Happy Endings by Damien Chazelle
- Admin
- Jan 8, 2018
- 4 min read
Updated: Jan 25, 2018
Post by: Emily McTyre
When you think of happy endings, what comes to mind? Most commonly, we think of a fairytale ending: Cinderella and Prince Charming riding their carriage into the sunset. It is something we all grew up with, something we all wish to be true. But life throws curveballs, and sometimes the end of a story isn’t all we expected. It can still be happy, though, in its own fashion.
In recent storytelling, Damien Chazelle proves to be the King of Happy Endings. Chazelle wrote and directed two of his feature films Whiplash (2014) and La La Land (2016), both pure examples of the not-so-happy happy ending. He shows that happiness doesn’t always stem from what we expect. Chazelle combines his audience’s preconceptions of a happy ending with life’s complications to portray a more realistic idea of happiness in the world we live in.
If you haven’t seen Whiplash or La La Land: firstly, don’t read ahead because SPOILERS, and secondly, go watch them! They’re both fantastic! If you have seen them, let me give you a brief refresher before we dive into the analysis.
Whiplash is a story about Andrew Neiman (Miles Teller), a drummer who craves to be “one of the greats.” He attends the Schaffer Conservatory of Music in New York City and learns/suffers under the direction of the infamous Terence Fletcher (J.K. Simmons). As a cost to his perpetual determination, Andrew’s relationships fall apart, his mental health plummets, and he sheds tons of literal blood, sweat, and tears. Yet in the end, he plays his heart out in one of the most intense scenes ever to be filmed. He proves himself and shows that he can be at the top, but at what cost?
La La Land is a story of two dreamers, Mia and Sebastian (Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling). Both characters are struggling to make it in the glorified Los Angeles; Sebastian wants to be a renowned jazz musician with his own club, and Mia wants to be a successful actress and playwright. They find each other and fall in love, their story molding itself into a classic Hollywood drama…complete with musical numbers. Ultimately, they begin deviating from their aspirations for the sake of each other. Only when they follow their dreams again, do they find what they’ve been longing for. Still, they’ve lost each other for the sake of their art.
In both stories, Chazelle uses his audience’s preconceptions of what happiness means and what a love story entails. To most people, a happy ending is one where two people fall in love and live happily ever after or where the protagonist wins over some evil and gets what he or she wants. No and’s, but’s, or if’s about it. Realistically, though, happiness is so much more complex, so much more complicated. In order to know what happiness is, we have to understand what sadness is, and Chazelle twists this pragmatic approach into the mix effortlessly.
Love and determination carry themselves through both plots not only in romantic situations, but also in the artists’ passions. Love and determination are almost interchangeable in Chazelle’s narratives. Sebastian’s love is the idea of becoming a celebrated jazz artist and establishing a classic jazz club. Mia’s love is the idea of having her name in lights, sharing her life through her writing, and, ultimately, overcoming rejection. Andrew’s love is the idea of being “one of the greats” and becoming an idol.
At face value, these loves may seem far-fetched or even unreachable for most. But to these characters, these loves are their happy endings. Yet, in order to get there, they have to deal with life’s complications.
Chazelle has gone through a number of circumstances in his life that mirror those of his characters. Write what you know, right? Like Andrew and his drumming, Chazelle played the trumpet and was once told that he would never succeed. (Unlike Andrew, though, he dropped the instrument and eventually found his way to filmmaking. We are glad that he did!) However, now that he has the power to create characters to share with an audience, Chazelle is able to live out what might have been had he stuck with music as an art. Similar to Mia and Sebastian, Chazelle set out to find success in Los Angeles and felt the struggles of an artist. There was a lot of finding jobs here and there, a lot of failed passion projects, a lot of rejection, and not a lot of money. But ultimately, he became an award-winning director and writer.
In real life, people don’t get everything they want. In a utopia, Mia and Sebastian would have fallen in love and achieved their dreams with no hassle — Chazelle even shows this in the epilogue scene, playing to those preconceptions of happiness! In Whiplash’s alternative ending, Andrew would have succeed without even trying, avoided the intimidation of Schaffer’s programs, and achieved his place as a star musician. But each of these characters suffer at one point or another, even multiple times throughout the story. Mia and Sebastian both get rejected, sacrifice their beliefs for fame, and lose each other in the process. Andrew suffers mentally, emotionally, and physically and digs himself into a rhythmic loophole, trapped by his own desire.
Ultimately, though, each character gets what he or she wanted all along. Mia is a star, Sebastian has his club, and Andrew proves himself. Sure, Chazelle knows his audience would love a story where Mia, Sebastian, and Andrew achieve their dreams without struggle, where romance flourishes, and where happiness flows from the screen. But he also knows that if this were the case, these stories wouldn’t be near as good as they are. His stories are real. They are about real people working toward real dreams in real cities with real struggles.
Each of us has a dream whether it be traveling to a new place, getting that promotion you’ve always wanted, meeting someone you want to spend the rest of your life with, learning how to play an instrument, or even just finding what makes you happy. Chazelle leaves his audience with the message that with resilience and persistence, dreams can come true and we will all find our happy endings…sometimes it just doesn’t happen exactly the way we expect.
Comments