La La Land And Crazy Ex-Girlfriend

Over the last few years, we have seen a rise in musicals in cinema that have been on par with the films of the past were responsible for the genres rise in film history. These films and shows are original, revolutionary, but also keep intact the traditional conventions and styles at the heart of the genre. Two bodies of work that represent this rise are La La Land and crazy ex-girlfriend. The musical genre uses two major elements of film which are sound and movement such as dancing, singing, and music to express intense emotion. These characters often break the fourth wall when they start to sing and dance, they also use mise-en-scene and lighting to exaggerate and emphasis portions of the film. By doing this these stories challenge the boundaries
of realism set by classic narrative cinema. In this essay, I will show how these traditional conventions are revitalized and changed for modern-day musicals. Despite the circumstances, characters may be facing in the story whether they are happy, angry or even in complete despair often characters in most dramas or genres internalize that feeling while in musicals those emotions bleed on to the screen. Each of those emotions and moments is expressed in the songs and dances allowing the audience to get a peek into the mind of the character in a way not normally done. The first example of this is the first major break in song and dance for both works.
In La La Land, the first time we see one of the main characters, Mia, break into song in dance, she is in a moment of disappointment and sadness. She has repeatedly failed in getting a role and it has happened again but we see her attitude and mind process change when her friends begin to sing and dance trying to convince her to come out. In that small sequence, we get to see what kind of personality Mia has not only by her reactions and quirks in her singing and dancing but in the people she surrounds her and also her environment. She wants to be this big time actress and we see that in her bedroom wallpaper of Ingrid Bergman and also in the celebrity party her friends want her to go to.This is similar to Crazy Ex-Girlfriend with its first big dance routine. She was on the verge of a mental breakdown as she is trying to explain through song that she isn’t crazy for following her heart and moving to California for some man.
Both of these scenes show inciting incidents for the film and show through moments of change and realization. Barry Kenneth in film reader says, “In those musicals in which a star is born, in which...an individual rising to the heights of individual achievement, it usually turns out that the star must go on despite personal tragedy...”(Kenneth,130) These songs signal a transition for the characters in the story that pushes them in a new emotional narrative direction despite not being fully ready to make the transition. A major convention and element of the Musicals is their use of mise-en-scene.
In both La La Land and Crazy Ex-Girlfriend mise en scene plays a factor in the story. In Crazy Ex-Girlfriend when our main character, Rebecca, has her moment of anxiety, the set design uses an ad about being happy to push the narrative towards Josh the one person in the story that makes her happy, that makes her heart flutter and fill with love. It does quite literally by having a sign fall slightly and pointing directly at him. But what I believe is the most common visual motif in both works is the use of spotlights and low key
lighting.
In Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, that's when that sign drops, and the music begins to play it forces her to look towards Josh and in that moment as he turns around, further the idea of God helping her a bright ray of light shines upon him. The light fills in his shadows and kind of gives him this angelic and also theatrical spotlight. It exemplifies that he is the happiness she needs.
This is similar to the scene in la La Land when the potential good night at the party ends terribly and she wanders sadly alone until she hears beautiful music and in that moment Sebastian the other main character is doing what he loves playing his jazz music so passionately. There in the club, she recognizes that passion and realizes that he in some form his the sign of change she's been looking for like Josh was for Rebecca. The last major element of these films I will be talking about is the idea of breaking a traditional convention of classic narrative filmmaking and that is breaking the line of realism and the fourth wall.
Many times when characters are singing and dancing in these films they often look directly into the camera as if they are singing directly to the audience. Also, the music begins to play and the mise en scene tends to change. This happens often in La La Land when Mia or Sebastian begins to sing a stylistic change occurs as either light begin to dim, pieces of the set moves or even an overall tonal shift. In Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, at times during her songs, she asks questions mostly rhetorical ones but they are directed towards the audience attempting to engage us with
music. The biggest break in realism in these films comes usually at the most important song or routine in the film, it often has large, elaborate exaggerated sets and carries an important moment in the film or show. In Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, the moment is when she is finally going to get to see Josh or at least so she believes, the show presents the “Sexy Getting Ready Song,” which takes us from her small ordinary home where she is getting ready in not so sexy fashion to this big Hollywood esque music video set where she is wearing silk robes, she has expensive makeup on, also background dancers and extravagant features. The purpose of this is to show how important this is to her but also exemplify the shows comedic aspects. For La La Land this moment happens after the five-year time jump, this one is more extravagant but follows the tone of the film. As Seb and Mia meet again for the first time in five years, they imagine what could have happened, we see paintings, animations, home videos and reenactments of the life they mutually agreed to leave behind in order to pursue their dreams wholeheartedly. I believe the use of both these tremendous routines and sequences ties their stories back full circle to the central tone and ideas and creates profound moments in cinema. Musicals are not the most sought after or made films in the business and even though they may be corny or unrealistic at times, they are films that aren’t afraid to break the rules of filmmaking. Musicals are a lot like how Sebastian in La La Land describes Jazz as a way for people to communicate what they are trying to say or express how they really feel through a different means of storytelling. As the genre begins to grow again, we will continue to see those who challenge the boundaries and revolutionize the way these stories are told.