La La Land has scored seven Golden Globe nominations, won seven Critics’ Choice awards including best picture
The season’s movie event is a box-office hit, earning *to date) $22.2 million domestically and $17.7 million internationally.
The romantic fable is about two dreamers, Mia (Emma Stone) and Sebastian (Ryan Gosling), caught in a love story in the center of the colorful Los Angeles landscape.
Most of the locations in L.A. are unknown to most viewers, including Angelinos.
The Hollywood Reporter provides this useful and charming guide to some of the most memorable locations in La La Land.
The 115-year-old funicular railway in downtown L.A. hasn’t been working since 2013, but that didn’t stop Chazelle. Angels Flight is shown during the leading pair’s memorable love story montage.
Like most Hollywood musicals it contains a scene of a famous studio lot, the Warner backlot. Mia works at a coffee shop on the lot and constantly daydreams; she never seems to get an order right. Sebastian surprises his new love interest, who he called a barista in a scene prior and pokes fun at the lot’s security that is hunting him down after he snuck in. The lot is supposed to be Warner, but the scene was shot at Hollywood Center Studios.
The film centers around Sebastian’s dream of opening his own jazz spot. The film went a little outside of L.A. to Hermosa Beach and the iconic Lighthouse Cafe to film.
The Lighthouse Cafe showed Sebastian’s love for jazz while introducing Mia.
The location also served as a place where you run into old rivals like John Legend’s character. That same scene is Legend’s debut in the film.
The Griffith Observatory is a major tourist attraction, but the may make it a dating spot.
Grand Central Market downtown: Mia and Sebastian eat at Sarita’s, but one of the most famous spots at the market is Eggslut.
The Hermosa Beach Pier, where Gosling sings “City of Stars” and swoons a married woman.
The exuberant opening scene on the freeway, where 101 and 405 connect. Chazelle has said that the opening number served as a reminder to audiences about what they were in for: “It’s part of the reason why we decided to, like a lot of stage shows, begin with a big ensemble number right off the bat. Mainly, it’s a warning sign to people in the audience. If people are not going to be comfortable with it, they’ll leave right away.”
