The Stories about Music Films: 26. La La Land (2016)

Basic Info 

Title: La La Land
Genre: Drama
Country: United States
Language: English
Running time: 128 minutes
Release date: August 31, 2016 (Venice), December 9, 2016 (United States)

Staff

Director: Damien Chazelle
Producer: Fred Berger, Jordan Horowitz, Gary Gilbert, Marc Platt
Written by: Damien Chazelle
Music: Justin Hurwitz
Cinematography: Linus Sandgren
Edited by: Tom Cross

Cast 

Ryan Gosling as Sebastian Wilder
Emma Stone as Mia Dolan
John Legend as Keith
J. K. Simmons as Bill
Rosemarie DeWitt as Laura Wilder
Finn Wittrock as Greg
Callie Hernandez as Tracy
Sonoya Mizuno as Caitlin

Summary

“La La Land” is a 2016 American musical romantic comedy film, written and directed by Damien Chazelle. The film stars Ryan Gosling as a jazz pianist and Emma Stone as an aspiring actress, who meet and fall in love while chasing their dreams in Los Angeles. 

Premiered at the 73rd Venice International Film Festival on August 31, 2016, the film was released in the United States on December 9, 2016. It was praised for Chazelle's screenplay and direction, Gosling and Stone's performances, music, cinematography and production design. 

The film received seven nominations and won seven awards at the 74th Golden Globes Awards, and received eleven nominations and won five awards including Best Film at the 70th British Academy Film Awards. It also received fourteen nominations and won six categories including Sherzel for Best Director and Stone for Best Actress at the 89th Academy Awards. 

Movie Review

“Nostalgic, Colourful, Joyous CinemaScope Magic”
“The best movie of 2016”
“An romantic musical, infused with intense charisma and devastating emotion”
“A wonderful and loving ode to the dreamers and artists of the world”
“Truly Emotional Movie”

Interesting stories about the film 

1. According to composer Justin Hurwitz, all the piano performances in the film were first recorded by pianist Randy Kerber during pre-production. Then Ryan Gosling took piano lessons 2 hours a day, 6 days a week to learn the music.

2. The audition scene, where the casting director interrupts Mia's emotional performance to take a phone call, was inspired by one of Ryan Gosling's actual auditions.

3. Emma Watson declined the role of Mia due to the filming schedule of Beauty and the Beast (2017), while Ryan Gosling declined the role of the Beast in that film to appear in this one. Ironically, Emma Stone later withdrew from the role of Meg March in Little Women (2019), overlapping with the schedule for promoting The Favourite (2018), and Watson was cast to replace her in the part.

4. Because Damien Chazelle wanted to shoot the scenes in the old musical tradition without cuts or editing, Ryan Gosling practiced playing the piano and played them all on his first day of shooting. Co-star John Legend, who is a classically trained a pianist, said he was jealous of how quickly Gosling learned to play so well.

I will take a break during the Korean Thanksgiving holiday season from tomorrow to the next Sunday.

Thank you.

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The Works by Amedeo Modigliani: 65. Portrait of Pinchus Kremegne (1916)

 

 

How are you?

Modigliani Institute Korea (MIK) is currently introducing artworks of Amedeo Modigliani one by one every week.

The 65th work to introduce for this week is “Portrait of Pinchus Kremegne” in 1916.

This work is an expressionist style portrait and an oil painting on a canvas with the size of 82 x 65.5 cm, and is held in the Kunstmuseum Bern in Bern, Switzerland.

Kunstmuseum Bern

Pinchus Kremegne was a Lithuanian Jewish-French artist, born on July 28, 1890 and died on April 5, 1981, known as a sculptor, painter and lithographer.

Pinchus Kremegne

Kremegne was a friend of Chaim Soutine and Michel Kikoine and studied sculpture at the Vilnius Academy of Art. Since he was a Jew, he became a target of the pogroms, which persecuted the Jews, and fled to Paris in 1912. Then he encouraged Soutine to come to Paris, and Soutine came to Paris six months later than Kremegne. 

Coming to Paris, Kremegne joined the group of painters of Montparnasse and soon became one of the respected artists of La Ruche, where he met Chagall, Fernand Léger and Modigliani.

However, after Soutine comes to Paris, the two become companions in misery who suffer from poverty. Kremegne recalled the period after a long time, saying, "To make something beautiful, you have to suffer enough to starve to death!" 

Kremegne, a sculptor, exhibited three pieces of his sculptures in 1914 in Salon des Independants, but in 1915, he gave up sculpture and devoted himself to painting. Then, Kremegne, who painted a series of Red Nudes in 1916, and later still lifes and landscapes, began selling his works to Zborowski and to Paul Guillaume.

Around 1960, Kremegne left Paris and built a house and settled in Ceret, a small town in the Pyrenees, where he died. Kremegne is also an artist today who was underestimated because he is overshadowed by the fame of Soutine and Chagall.

The portrait of Kremegne introduced today can be considered as a companion piece to that of Soutine, which Modigliani painted at the same period. Modigliani depicted them in which both Kremegne and Soutine put their hands on their knees and have same pose such as brothers sharing many other factors, such as poverty, origin, and art, in addition to their hometown. 

Chaim Soutine (1916)

Comparing the two paintings, first of all, the difference of clarity of the face can be shown. Soutine has clearer eyes, nose, and mouth than Kremegne, and one of the big differences is the presence of pupils. In general, Modigliani often depicted the pupils of model when he thinks he understands the model's mind and personality very well. 

Pinchus Kremegne vs. Chaim Soutine

The two were friends of Modigliani, but he seems to suggest that his friendship with Soutine, who was his very close friend, is much greater and more faithful than that with Kremegne by drawing his appearance clearer as well as his pupils. And regardless of the presence of the pupils, Soutine's appearance seems to be tired of living and worry about his future, and Kremegne's appearance looks sad. 

Another difference is the colors of their jackets. Soutine's light jacket and Kremegne’s dark jacket show a sharp contrast of colors. Therefore, the only bright colors in Kremegne's portrait are from his hands and face. 

Another difference between the two paintings can be found in the position of the right hand’s fingers. Soutine's fingers look as if a priest is giving the benediction, but Kremegne's fingers are laid out in a normal position. This may have been a discriminatory allusion by Modigliani for the lineage of Soutine’s priestly family that Soutine and Kremegne had not in common although Modigliani viewed the two as brothers who shared many elements.

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ARTIST OF THE WEEK: 48. Raphael, ACJ Art Academy

Born: April 6, 1483; Urbino, Italy 

Died: April 6, 1520; Rome, Italy 

Active Years: 1499 - 1520

Nationality: Italian

Art Movement: High Renaissance

Field: painting, architecture

Influenced by: Albrecht Durer, Paolo Uccello, Luca Signorelli, Michelangelo, Hans Memling

Influenced on: Giorgio de Chirico, Annibale Carracci, Jacopo Bassano, Paul Gauguin, Francisco Pacheco, Titian, Nicolas Poussin, Edgar Degas, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Anton Raphael Mengs

Teachers: Pietro Perugino

Friends/Co-workers: Albrecht Durer, Sebastiano del Piombo

 

Raphael was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance, born on April 6, 1483 and died on April 6, 1520. His work is respected for its clarity of form, ease of composition, and visual achievement of the Neoplatonic ideal of human grandeur. 

Together with Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, he is one of the three great masters of that period.

Raphael, who was very active, ran a large workshop made up of many pupils and left many works despite his early death at 37. 

Many of his works are in the Vatican Palace, where the Raphael Rooms, painted with frescoes, are the central and the largest work of his career. His most famous work is The School of Athens in the Vatican Stanza della Segnatura, and he was extremely influential in his lifetime.

The School of Athens, Raphael (1509–1511)

First described by Giorgio Vasari, his career falls into three phases and three styles such as his early years in Umbria, a period when he absorbed the artistic traditions of Florence, and a period when he worked in Rome for two Popes and their close associates.

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3. Paul Gauguin

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5. Nicolas Poussin

6. Edgar Degas

7. Pierre-Auguste Renoir

8. Anton Raphael Mengs

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68. History of Rock Music: 7. Garage Rock, ACJ Music Academy

 

How are you?

Following the last week, I am going to start my 68th lecture.

The topic for this week is “Garage Rock”, the 7th theme of “The History of Rock”.

This lecture is a summary of the contents of “68. History of Rock Music: 7. Garage Rock” introduced on November 12, 2016.

Garage rock is a style of rock and roll that gained popularity mainly in the US and Canada in the mid-1960s. The term garage rock was derived from the fact that many of the musicians of this genre are young amateurs and often practiced in the garages of their homes, and garage bands refer to bands that are included in this genre. 

A pioneer of psychedelic rock, this genre is characterized by powerful sound having an amateurish feeling, innocent feeling, or intentionally not-refined feeling along with the distortion sound of a guitar using a fuzzbox. 

In the mid-1960s, Garage Rock had a completely different influence than before. It was the first visit of the Beatles in the United States in February 1964, following by the birth of British Invasion leading bands from 1964 to 1966. As the result, many bands in the United States changed their musical styles and it became a stimulus for many young people to form bands. 

The Beatles arriving at John F. Kennedy International Airport
(7 February 1964)

Garage bands were particularly influenced by harder, blues-based British beat groups such as the Kinks, the Who, the Animals, the Yardbirds, and the Rolling Stones. 

Many garage bands have also been formed outside North America, among which British band the Troggs has achieved worldwide success with the song "Wild Thing." One of the first successful garage bands across the United States was the Beau Brummels, who released songs "Laugh, Laugh" and "Just a Little." 

The Troggs

Garage Rock was not exclusively for men, and many all-female bands playing musical instruments were born. One of these earliest bands is Goldie and the Gingerbreads from New York, and The Luv'd Ones from Michigan is best known for their song "Up Down Sue."

Goldie and the Gingerbreads

The Pleasure Seekers from Detroit, formed in 1964, was a band which Suzi Quatro, who later became famous solo rockers, and her sisters were members and the band changed its name to the Cradle band in 1969, changing their music style to a heavier sound than before.

The Pleasure Seekers

 

Around 1966, the popularity of garage rock reached its peak, but after 1968, as more sophisticated types of rock music took over the music market, garage rock's popularity began to decline. 

New styles of music such as psychedelic rock, acid rock, progressive rock, heavy metal, country rock and bubblegum pop were born or replaced garage rock. At the end of 1968, garage rock mostly disappeared from the music charts, and the Balloon Farm band's song "Question of Temperature" was one of the last songs in the genre, with some hits.

Balloon Farm

Garage rock, which initially had no special name and was not recognized as a separate genre, began to be classified as a specific genre from the early 1970s, when it was mostly disappeared. 

In an effort to define it as a separate genre, some critics in the early 1970s referred to this style as "garage punk", "protopunk" or "60s punk", and distinguished it from the genre commonly known as punk rock in the mid and late 1970s.

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Next week, I will lecture 8th topic “Extreme Metal”.

Thank you.