美国国家公共电台 NPR Showbiz Dreams Collide With Reality In 'La La Land'

 

AUDIE CORNISH, HOST: 

Writer and director Damien Chazelle's new movie "La La Land" is very different from his first one, "Whiplash." That was about a jazz drummer's struggles with his abusive mentor¹. Now, "La La Land" is also about struggle and jazz. But instead of dimly-lit rooms and a gray color palette, it's a neon-bright musical.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "ANOTHER DAY OF SUN")

UNIDENTIFIED CHOIR²: (Singing) Should they let you down, it's another day of - get up off the ground. It's another day of - morning rolls around and it's another day of sun.

DAMIEN CHAZELLE: I wanted this movie to be very unapologetic about being a musical and just try to return to that simpler idea that I think really was at the core of the early '30s, '40s, '50s musicals, which is that if you feel enough, you break in a song. If you're in love enough or happy enough or sad enough, then you break into a number. And that's - to me that's what the genre³ hinges on and all you really need.

CORNISH: His characters sing and dance their way through present day Los Angeles, traffic jammed freeways and all. Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling play the two lovers at the heart of the movie, each balancing their showbiz dreams with reality. Gosling's Sebastian is a traditional jazz pianist who asked to join a band with more pop sensibilities to make ends meet. In Chazelle's film, Emma Stone plays an aspiring⁴ actress who still hasn't found her big break after six years and countless⁵ auditions⁶.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "LA LA LAND")

EMMA STONE: (As Mia) Because maybe I'm not good enough.

RYAN GOSLING: (As Sebastian) Yes, you are.

STONE: (As Mia) No. No, maybe I'm not.

GOSLING: (As Sebastian) Yes, you are.

STONE: (As Mia) Maybe I'm not.

GOSLING: (As Sebastian) You are.

STONE: (As Mia) Maybe I'm not.

GOSLING: (As Sebastian) You are.

STONE: (As Mia) Maybe I'm one of those people that has always wanted to do it, but it's like a pipe dream for me, you know? And then you said it, you change your dreams and then you grow up.

CORNISH: You change your dreams and then you grow up. That was a tough line to hear I think probably for a lot of creative types in the audience.

CHAZELLE: It's a line that, you know, I think floated through my mind a lot when I was, you know, first moving to LA. It's funny how those first - I'd say five years or so in Los Angeles where, you know, I remember being very excited the first time I got any kind of amount of money at all to do, like, a writing-for-hire rewrite job on, like, a script. You know, just the idea of having any kind of entryway into making movies was very exciting to me. But it sort of felt the entire time like that's as far as I was going to get. And what I was really doing was spending most of my time writing scripts of movies that I dreamed of one day making.

You know, I wanted in this movie hopefully to say something about that state of mind, you know, of being in a city like LA, this sort of dream factory city, living in your head a lot, living in your dreams a lot and having to reconcile those dreams with the sometimes not so pleasant realities of, you know, the life you're actually living.

CORNISH: It's interesting to hear you say that because there's a key moment in the film where the couple has an argument and she essentially⁷ asks her boyfriend, do you like the music you're playing? Are you really, you know, are you doing what you really wanted to do? And it sounds like you had that moment.

CHAZELLE: Oh, yeah. And I've wanted to make movies since I can remember. I've never wanted to do anything else. So my whole life has kind of been defined for me by this desire and this dream. And so, you know, as a kid I had kind of ideas of what sort of movies I would make.

And, you know, as a kid kind of anything seems possible, you know, so it's all kind of far off. So you just sort of enjoy the dream. And then it becomes somewhat more difficult to handle when you have to start compromising, when you have to start doing things that adults do, when you have to start paying the bills, when you have to start dealing⁸ with people's responses to your art. When you're an adult, it's hard to kind of sustain that. Yeah, that was something I think especially with Ryan's character in the movie that was personal to me, for sure.

CHAZELLE: Before he moved to Los Angeles, Damien Chazelle played in competitive jazz bands in high school. As a screenwriter, he never let go of his love of jazz.

(SOUNDBITE OF JUSTIN HURWITZ SONG, "HERMAN'S HABIT")

CORNISH: "La La Land" has the verve of a Jazz Age musical, but it also questions any one person trying to be the gatekeeper of the tradition. Jazz is dying, Ryan Gosling's Sebastian declares at one point. And it's up to him to save it. Not so fast, says John Legend. He plays a successful bandleader in the film who asked, how are you going to save jazz if no one's listening?

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "LA LA LAND")

JOHN LEGEND: Jazz is dying because of people like you. You're playing to 90-year-olds at The Lighthouse. Where are the kids? Where are the young people? You're so obsessed⁹ with Kenny Clarke and Thelonious Monk¹⁰. These guys were revolutionaries. How are you going to be a revolutionary if you're such a traditionalist? You're holding on to the past, but jazz is about the future.

CORNISH: Damien Chazelle, which person have you been in that conversation?

CHAZELLE: (Laughter) More often than not, I feel like I'm Ryan, you know. I'm Sebastian, sitting there somewhat uncomfortably, taking it all in, listening to John and yet understanding that in a certain very fundamental way, John is right. I sort of jokingly think of that scene as, like, it's like my, you know, the two angels on my shoulder kind of arguing about what it means to, you know, not just be a jazz musician. That's what they're talking about specifically there, but the, you know, just being an artist. At what point does preservation¹¹ of what you love about, you know, older art forms become encasing something in amber¹²? And at what point does trying to modernize¹³ something start to corrupt¹⁴ it?

CORNISH: It's fascinating because this does feel like a jazz musical. It, like, it definitely has that sensibility even though it is so modern LA in its look.

CHAZELLE: I mean, again, the thing with jazz is that jazz is and in some ways always will remain a modern music. That's why, you know, there's a moment in the movie where Ryan's character I think makes an argument earlier that jazz is dying, which I don't entirely¹⁵ agree with, actually. I don't think jazz is dying in any way. But I think Ryan is talking about a specific kind of jazz, a specific, again, somewhat in his mind encased in amber type of jazz that was played in the jazz clubs or on the big band stages in the '30s, '40s, '50s, maybe into the '60s.

(SOUNDBITE OF JUSTIN HURWITZ SONG, "CITY OF STARS")

CHAZELLE: And that's a sort of preference or viewpoint of a lot of, you know, of a whole sector¹⁶ of people. And then John Legend's character comes from a completely other side of the equation.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "START A FIRE")

LEGEND: (Singing) Oh, I just know I feel so good tonight.

CHAZELLE: I guess I, you know, I hoped with this movie, both with the Jazz within it but also just with the entire approach to the movie, that it would have a little bit of old and new in it. That it would sort of at the end of the day almost make the case for what John's character is saying, not - maybe not literally¹⁷ but just that idea that sometimes it's OK to adapt to modernity a little bit. I think in some way...

CORNISH: (Laughter).

CHAZELLE: ...That's what the characters learn a bit, that it's - you have to preserve what you believe in. You can't compromise too much. But sometimes it's not compromise. Sometimes it's actually, you know, finding a way to push something forward, whether it's a musical or a - or an idea of jazz you might have.

CORNISH: Well, Damien Chazelle, thank you so much for talking with us about this film. It was really fun.

CHAZELLE: Thank you.

CORNISH: Damien Chazelle. His new film "La La Land" is out now.

1 mentor   

n.指导者，良师益友；v.指导

参考例句：

• He fed on the great ideas of his mentor.他以他导师的伟大思想为支撑。
• He had mentored scores of younger doctors.他指导过许多更年轻的医生。

2 choir   

n.唱诗班，唱诗班的席位，合唱团，舞蹈团；v.合唱

参考例句：

• The choir sang the words out with great vigor.合唱团以极大的热情唱出了歌词。
• The church choir is singing tonight.今晚教堂歌唱队要唱诗。

3 genre   

n.(文学、艺术等的)类型，体裁，风格

参考例句：

• My favorite music genre is blues.我最喜欢的音乐种类是布鲁斯音乐。
• Superficially,this Shakespeare's work seems to fit into the same genre.从表面上看， 莎士比亚的这个剧本似乎属于同一类型。

4 aspiring   

adj.有志气的；有抱负的；高耸的v.渴望；追求

参考例句：

• Aspiring musicians need hours of practice every day. 想当音乐家就要每天练许多小时。
• He came from an aspiring working-class background. 他出身于有抱负的工人阶级家庭。 来自辞典例句

5 countless   

adj.无数的，多得不计其数的

参考例句：

• In the war countless innocent people lost their lives.在这场战争中无数无辜的人丧失了性命。
• I've told you countless times.我已经告诉你无数遍了。

6 auditions   

n.（对拟做演员、歌手、乐师等人的）试听，试音( audition的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Find modeling auditions, casting calls& acting auditions, all in one place. 找一个立体感试听，铸造呼叫和表演试听一体的地方。 来自互联网
• We are now about to start auditions to find a touring guitarist. 我们现在准备找一个新的吉他手。 来自互联网

7 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

8 dealing   

n.经商方法，待人态度

参考例句：

• This store has an excellent reputation for fair dealing.该商店因买卖公道而享有极高的声誉。
• His fair dealing earned our confidence.他的诚实的行为获得我们的信任。

9 obsessed   

adj.心神不宁的,鬼迷心窍的,沉迷的

参考例句：

• He's obsessed by computers. 他迷上了电脑。
• The fear of death obsessed him throughout his old life. 他晚年一直受着死亡恐惧的困扰。

10 monk   

n.和尚，僧侣，修道士

参考例句：

• The man was a monk from Emei Mountain.那人是峨眉山下来的和尚。
• Buddhist monk sat with folded palms.和尚合掌打坐。

11 preservation   

n.保护，维护，保存，保留，保持

参考例句：

• The police are responsible for the preservation of law and order.警察负责维持法律与秩序。
• The picture is in an excellent state of preservation.这幅画保存得极为完好。

12 amber   

n.琥珀；琥珀色；adj.琥珀制的

参考例句：

• Would you like an amber necklace for your birthday?你过生日想要一条琥珀项链吗？
• This is a piece of little amber stones.这是一块小小的琥珀化石。

13 modernize   

vt.使现代化，使适应现代的需要

参考例句：

• It was their manifest failure to modernize the country's industries.他们使国家进行工业现代化，明显失败了。
• There is a pressing need to modernise our electoral system.我们的选举制度迫切需要现代化。

14 corrupt   

v.贿赂，收买；adj.腐败的，贪污的

参考例句：

• The newspaper alleged the mayor's corrupt practices.那家报纸断言市长有舞弊行为。
• This judge is corrupt.这个法官贪污。

15 entirely   

ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The fire was entirely caused by their neglect of duty. 那场火灾完全是由于他们失职而引起的。
• His life was entirely given up to the educational work. 他的一生统统献给了教育工作。

16 sector   

n.部门，部分；防御地段，防区；扇形

参考例句：

• The export sector will aid the economic recovery. 出口产业将促进经济复苏。
• The enemy have attacked the British sector.敌人已进攻英国防区。

17 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。