The movie Damien Chazelle calls “the most shattering transporting work of art”
Generations of filmmakers come and go. In the 1990s, the likes of Quentin Tarantino and Martin Scorsese reigned supreme, and whilst they are still present in the contemporary industry, the baton has been passed to the likes of Robert Eggers, Greta Gerwig and Damien Chazelle. The latter has become something of an American gem, with Chazelle creating visionary tales that sizzle with the majesty of world cinema.
Appearing seemingly out of nowhere in the 2010s, Chazelle surprised the world in 2014 with the release of Whiplash, a frantically paced music drama that starred Miles Teller at the helm. Earning the director an Oscar nomination for ‘Best Adapted Screenplay’, Chazelle announced himself to the industry with a phenomenal crescendo from which he created a flourishing career.
Following the release of Whiplash, Chazelle came a whisker away from winning ‘Best Picture’ for La La Land in 2016, infamously losing out to Barry Jenkins’ movie Moonlight after a mistake that saw the former being crowned the winner before it was swiftly removed. Despite the noise that came after the Oscars balls-up, the movie became a beloved modern musical that dazzled and charmed audiences across the world.
Starring Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling, the movie tells the story of two separate people pursuing artistic greatness in the heights of LA. Along the way, Stone’s Mia and Gosling’s Sebastian fall in love and create musical magic in Chazelle’s film that celebrates the vibrant nature of the genre, pulling inspiration from some of the best all-singing and dancing movies, including 1964’s The Umbrellas of Cherbourg.
A romantic drama where each and every line is sung, Jacques Demy’s film is known for its vibrant colour in its tale of a young woman whose life changes when she is separated from her husband due to war.
Speaking about the movie in an interview with CBS, the filmmaker called it his favourite film, stating: “If I had to send a movie to aliens and kind of describe what cinema is, what this thing called cinema is, I think that’s a movie that doesn’t even make sense on paper in a way because it’s opera but not opera, it’s real but completely fake, it’s happy but heartbreaking”.
Continuing, he adds: “It just doesn’t make sense unless you see it as a movie, and it’s the most shattering transporting work of art I’ve seen in any media”.
Take a look at Chazelle discussing his thoughts regarding The Umbrellas of Cherbourg below.
