La La Land, which notoriously did not win Best Picture at the Academy Awards this past February, just came out on DVD. Starring Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone it’s supposed to be a tribute to Hollywood, LA, musicals, and jazz, or some such combination give or take.
I started the DVD and began to watch. Then something happened, I grew bored and decided to pick up the knitting I had started somewhere around the turn of the century, or at least felt that way since I hadn’t picked it up in months.
So I’ve got to be honest. I wasn’t impressed with La La Land and I expected to be. Only the last quarter of the movie felt like I thought the entire movie was going to be. The last quarter sped through magical what-ifs, showed the characters sharing a movie-style romance, and had a sweetness to it that I thought the whole movie would have.
There were two songs that registered with me. The first was the theme that’s pretty much played throughout and has a haunting quality and the other was one that Emma Stone’s character during an audition makes up about her Aunt. The others just felt average.
If you’ve seen La La Land, tell me what your impression is. Did you love it? I wondered if it was because I didn’t see it at the movies. Tell me about your experience. I’m wondering if I missed something besides Gosling’s character glowering.
Oh, maybe I’ll give it another chance. Sometimes mood affects everything!
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Now, I do knit, but somehow blogging takes up the huge amount of time that I used to devote to other things. Last year, the Christmas knitting didn’t get done. Maybe the recipients breathed a sigh of relief…no one said.
But here’s one of my own designs that I knit a couple of years ago using indie dyed sock yarn (Gnome Acres, if you’re curious). You can’t see it from this pic, but the yarn actually has some gold bling spun into it which gives it a neat sparkle in the sunshine.
I’ve decided to “remember” to knit when I binge on Netflix, but not during thrillers or adventures. Those always resulted in trying to repair dropped stitches when I paid more attention to the show than the knitting.
Ha…life before blogging, from now on referred to as: LBB.
end 4/30/2017
S. Darlington
I loved this film and have seen it twice. But I saw it in the cinema on the big screen. I liked it because it was shot on film. so no computer generated special effects. This is old school. The scene where the couple go into a dance routine with the backdrop of LA sunset is amazing. They had to do this in one take during what is known as “magic hour” in the film industry it only lasts for minutes. So the cinematographer has to be aware every second of how the light behind the couple ( now dancing around the parking lot) is changing and compensate for it with lighting from his lights. This is something that is just not done today when computers can compensate for everything and often scenes are not shot on location but in a studio with the background generated by a computer. Also the lighting was so old school. The scene where Emma Stone sings her audition song about her aunt in Paris, the lighting goes down to just her face and then opens up again to reveal her in the room doing her audition. I thought she deserved the Best Actress Oscar just for that song . as for Gosling I think he is an actor who is not afraid of being somewhat unlikable at times. I have actually known actors and musicians who are just like the character he portrayed. Talented but damned difficult to sustain a relationship with. Anyway my husband and I have both worked in the film industry so we loved it. My daughter, who has never been involved with film and her fiancée went to see it and loved it. They also saw it in the cinema. So maybe it is better to see it on a big screen. And…..everyone likes different things and finds different things entertaining. The knitting is a great pastime!
Thanks for sharing. I think watching something at the cinema changes it, makes it more of an experience just the way music becomes a huge experience at a concert. As I mentioned, I loved the audition scene and thought the ending (which I heard others had issues with) was great, to me very believable and real. I’ll rewatch with your observations in mind.
Thanks. 🙂