La La Land - Blu-ray

Film: Mia (Emma Stone) is an aspiring actress, always hoping for her big break. Sebastian (Ryan Gosling) is a jazz musician at heart, dreaming of his own club. But the two have not yet found happiness in Los Angeles - until their paths cross several times and they fall madly in love with each other. It all looks like a great love story with a happy ending. After all, this is the city of dreams, where anything is possible! But as they get really close to their big dreams, Mia and Sebastian have to realize that success doesn't come without sacrifice - and in this case, it could be their love.

Just awarded 7 Golden Globes, La La Land is a truly wonderful film. It's a tribute to L.A., to the great era of musical cinema, and to the power of love and music. However, Damien Chazelle's (Whiplash) film is so much more. The whole thing starts out as a joyfully colorful musical. The wonderful opening sequence, for instance, shows how nice it can be to be stuck in traffic during rush hour. And the first encounters between Mia and Sebastian are full of wit, culminating in a playful approach to romance as their love awakens. It's so beautifully cheesy that as an audience member, all you really want to do is embrace the world in song. The songs are catchy, the choreography is enchanting, and the imagery is literally fabulous.

And when they finally get each other, the story is at a point where most movies actually end. Yet here La La Land continues. With a different tone, though. The musical interludes become less frequent and are more melancholy. The love story comes back from the colorful fairy tale world to the hard ground of reality. And instead of grinning all the time, some of the viewers might even get teary-eyed now and then. For example, during the scene in which Mia tells/sings a story about her grandmother at a casting. A real goosebump moment that Emma Stone serves up just great.

The story then takes a turn that really rips your heart out, especially because of the wonderful first half of the film. And then comes the last ten minutes. Not to give too much away here, of course, but the montage on display is so incredibly beautiful, sad and true to life that it lingers for an extremely long time. It makes you see the events of the film through a completely different set of eyes, and restores a little bit of dreaminess and lightness to the great melancholy of the second half of the story. And that's exactly what makes La La Land such a special movie experience in the end.

Chazelle has pulled off the feat of telling a love story that is uninhibitedly playful and campy on the one hand, but uncompromisingly realistic on the other. It's a film that, even despite some sad moments, simply makes you happy and brings some colour into the grey everyday life. With a wonderful duo of actors, who are acting together for the third time and who have the right chemistry, with a wonderful soundtrack and an enchanting visual language, which is rarely seen in cinema. For this we give it a very clear: Absolutely worth seeing!!!!!

Picture + Sound: The partly playful imagery with its wonderful colouring also comes into its own first-class in the home cinema. The picture also pleases with an engaging warmth, a high level of detail and a pleasant picture depth. The sound is particularly convincing during the musical numbers. But the natural soundscape of L.A. and the dialogue also come through well in the lively Dolby Atmos mix. All in all, there is a clear here: very good!

Extras: The bonus offerings start with a very nice, optional subtitled audio commentary by director Damien Chazelle and composer Justin Hurwitz. It's a ehr lively commentary that makes it clear how much passion both of them put into this film. In addition to the commentary, there are also quite a few featurettes. These deal with the shooting of the opening sequence (approx. 10:35 min.), the big party scene (approx. 5:07 min.), Ryan Gosling's piano exercises (approx. 5:05 min.), director Damian Chazelle (approx. 10:11 min.), the city of L.A. (approx. 6:55 min.), the music (approx. 13:31 min.), the acting debut of John Legend (approx. 4:39 min.), the design of the film (approx. 8:47 min.), the chemistry between Ryan and Emma (approx. 5:50 min.), as well as the wonderful epilogue of the film (approx. 7:53 min.). Also included are two demo versions of songs from the film (approx. 5 min.), the trailer, and two teasers. Very good!

Conclusion: The multiple Oscar winner La La Land is a truly wonderful film, a declaration of love to the golden era of cinema, to L.A. and to music. The Blu-ray convinces with a very good picture and sound quality, as well as with some really worth seeing extras. For this - and of course for the great main film - there is clearly a: Absolutely recommended!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp