Analysis of the 'La La Land' Break-up

The movie ‘La La Land’ was extremely influential in the cinematic and musical world, simply because of how it was shot, and how well thought out it was. It has some of the best videography and cinematography I have ever seen. Every scene and every second was thought out and filmed with such precision. One of my favorite scenes that shows this is the iconic ‘break-up’ scene.

The break-up scene is shot in blue lighting (probably to symbolize sadness or tension), and shows Sebastian (Ryan Gosling) and Mia (Emma Stone), having dinner at Sebastian's apartment. It starts with a scene of Sebastian's record player spinning, playing a jazz song. This is important because jazz is what the movie is centered around, and by this point in the movie Sebastian is still dreaming of his long awaited jazz club that he worked very hard on. Some would say that Sebastian was wrong for putting the club before Mia, but that was the point of the whole movie. That it is very hard to fall in love and chase your dreams at the same time, unless, of course, your dream is to fall in love.

Mia states that she missed Sebastian, and he doesn't respond to it. I think that this implies that he is still very focused on his dream of the club, rather than Mia, and spending time managing their relationship. Sebastian changes the subject by asking Mia about the play that she is writing and starring in. These awkward date scenes have been used by writers and directors pretty much since movies and films were invented. They are there to signal to the viewer that there is tension

in the relationship. I believe that Sebastian asked Mia about her work, because he wanted her to reciprocate the question so that he can talk about the club, again telling the viewer that he cares more about his jazz club than his relationship with Mia.

After Sebastian asks Mia about her play, Mia talks about how nervous she is to perform in front of people. This, in my opinion, is one of the only times Sebastain is engaged in the conversation, because performing is something he does a lot, and loves to do at his club. After saying she was nervous, Mia says “I mean, I don't need to say that to you, you don't get it.” Again, because Sebastian loves performing in front of people, and Mia knows that it is very important to him.

In this scene, Sebastian rarely does any of the talking, other than talking about his club or interests. Once again, showing that he is disengaged, and by having Mia ask all the questions, show that she is trying to engage him and start conversation/small talk. Mia asks Sebastian “When do you leave? [for a tour] The morning?” and his reply is “Yeah. 6:45. Boise.” A very short answer, showing that he doesn't really care, I think because it doesn't really relate back to his club, but it's also not a very riveting subject.

The scene starts getting tense after Sebastian asks Mia to come to Boise with him. Mia politely declines because she has to rehearse for her play. Sebastian asks “Can’t you rehearse anywhere?” Mia takes slight offense to this, because it feels like he's belittling her, by saying ‘it's something easy that can be done anywhere.’ Mia responds by saying “Anywhere you are?” I think this means that she thinks Sebastian just wants to have her follow him around everywhere, and take breaks in her career, just to go to his tours. She then says “Well, all my stuff is here, and it's [the play] in two weeks, so I don't really think that would be… the best idea… right now, but… I wish I could.” She pauses in this sentence because she can see that Sebastian is hurt by this, and this expresses that Mia cares deeply about Sebastian's emotions, and kind of walks on eggshells around him, so she doesn't hurt his feelings.

The next conversation is what sparks the argument in my opinion because its showing that both of them are very busy people with their careers and desires, and i think this is the point in the movie where both characters realize that their relationship is not going to work out, but also that they don't want to give up on it. Mia asks “When are you finished with the whole tour?” and Sebastian says “After we finish we're going to go record, and then we go back on tour.” I think this small discussion really shows that they are busy people with careers and lives that just don't match. Mias response to this is “So it's like the long haul” Sebastian takes offense to this because later Mia says “Like you're going to stay in this band… for a long time.” Because she wasn't aware that this was a long term commitment. Later Sebastian says “You didn't think it [the band] would be successful.” Mia counters this by saying “No, that's not really what I mean, I just mean that… I mean you're going to be on tour for what? Months now? Years?” You might notice them saying a lot of “What do you mean?” “I mean…” “I don't understand” etc. Revealing that they don't really understand each other in the way that they thought they did, and that they don't communicate everything that they need to.

By this point in the scene, they start interrupting each other a lot and stumbling over their own words, unveiling panic, because they both know that this is going to spark an argument. Further in the argument Mia says “People love what other people are passionate about.” and Sebastian says “Not in my experience.” Personally I think that this is a reference to Mia, really early on in the relationship, saying that she doesn't like jazz, and Sebastian still believes that that is true, even though Mia had said earlier that she likes jazz now because of him.

This isn't even the whole argument but I truly believe that this is the most important part of the movie, and influenced many other directors, writers, and authors.

In conclusion, obviously I think La La Land is a great movie, and I think everyone should watch it, but I also think everyone should analyze it and translate it into their own lives, because this scene is very important and this argument was very preventable.