Through 96 years of auspicious Oscar ceremonies, the event has often witnessed one major contender becoming the punching bag for critical backlash on social media. In 2017, that dubious honor fell to La La Land, after the shocking moment where presenters Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty mixed up the musical with Moonlight, and announced it as Best Picture winner.
Eventually, La La Land not only lost the Oscar for Best Picture but also witnessed a segment of moviegoers shifting from swooning over the film to loathing it. But one person who was unfazed by the Oscars’ mix-up and public comments, was legendary filmmaker Christopher Nolan. Making an exception of watching Damien Chazelle’s Best Picture nominee, three or four times in cinemas, Nolan expressed his love for the film.
Christopher Nolan’s Undying Appreciation for La La Land
Breaking free of Hollywood’s penchant for superhero movies grossing more than a billion dollars worldwide and winning Oscars, Christopher Nolan shifted his vision to making acclaimed pictures like The Prestige and Inception. Further, developing the World War II story Dunkirk in 2017, the filmmaker sat for a casual chat with EW.
During his discussion, Christopher Nolan informed the outlet that his taste in movies has changed with age and with parenthood. He revealed that with growing age and experience, he decided not to see one movie in the theater more than once. But surprisingly, Nolan admitted making an exception for Damien Chazelle’s Best Picture nominee La La Land.
“The one thing that I did notice changing from when I was a kid is, it’s very rare as an older person — I’m almost 47 now — that I’ll go back to see a film because I enjoyed it in a theater. [Though] I did with La La Land; I went back to see that a couple of times.”
Yet again, in Tom Shone’s 2020 book – The Nolan Variations: The Movies, Mysteries, and Marvels of Christopher Nolan, the director admitted his affection and appreciation for the 2016 musical. Publicly expressing his feelings for the genre, Nolan called Damien Chazelle’s movie “extraordinary”.
“La La Land, to me, is an extraordinary film. I saw it three or four times, it’s just an amazing piece of directing, and I don’t usually like musicals.”
Although Christopher Nolan’s appreciation for Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone’s La La Land offered a heightened position to the movie, it also made fans mourn Damien Chazelle’s Oscar loss.
Fans Can’t Get Over La La Land’s Controversial Oscar Loss
Previously following La La Land’s release in 2016, as the movie made its way to the Oscars under the Best Picture category, the film surprisingly faced an unforgettable moment at the event. Never in the history of Academy Awards has anyone witnessed a more controversial and heartbreaking moment than what happened to Damien Chazelle’s musical.
According to EW reports, as Bonnie and Clyde costars Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty reunited to announce the winner of Best Picture, they supposedly mixed up La La Land with Moonlight. With PricewaterhouseCoopers accountant Brian Cullinan mistakenly handing Emma Stone’s Best Actress win for La La Land envelope, Dunaway read the musical’s name aloud as the winner.
Unfortunately, this mix-up led to an embarrassing moment as producers Jordan Horowitz, Marc Platt, and Fred Berger were interrupted mid-speech when Cullinan came onstage and opened the correct Best Picture envelope. This heartbreaking loss followed by an embarrassment left fans baffled at the 2017 Oscars. To date, Emma Stone‘s La La Land fans couldn’t get over the upsetting Best Picture loss, despite the film winning 6 awards out of its record-tying 14 nominations.
La La Land is available on Lionsgate Play.
