Who influenced La La Land, and what came after

Every connection with its receipt

Damien Chazelle's La La Land is a Hollywood musical built from a jazz drummer's obsessions: the saturated melancholy of French musicals, the MGM backlot, and a Harvard dorm-room partnership with composer Justin Hurwitz. This mix traces the CinemaScope lineage behind it, the Los Angeles it photographs, and the musical revival it helped license.

The Kynda mix for La La Land

• Key Influence · The Umbrellas of Cherbourg by Jacques Demy (1964). Chazelle has repeatedly named Demy as the film's governing spirit, and the debt is structural rather than decorative: the bittersweet ending in which lovers meet years later, having built separate lives, is Cherbourg's architecture transposed to Los Angeles. The block-color production design, the pastel costume palette against ordinary streets, and the idea of a musical about economic compromise rather than escape all descend from Demy.
• Influencia Obscura · A Woman Is a Woman by Jean-Luc Godard (1961). Godard's CinemaScope anti-musical — a film that keeps promising numbers and withholding them, with music cutting in and out mid-scene — gave Chazelle permission to break the genre's rules while still loving it. The abrupt tonal shifts, the primary-color Parisian apartment, and the self-aware affection for Hollywood form from outside it all surface in La La Land's handling of songs that begin as realism and drift into fantasy.
• Local Roots · Rebel Without a Cause by Nicholas Ray (1955). La La Land quotes Ray directly: Mia and Sebastian watch Rebel at the Rialto, then drive to the Griffith Observatory where its planetarium scene was shot, and float into the air beneath the dome. Ray's CinemaScope Los Angeles — the observatory, the hillside roads, the city as a place of adolescent longing and invented identity — is the exact geography Chazelle photographs sixty years later in the same aspect ratio.
• Beyond the Medium · Sunday at the Village Vanguard by Bill Evans Trio (1961). Chazelle came to film as a jazz drummer, and the piano-trio intimacy of Evans's Vanguard sessions is the music Sebastian is defending — a club tradition of interplay and small rooms that the film insists is worth preserving. Hurwitz's score leans on that harmonic language, and Gosling's months of piano training were aimed at making solo passages read as live, continuous playing rather than cutaway hand doubles.
• Peer · Moonlight by Barry Jenkins (2016). The two films are permanently linked by the 2017 Best Picture envelope error, but they are genuine contemporaries: both are lushly scored, color-saturated features by young American directors who use widescreen composition and a three-part time structure to track love deferred. Jenkins and Chazelle emerged from the same festival-to-studio pipeline and both built films around music as emotional narration.
• Key Collaborator · First Man by Justin Hurwitz (2018). Hurwitz met Chazelle at Harvard, played in a band with him, and has scored every one of his features; he wrote La La Land's songs with lyricists Pasek and Paul and won two Oscars for the score and 'City of Stars'. His First Man score — theremin, harp and a waltz theme carrying a story about private grief inside a public mission — shows the same method of building a whole film around one recurring melodic cell.
• Legacy · tick, tick... BOOM! by Lin-Manuel Miranda (2021). Miranda's directorial debut is unimaginable without the post-La La Land studio appetite for original movie musicals about artists failing to make it. It shares the structure exactly: a young composer in a city, a partner whose ambitions pull elsewhere, numbers that slide out of kitchen-sink realism into fantasy, and an ending that values the work made over the relationship preserved.

What influenced La La Land

• The Umbrellas of Cherbourg by Jacques Demy (1964). Chazelle names Demy’s musical as the film he continually aspires to. “Then I saw Umbrellas of Cherbourg for the first time. It’s my personal favorite. I think it’s the greatest movie ever made. It’s the one I’m always chasing.” (vogue.com)
• Gene Kelly (also via Singin' in the Rain, It's Always Fair Weather) (themoviedb.org)
• Top Hat by Mark Sandrich (1935). Discussing a dance scene from Top Hat, Chazelle explains a quality of its musical storytelling that interests him. “It feels like it just flows seamlessly from real life,” he says. “You know, no matter how fake it seems, it is actually very natural.” (theworld.org)
• Fred Astaire (1899). Chazelle sought to model the musical-number filming on Astaire’s work. “The duet was inspired by ‘A Lovely Day to be Caught Out in the Rain’, a Fred and Ginger number. We just love how they’ve got this beautiful chemistry together and again that they have this wonderful arch to their dance.” (danceinforma.com)
• Ginger Rogers. Chazelle sought to model the musical-number filming on Rogers’s work. “The duet was inspired by ‘A Lovely Day to be Caught Out in the Rain’, a Fred and Ginger number. We just love how they’ve got this beautiful chemistry together and again that they have this wonderful arch to their dance.” (danceinforma.com)
• The Band Wagon by Vincente Minnelli (1953) “The film also makes visual allusions to Hollywood classics such as Broadway Melody of 1940 , Singin' in the Rain , The Band Wagon , and An American in Paris .” (Wikipedia)
• The Wizard of Oz by Victor Fleming. The article reports Chazelle’s comparison of an opening scene to The Wizard of Oz. “Chazelle compared the scene to the yellow brick road leading to the Emerald City in The Wizard of Oz (1939).” (Wikipedia)
• Singin' in the Rain by Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen (1952). The article identifies visual allusions to Singin’ in the Rain. “The film also makes visual allusions to Hollywood classics such as Broadway Melody of 1940 , Singin' in the Rain , The Band Wagon , and An American in Paris .” (Wikipedia)
• Pulp Fiction by Quentin Tarantino (1994). Chazelle discusses the pacing of Pulp Fiction’s dance scene, which the article reports he studied while making La La Land. “They really spend their time in just pure, unvarnished dialogue for many, many minutes before that dance happens” (theworld.org)
• The Young Girls of Rochefort by Jacques Demy. The article particularly emphasizes The Young Girls of Rochefort as a stylistic inspiration. “The style and tone of the film were inspired by Jacques Demy 's The Umbrellas of Cherbourg and The Young Girls of Rochefort , especially the latter, which was more dance and jazz-oriented.” (Wikipedia)
• Broadway Melody of 1940 by Norman Taurog. The article identifies a visual allusion to Broadway Melody of 1940. “The film also makes visual allusions to Hollywood classics such as Broadway Melody of 1940 , Singin' in the Rain , The Band Wagon , and An American in Paris .” (Wikipedia)
• Spencer Tracy. Chazelle compares the film’s lead pairing to the screen partnership of Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn. “He stated that the duo "feel like the closest thing that we have right now to an old Hollywood couple" as akin to Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn , Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers , Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall , and Myrna Loy an…” (Wikipedia)
• Sunday at the Village Vanguard by Bill Evans Trio (1961) “Evans influenced the character Seb's wardrobe in the 2016 film La La Land.” (en.wikipedia.org)
• An American in Paris by Vincente Minnelli (1951). The article identifies visual allusions to An American in Paris. “The film also makes visual allusions to Hollywood classics such as Broadway Melody of 1940 , Singin' in the Rain , The Band Wagon , and An American in Paris .” (Wikipedia)
• It's Always Fair Weather by Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen. Chazelle wanted La La Land to emulate the widescreen look exemplified by It's Always Fair Weather. “He also wanted the film to emulate the widescreen, CinemaScope look of 1950s musicals such as It's Always Fair Weather .” (Wikipedia)
• Whiplash. The article connects the two films through their character development and themes. “It shares some character development and themes with Chazelle's previous musical work, Whiplash ; Chazelle said: "They're both about the struggle of being an artist and reconciling your dreams with the need to be human.” (Wikipedia)
• Singin' in the Rain by Stanley Donen (1952) (themoviedb.org)
• Boy Meets Girl by Leos Carax (1984) (themoviedb.org)
• A Woman Is a Woman by Jean-Luc Godard (1961) (themoviedb.org)
• Chet Baker Sings by Chet Baker (1954) (musicbrainz.org)
• Kind of Blue by Miles Davis (1959) (musicbrainz.org)

Peers and kindred spirits

• Justin Hurwitz. Hurwitz composed and orchestrated the film’s songs and score. (also via First Man) “I was accompanying her on piano, letting her lead the song and take the space she needed to act it.” (vulture.com)
• Mandy Moore. Mandy Moore choreographed the film. “Damien and I would sit and talk at length about each dance scene. He was passionate and so collaborative.” (danceinforma.com)
• Pasek and Paul. Pasek and Paul wrote lyrics for the film. “We like thinking about songs that move stories forward. In particular, on this song, it was our goal to try to make it as much as a verb as possible; once Mia sings it, things change forever for her.” (vulture.com)
• Boogie Nights by Paul Thomas Anderson (1997) “Chazelle held screenings on the soundstages every Friday night of classical films that had inspired him for the film, including The Umbrellas of Cherbourg , Singin' in the Rain , Top Hat , and Boogie Nights .” (Wikipedia)
• Crazy, Stupid, Love. by Glenn Ficarra and John Requa (2011) “She followed this with a supporting role in Glenn Ficarra and John Requa's romantic comedy Crazy, Stupid, Love (2011) alongside Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling and Julianne Moore.” (en.wikipedia.org)
• American Hustle by Linus Sandgren (2013) “For his work on La La Land (2016), which he shot in the classic Cinemascope ratio of 2.55:1, he won the Academy Award, BAFTA, Critics Choice and other awards for his cinematography.” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Mulholland Drive by David Lynch (2001) (themoviedb.org)
• First Man by Justin Hurwitz (2018) “Having been fond of musicals during his time as a drummer, Chazelle first conceptualized the film alongside Justin Hurwitz while attending Harvard University together.” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Baby Driver by Edgar Wright (2017) (themoviedb.org)
• Rebel Without a Cause by Nicholas Ray (1955) (themoviedb.org)
• Moonlight by Barry Jenkins (2016) (themoviedb.org)
• Sing Street by John Carney (2016) (themoviedb.org)

Who La La Land influenced

• So Long Boulder City. The theatrical spin-off parodies a show depicted in La La Land. “So Long Boulder City takes the few clues given in La La Land to create a wildly dynamic and hilarious backstory to the character, Mia Dolan.” (stagebuddy.com)
• Haw-Haw Land. The Simpsons episode is identified as a parody of La La Land. “In the closing of The Simpsons episode " Haw-Haw Land ", it is stated that the episode was supposed to be a parody of Moonlight rather than La La Land (itself parodying the mistake at the 89th Academy Awards ).” (Wikipedia)
• NY NY Land. The article identifies NY NY Land as a short-film parody of La La Land. “These include the entire opening segment of the 74th Golden Globe Awards , featuring parodies of "Another Day of Sun," "City of Stars" and the planetarium sequence with host Jimmy Fallon , Nicole Kidman , Amy Adams , Sarah Paulson , Cour…” (Wikipedia)
• Us Again. The animated short Us Again is described as influenced by La La Land. “The 2021 Disney animated short film, Us Again , was also said to have been influenced by the film.” (Wikipedia)
• Love Scenario. IKon’s single drew inspiration from La La Land’s epilogue. “The 2018 single " Love Scenario " by IKon drew heavy inspiration from the film's epilogue sequence.” (Wikipedia)
• Wonka (themoviedb.org)
• tick, tick... BOOM! by Lin-Manuel Miranda (2021) (themoviedb.org)