the real and expressive in La La Land, rendered appropriate for the modern-day audience.

However, the unconventional nature of La La Land’s narrative cannot be ignored. Unlike in the RKO musicals of the 1930s, the leads in Chazelle’s musical do not receive the same fairy- tale treatment as Astaire’s and Rogers’ characters. Unexpectedly, the film ends with Mia and Sebastian leading separate lives. This echoes the unhappy resolution of a non-musical like Casablanca (Curtiz, 1942), to which there are many references throughout La La Land, such as Mia sleeping below a poster of lead actress Ingrid Bergman. Although, it is not entirely melancholy: the protagonists have managed to achieve their dreams - Sebastian owns a jazz club and Mia is a successful actress. Mia and her husband visit Sebastian’s club where the pair see each other again after five years, a bittersweet moment representing the ‘banal world of human problems’ (Scheurer, 1974, 309) in embodying the sacrifices a person has to make for their own happiness and aspirations. Yet, in line with the film’s title - an idiom for a place that is out of touch with reality - Chazelle allows the audience a final moment to escape to the optimistic, idealised world the musical genre strives to create, through the film’s epilogue. As reality sets back in, the film foregrounds the basic contradiction between the real and the expressive, negating the argument that it is ‘never (or, at best, only weakly) resolved in the musical’ (Rubin, 2002). Instead, the film conforms to Scott McMillian’s idea that musicals must ‘regard songs and dances as basic elements, equal to plot and character and influential to both’ (McMillian, 2006) through its pessimistic ending to a happy movie. Although suggested that the real ultimately overrides the expressive, Chazelle has ensured the film achieves balance whilst still providing audiences with the escapism expected from a musical. This is primarily done in the film’s first act, which uses 40% of its runtime and contains 60% of the musical numbers. The songs are a way of showing the characters entrenched in their dreams, a glamourised world that comes straight from the past (Jack’s Movie Reviews, 2017) and conforms to Dyer’s offering: ‘Alternatives, hopes, wishes - these are the stuff of utopia, the sense that things could be better’ (Dyer, 2002). The down-to-earth ending counteracts this ‘highly stylised representation of life’ seen in numbers such as Another Day of Sun, allowing the film to ‘harmoniously bring and merge together the two worlds’ (Scheurer, 1974, 308-9) through an effective combination of the integrated and 21st century forms.

In conclusion, La La Land is a modern musical that highlights the genre’s basic contradiction between the real and expressive due to its use of elements from the integrated and 21st century musical forms, postmodernist features and obvious nostalgia. Chazelle justifies the characters sporadically bursting into song through intertextual references, pastiche and a visual style that emulates and conveys conventions of classic Hollywood musicals, such as those starring Fred Astaire. The combining of such elements with the non-performer status of Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone, along with its unconventional ending, result in the film’s acknowledging and resolving of the real and the expressive to a full extent. This allows the film to adopt an evocative, nostalgic feel that proffers the musical form appropriate for contemporary audiences.

Reference List

Altman, R. (1987) The American Film Musical. Bloomington, USA: Indiana University Press.

Berliner, T. (2017) Hollywood Aesthetic: Pleasure in American Cinema. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

Burlingame, J. (2017) Will Musicals See a ‘La La Land’ Boost?. Variety. 9 February. Available from https://variety.com/2017/film/awards/la-la-land-hollywood-musical-trend- 2017-1201981880/ [accessed on 22 January 2021].

Chazelle, D. (dir.) (2016) La La Land [film]. Lionsgate.

Clements, R. and Musker, J. (dir.) (1992) Aladdin. Buena Vista Pictures.

Rubin, M. (2002) Busby Berkeley and the Backstage Musical. In: S. Cohan (ed.). Hollywood Musicals, The Film Reader. New York, USA: Routledge, 53-61.

Curtiz, M. (dir.) Casablanca. Warner Bros.

Donen, S. (dir.) (1957) Funny Face. Paramount Pictures.

Donen, S. and Kelly, G. (dir.) (1952) Singin’ in the Rain. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

Dyer, R. (2002) Only Entertainment. London, UK: Routledge.

Fosse, B. (dir.) (1969) Sweet Charity: The Adventures of a Girl Who Wanted to Be Loved. Universal Pictures.

Grant, B., Hillier, J. and Blandford, S. (2001) The Film Studies Dictionary. London, UK: Bloomsbury Academic.

Griffin, S. (2017) Free and Easy?: A Defining History of the American Film Musical Genre. Hoboken, New Jersey: Wiley-Blackwell.

Jack’s Movie Reviews (2017) La La Land - The Reality of Dreams [video]. Available from https://youtu.be/2L-QZfbDm_s [accessed 23 January 2021].

Jameson, F. (1991) Postmodernism: or, the cultural logic of late capitalism. Durham, USA: Duke University Press.

Kennedy, M. (2015) Roadshow!: The Fall of Film Musicals in the 1960s. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

Koresky, M. (2017) Working It. Film Comment, n.d., 42-46.

McMillian, S. (2006) The Musical as Drama. Princeton, USA: Princeton University Press. Minnelli, V. (dir.) (1953) The Band Wagon. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

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Mueller, J. (1984) Fred Astaire and the Integrated Musical. Cinema Journal, 24(1) 28-40. Available from https://www-jstor- org.proxy.library.lincoln.ac.uk/stable/1225307?origin=crossref&seq=1#metadata_info_tab_c ontents [accessed 23 January 2021].

Sandrich, M. (dir.) (1937) Shall We Dance. RKO Radio Pictures.

Scheurer, T. (1974) The Aesthetics of Form and Convention in the Movie Musical. Journal of Popular Film, 3(4) 306-324. Available from https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00472719.1974.10661744?journalCode=vzpf2 0 [accessed 23 January 2021].

Wise, R. and Robbins, J. (dir.) (1961) West Side Story. United Artists.

The CinemaScope logo displayed at the beginning of La La Land (2016). This was a format used prominently by Hollywood throughout the 1950s.

An example of a wide shot used in the opening number of La La Land (2016), Another Day of Sun.

A side-by-side comparison of the choreography Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone perform in A Lovely Night (left) from La La Land (2016), with the choreography performed by Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off from Shall We Dance (1937).

Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone performing the routine to A Lovely Night at Griffiths Park, Los Angeles (left), compared to the choreography performed by Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse in Central Park, New York at dusk during Dancing in the Dark from The Band Wagon (1953) (right).

A side-by-side comparison of the fantasised Los Angeles setting seen in the epilogue of La La Land (2016) (left), compared to the musical number Gotta Dance featuring Gene Kelly and Cyd Charisse in Singin’ in the Rain (1952) (right). An example of how Chazelle has recreated the visual feel of the 1950s MGM musicals.

This image demonstrates how Chazelle has recreated a scene from Funny Face (1957), in which Audrey Hepburn poses in front of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris (right), in La La Land (2016), representing Mia’s arrival in Paris to star in her first film.