Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone, Damien Chazelle’s ‘La La Land’ Wow Venice

VENICE — Stars Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone  and director Damien Chapelle wowed the Venice Festival Wednesday morning with “La La Land” – and it took just 10 minutes.

And the Venice reception, if the first press screening and early reviews are anything to go by, will do nothing to stem the groundswell of opinion, backed by a terrific buzz on the movie before it even world premiered at Venice, that
“La La Land” is most certainly a serious Oscar contender in many departments.

Journalists – most Italian, but with a significant minority of international scribes – burst into spontaneous applause at “La La Land’s” first press screening after the musical’s first scene – a spectacular sustained single-shot song and dance number staged in an early morning tail-back on the L.A. highway.

Warm applause broke out at the end of the movie – which is pretty rare at Venice, where movies by venerable auteurs can be boo-ed.

As journalists and fest heads spilled out into the morning sun, on a beautiful day on the Lido, there was wide-ranging almost unanimous praise for Venice’s opening night film.

“La La Land” makes your heart beater faster and gives you a smile, which very few festival movies do these days,” said Karlovy Vary artistic director Karel Och.

He added: “And ‘La La Land’ is about Hollywood, the film industry and America,” predicting a strongly upbeat reaction for the movie in the U.S.

“It was pure poetry. They are incredible actors and singers,” said Tiziana Mantovani, an Italian journalist.

Variety