Damien Chazelle
The
“La La Land” Interview
with
Kam Williams
Groundswell
for Chazelle!
Damien
Chazelle wrote and directed the Academy Award-winning Whiplash
which landed five Oscar nominations, including Best Picture and Best
Adapted Screenplay for Chazelle. The movie won a trio of Oscars in
the Film Editing, Sound Mixing and Supporting Actor (J.K. Simmons)
categories.
In
2013, his short film of the same name won the Short Film Jury Prize
at the Sundance Film Festival. Previously, Damien wrote Grand Piano,
starring Elijah Wood and John Cusack, and co-wrote the hit, horror
sequel 10 Cloverfield Lane, starring John Goodman. His screenplays
for Whiplash and The Claim
both
appeared on the Blacklist, the annual survey of the most liked motion
picture screenplays not yet produced.
Damien
shot his first feature film, Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench, while
still an undergrad at Harvard University. The critically-acclaimed
debut was named
the
Best First Feature of 2010 by L.A. Weekly and was described as
“easily the best first film in eons” by Time Out New York.
Here,
Damien discusses his latest movie, La La Land which just swept the
Golden Globes, winning a record 7 awards.
Kam
Williams: Hi
Damien. Congratulations!
Damien
Chazelle:
Thanks,
Kam.
KW:
Not
that I'm at all surprised by your incredible success. After all, back
when you released your first film, Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench, I
told anybody who'd listen, "Appreciate Damien now and avoid the
rush!"
DC:
I
remember those lines so well. I think yours was the first Rotten
Tomatoes review of it. La La Land is sort of like Guy and Madeline,
but with a budget. [Chuckles]
KW:
Well I
loved it! It's #1 on my Top 100 List for 2016. And I started my
review saying, "If
you only see one movie this year, you need to get out more. That
being said, La La Land is the picture to catch."
DC:
Thanks!
I'm thrilled you liked it.
KW:
I've
seen four times already. It's a movie you absolutely have to see on
the big screen.
DC:
Yeah,
part of my hope was to make a movie meant for the movie theaters, in
the old-fashioned sense of a film designed for a group of people to
watch on the big screen. I think that old school idea was so
beautiful, kinds like those roadshow musicals from the Fifties and
Sixties.
KW:
The
first time I saw it was with fellow critics, and everybody applauded
when the closing credits started to roll. That was the first time in
ages that there was a standing ovation at a film critics' screening I
attended. We're a jaded lot that's pretty hard to impress.
DC:
That's
awesome!
KW:
I
understand that this movie took six years to make, partly because
other studios were willing to greenlight the project on the condition
that you agreed to substantial revisions, like changing the ending
and the music from jazz to rock.
DC:
One of
the reasons we actually ended up making La La Land with Lionsgate was
that it was one of the few places that was willing to let us make the
movie the way we wanted to make it. Two of the key things that other
studios had had issues with were the ending and the music. They
wanted us to farm out the songs to a bunch of top pop songwriters or
music stars, since the score was almost all going to be composed by
Justin [Gurwitz], my former college roommate who no one ever knew of
before this. And we wanted the soundscape to have a sort of timeless
style by being played on acoustic instruments with lush, sweeping
strings and a jazz rhythm section. Those were two things we really
had to fight for a lot, as well as for the resources we needed to
make the movie the way we wanted to make it.
KW:
I'm
glad you stuck to your guns.
DC:
Once we
were set up at Lionsgate, then it was a great process, because they
were really supportive. I was as lucky as you can imagine, because I
was given the freedom as a filmmaker to make exactly the movie I
wanted to make, with zero compromise.
KW:
I know
you used a wide-angled, CinemaScope lens, a technology that hasn't
been used by anybody in decades.
DC:
It's
not exactly the old CinemaScope technology. we kinda did our own
version of it. We shot the entire movie in anamorphic 35 mm. And Lina
Sandgren, our DP [Director of Photography], had some lenses custom
built to allow us to go a little wider than 2.40 [aspect ratio]. We
went to 2.55 which is closer to the classic CinemaScope aspect ratio
of the Fifties that doesn't exist anymore. We liked the idea of
giving the picture that extra bit of width because L.A. is really a
wide-screen city, a panoramic kind of city. So, we settled on a
combination of using old technologies like celluloid and that aspect
ratio in combination with new technologies like new lenses that were
specially built for this and a steady cam. Obviously, almost all of
the movie was shot on steady cam. There was some crane work and some
dolly work, as well. But the steady cam gives you a freedom of motion
that you couldn't have in those classic MGM musicals. So, it was fun
to try to combine old and new in terms of how we shot it.
KW:
One
thing I loved about the singing was how I found myself pulling for
Emma [Stone] and Ryan [Gosling], as if I were watching community
theater or a high school production. I knew they weren't seasoned
pros used to belting out show tunes. Yet, they appeared to be
naturals, performing effortlessly within their capabilities.
DC:
You're
speaking to one of the things I loved about a lot of the older
musicals. You didn't see the sweat. You didn't feel the work. Some of
those movies were the hardest to make, yet the entire aim with a
musical, in my mind, is to make it look easy. Ryan and Emma have this
amazing ability to make everything seem effortless and natural. We
always talked about how the singing, acting, dancing and piano
playing could never be just about technique. They had to be about
character and emotion. So, Ryan and Emma approached everything like
actors, where everything was rooted in a sense of character, a sense
of vulnerability, and a sense of humanity, in order to ground it all.
Even though they were able to make it look effortless, I agree that
there's this tremendous hat trick that they were able to pull off.
KW:
I saw
La La Land as an homage to classic Hollywood musicals, until a
colleague mentioned that you were also influenced by a number of
French films.
DC:
Yes,
mainly the French New Wave, especially Jacques Demy's The Umbrellas
of Cherbourg. Also Lola, and The Young Girls of Rochefort. Movies
like that. Justin, my composer, was listening to a lot of those
French New Wave scores, a lot of Michel Legrand, and a lot of French
music from the Fifties and Sixties. There's a French quality about
them that's very romantic and playful while also being very grounded,
a little understated, very real, and very melancholy, as well. They
sort of combine emotions. They live somewhere between happy and sad.
I feel that's where a lot of French New Wave lives. And I just love
that emotional fulcrum.
KW:
How
many of those French films are musicals?
DC:
Well,
full-fledged musicals, just those Jacques Demy movies. And I guess
[Jean-Luc] Godard did a quasi musical with A Woman Is a Woman. What's
fun about them is that they are sort of the French filmmakers' answer
to the American Hollywood musicals that they loved. So, I liked the
idea of doing an American answer to the French answer to the American
musicals, if that makes sense.
KW:
Absolutely!
Who are a few of your favorite directors?
DC:
Certainly,
some of the French New Wave filmmakers like Godard and Demy.
[Charlie] Chaplin is someone who is constantly inspiring me. He's
actually someone Emma and I bonded over, initially. We both adore
City Lights, and we were talking about that movie when we first met.
And with this movie, Vincente Minnelli, one of my favorites of all
time, was a big influence as well in terms of his use of color and
his sense of emotion.
KW:
When I
interviewed John Legend, I was surprised to learn that he had come
aboard as a producer before you decided to add him to the cast of La
La Land.
DC:
Yeah,
what happened was I first met John's producing partner, Mike Jackson,
on the Whiplash circuit. I met John through Mike. As soon as Ryan and
Emma were cast, I want to fill the Keith role, and I loved the idea
of casting John Legend in it. I knew I wanted a musician for it. I
thought , "Okay, I know John's producer now, so maybe there's a
play to be made here." So, they were the first people I sent a
script to for that role. He ended up coming aboard in several
capacities. First, as an actor, doing his first, big piece of
onscreen acting, which was real exciting. Second, as a songwriter. He
co-wrote the song that his character plays. And third, coming aboard
with Mike as an executive producer of the movie.
KW:
How did
you manage to make a movie that's so much more than the sum of its
parts. La La Land is, on the one hand, often larger than life, such
as how the panoramic opening dance number is splashed across the
screen. And yet, the picture is also intimate and accessible in a way
that affords the viewer a very personal experience. How did you
achieve that? Was that part of the plan?
DC:
My hope
was that it would be visually ravishing, but still very human, as
you've suggested. That was kind of the through line [connecting
theme] with everything in prep. Lina Sandgren, our DP, was just
incredible. He, Mandy Moore our choreographer, David Wasco our
production designer, and costume designer Mary Zophres all came on
board way, way early on to sort of pre-prep the movie. Then, we had a
very intensive three to four month, on-site prep with everyone almost
housed together in these production offices in the valley. We were
all trying to speak the same language. You have to sort of pre-design
stuff really precisely and really minutely. But you hope that, once
you get on set, you can still be spontaneous and have fun with it.
KW:
Are you
thinking about your next project yet?
DC:
Yes,
for a couple years, I've been developing this film about Neil
Armstrong and the moon landing with Josh Singer, who wrote Spotlight.
I hope to be shooting it next year with Ryan playing Neil. Knock on
wood, that'll come together. But it's on the horizon right now.
KW:
Finally,
what’s in your wallet?
DC:
Right
now, not that much. But my girlfriend and I got a dog recently. We
had to get him registered with L.A. County. That's another L.A.
idiosyncrasy. So, I have an I.D. card for my dog which has his face
on it and his name. It's pretty funny. [Chuckles]
KW:
Well,
congratulations again, Damien. I can't say I'm surprised at your
success, since I recognized your phenomenal talent and predicted it
way back when. But I am honored to know you and to have this
opportunity to chat with you about La La Land.
DC:
Thank
you for all the support back in the day. You were there before anyone
gave a damn, Kam. So, thank you.
KW:
Talk to
you again down the line.
DC:
Can't
wait. Take care.
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