美国国家公共电台 NPR Behind 'La La Land,' A Long Relationship Between A Director And A Composer

 

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

The movie "La La Land" has already won seven Golden Globe Awards. It's nominated for 14 Oscars, including best original score and two best original songs. The music and the film's story are inseparable. It is a musical after all. But Maureen McCollum of Wisconsin Public Radio reports that the collaboration¹ between the composer of "La La Land" and its director goes all the way back to college.

MAUREEN MCCOLLUM, BYLINE²: "La La Land" tells the story of two struggling artists in Los Angeles who can't launch their careers. Composer Justin Hurwitz and director Damian Chazelle already had a successful track record with their previous film, "Whiplash." But Hurwitz says selling a traditional musical in 21st-century Hollywood was not easy.

JUSTIN HURWITZ: Our challenge was to make a movie that wouldn't feel old-fashioned or a soundtrack, songs and score, that wouldn't sound like they actually could have been in any of those older movies but also make it new, make it modern.

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

MCCOLLUM: Hurwitz does it by mixing American popular song with contemporary pop and big band jazz.

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

MCCOLLUM: The composer was born in California, but his family moved to Milwaukee, Wisc., when he was in middle school. And he calls himself a Milwaukee native. He began studying piano at the Wisconsin Conservatory³ of Music right after the move. And his piano teacher, Stefanie Jacobs, says Hurwitz always wanted to dive into big projects.

STEFANIE JACOBS: His senior year in high school, he learned the entire Beethoven first concerto⁴, and he played it with a community orchestra, and he played it really well.

MCCOLLUM: No easy task for an 18-year-old, but Jacobs says Hurwitz was always a strong-willed, independent student who wasn't afraid of failing.

JACOBS: There are several different approaches to being lost, and one would be to just sort of swim with whatever tide is carrying you. And one would be to strike out and look. And I would say that Justin would fall into the latter category.

MCCOLLUM: Hurwitz went on to Harvard University where he met Damien Chazelle. They were in a pop band together. They also collaborated⁵ on a senior thesis that became the prototype for "La La Land," the acclaimed⁶ black-and-white independent musical "Guy And Madeline On A Park Bench."

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSICAL, "GUY AND MADELINE ON A PARK BENCH")

DESIREE GARCIA: (As Madeline, singing) Dancing, yes I was dancing with angels who'd come down on a lark⁷. And what's funny I think I felt a spark when I kissed the boy in the park.

MCCOLLUM: Chazelle says the only reason he wrote that movie was because Hurwitz agreed to compose its music.

DAMIEN CHAZELLE: If he had said no, our roads would've been very, very different, and there would certainly never have been a "La La Land."

MCCOLLUM: He says he knew that as soon as he heard some of Hurwitz's music he'd stumbled upon a gold mine.

CHAZELLE: The smartest decision I ever made was to latch⁸ onto him and not let go.

MCCOLLUM: When Chazelle and Hurwitz finally got the green light to make "La La Land," they wrote and composed hand in hand. The first task Chazelle put to the composer was to come up with a main theme.

(SOUNDBITE OF JUSTIN HURWITZ'S "MIA AND SEBASTIAN'S THEME")

HURWITZ: And it took me a really long time, and I just spent so much time at the piano going through demo after demo, idea after idea. As soon as I came up with that melody, you know, it was, OK, wow, that's the theme of the movie.

MCCOLLUM: He and Chazelle also asked their stars to help create the sound of the film by singing some of the songs live on camera while Hurwitz played the keyboard backstage.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "CITY OF STARS")

EMMA STONE AND RYAN GOSLING: (Singing) I don't care if I know just where I will go 'cause all that I need's this crazy feeling, a rat-tat-tat (ph) on my heart.

HURWITZ: We did that because we wanted those really intimate moments to feel live and to have that live vulnerability and to let Emma and Ryan really act those moments in those songs in a way that probably wouldn't have happened if they had had to pre-record those songs in a music studio months earlier.

MCCOLLUM: The sometimes unorthodox approach that Justin Hurwitz and Damien Chazelle took to collaborating⁹ has paid off, but the director says their sentimental¹⁰ music was never a sure bet.

CHAZELLE: The idea of embracing that, not apologizing for it, not trying to coat it in any kind of irony¹¹ and also embracing the kind of emotions that can come with that that I feel like we downplay in movies these days, you know, just the sort of full-fledged romanticism that maybe movies of an earlier era were able to kind of embrace without hesitation¹². And now it feels like we're a little scared to embrace those sometimes.

MCCOLLUM: But composer Justin Hurwitz says they knew all along what they wanted to do.

HURWITZ: The music and sort of the musical voice of the movie, I think, was always a big part of the concept. Damien knew that I would be composing, so that helped, at least in his mind, guide what the music was going to be.

MCCOLLUM: Hurwitz says Chazelle has another movie in the pipeline¹³, although it's not a musical. And as soon as it gets a green light, Hurwitz will sit back down at his piano to compose once again. For NPR News, I'm Maureen McCollum in Madison, Wisc.

(SOUNDBITE OF "LA LA LAND" FILM)

SIMON: And tomorrow on Weekend Edition Sunday, the man with the longest losing streak¹⁴ in Oscar history - 20 nominations¹⁵, no wins. This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Scott Simon.

(SOUNDBITE OF "LA LA LAND" FILM)

1 collaboration   

n.合作，协作；勾结

参考例句：

• The two companies are working in close collaboration each other.这两家公司密切合作。
• He was shot for collaboration with the enemy.他因通敌而被枪毙了。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 conservatory   

n.温室，音乐学院；adj.保存性的，有保存力的

参考例句：

• At the conservatory,he learned how to score a musical composition.在音乐学校里，他学会了怎样谱曲。
• The modern conservatory is not an environment for nurturing plants.这个现代化温室的环境不适合培育植物。

4 concerto   

n.协奏曲

参考例句：

• The piano concerto was well rendered.钢琴协奏曲演奏得很好。
• The concert ended with a Mozart violin concerto.音乐会在莫扎特的小提琴协奏曲中结束。

5 collaborated   

合作( collaborate的过去式和过去分词 )； 勾结叛国

参考例句：

• We have collaborated on many projects over the years. 这些年来我们合作搞了许多项目。
• We have collaborated closely with the university on this project. 我们与大学在这个专案上紧密合作。

6 acclaimed   

adj.受人欢迎的

参考例句：

• They acclaimed him as the best writer of the year. 他们称赞他为当年的最佳作者。
• Confuscius is acclaimed as a great thinker. 孔子被赞誉为伟大的思想家。

7 lark   

n.云雀，百灵鸟；n.嬉戏，玩笑；vi.嬉戏

参考例句：

• He thinks it cruel to confine a lark in a cage.他认为把云雀关在笼子里太残忍了。
• She lived in the village with her grandparents as cheerful as a lark.她同祖父母一起住在乡间非常快活。

8 latch   

n.门闩，窗闩；弹簧锁

参考例句：

• She laid her hand on the latch of the door.她把手放在门闩上。
• The repairman installed an iron latch on the door.修理工在门上安了铁门闩。

9 collaborating   

合作( collaborate的现在分词 )； 勾结叛国

参考例句：

• Joe is collaborating on the work with a friend. 乔正与一位朋友合作做那件工作。
• He was not only learning from but also collaborating with Joseph Thomson. 他不仅是在跟约瑟福？汤姆逊学习，而且也是在和他合作。

10 sentimental   

adj.多愁善感的，感伤的

参考例句：

• She's a sentimental woman who believes marriage comes by destiny.她是多愁善感的人，她相信姻缘命中注定。
• We were deeply touched by the sentimental movie.我们深深被那感伤的电影所感动。

11 irony   

n.反语，冷嘲；具有讽刺意味的事，嘲弄

参考例句：

• She said to him with slight irony.她略带嘲讽地对他说。
• In her voice we could sense a certain tinge of irony.从她的声音里我们可以感到某种讥讽的意味。

12 hesitation   

n.犹豫，踌躇

参考例句：

• After a long hesitation, he told the truth at last.踌躇了半天，他终于直说了。
• There was a certain hesitation in her manner.她的态度有些犹豫不决。

13 pipeline   

n.管道，管线

参考例句：

• The pipeline supplies Jordan with 15 per cent of its crude oil.该管道供给约旦15%的原油。
• A single pipeline serves all the houses with water.一条单管路给所有的房子供水。

14 streak   

n.条理，斑纹，倾向，少许，痕迹；v.加条纹，变成条纹，奔驰，快速移动

参考例句：

• The Indians used to streak their faces with paint.印第安人过去常用颜料在脸上涂条纹。
• Why did you streak the tree?你为什么在树上刻条纹？

15 nominations   

n.提名，任命( nomination的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Nominations are invited for the post of party chairman. 为党主席职位征集候选人。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Much coverage surrounded his abortive bids for the 1960,1964, and 1968 Republican Presidential nominations. 许多消息报道都围绕着1960年、1964年和1968年他为争取提名为共和党总统候选人所做努力的失败。 来自辞典例句