By Megan Bianco
One of the biggest breakthroughs in cinema 2016 has been the original movie musical La La Land from filmmaker Damien Chazelle. It’s an ode to the era that appreciated and produced musicals regularly for the screen, and apparently doesn’t need to be a film adaptation of a hit Broadway musical to be a success. And it is as wonderful and entertaining as critics are saying, but especially to those like me who are already fans and familiar with film musicals from the 1930s to 1950s.
Just from watching the movie I could see the influence and homage to movies like Singin’ in the Rain (1952), Top Hat (1935), The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964) and even Woody Allen’s own musical effort Everyone Says I Love You (1996). The color scheme also gives the impression that he might have watched non-musicals Vertigo (1958) and Punch-Drunk Love (2002) beforehand. Fortunately for Chazelle & Co. the specific love letter is also popular with non-old Hollywood fans.
What’s interesting to me though, is the more I think about La La Land after enjoying it twice in theaters, the more I begin to see some parallels to Martin Scorsese’s own failed attempt at directing a big-budget, studio musical called New York, New York back in 1977. Last week I rented the now obscure feature as I have been going through a musical kick since the holidays started. Like LLL, NYNY both have dark, confident leading men (Robert De Niro and Ryan Gosling), wide-eyed ingénues as the leading lady (Liza Minnelli and Emma Stone), elaborate musical numbers, an extended, colorful fantasy sequence and a bittersweet ending. Those who have seen both movies will also notice that Minnelli and Stone both perform ballads in a room full of producers before the room turns black and the camera only focuses on the actresses’ faces. The stories are even a little similar: NYNY has a cocky saxophonist and an up-and-coming singer meet and don’t like each other, but then fall in love, before their relationship turns turbulent when their stage act takes off. LLL has a passionate pianist and a struggling actress who also don’t like each other at first, then begin courting and struggle to maintain a relationship as their careers grow.
So what the heck happened to make audiences refuse Scorsese’s picture, but embrace Chazelle’s 40 years later? Well, there are a couple of theories and reasons to consider. One is that both Scorsese and Minnelli have revealed that there wasn’t a completed script when their film was shot, and it shows with the improvised dialogue, on top of De Niro’s character coming across as too much of a jerk for a romantic lead. Another is that movie musicals were at a low point in popularity in the late 1970s, and this film also wasn’t based on an already famous stage show. NYNY was also Scorsese’s first film after the hugely acclaimed masterpiece Taxi Driver (1976), which was a gritty and dark character study, so new fans might have found the complete shift in tone with the musical polarizing. And if that’s the case, it’s interesting that movie viewers four decades later are now more accepting of Chazelle’s light-hearted musical after his own harsh Whiplash (2014).
The most successful aspect of NYNY, and the main reason to give the film a viewing, is the soundtrack which is a combination of old show tunes and original pieces from John Kander and Fred Ebb, Minnelli’s usual songwriters. While the movie flopped with critics and viewers, Minnelli would include “But the World Goes ‘Round” as part of her concerts for the next decade, and Frank Sinatra liked the theme song so much that he recorded his own cover with much airplay and is now a standard when the ball drops every New Year’s Eve.
Maybe audiences’ tastes have changed since 1977, perhaps current events are so depressing this year that people were desperate to see something fun at the theaters. Whatever the reasons for New York, New York under-performing and La La Land booming, I hope the movie musical genre never dies, flops and hits included.
Megan Bianco is a Southern California-based movie reviewer and content writer with a degree from California State University Northridge.
