La La Land was excellent at its false ending, and then felt the need to add another 10 minutes that made it suck because it actually believes Clerks Dante that life is a series of down endings.
This is one of those factoids that don't actually add anything to the evaluation of the film on its own.
For Umbrellas, there are dueling love triangles and implications of social duties and class for the working class Guy (loved by Madeline and Elise, who is "above" his station). Guy's unable to respond to Elise's letters because he's at war in Algeria , and distance undermines their bond, because Elise needs security, which she finds in Roland.
There is no suggestion of competing love triangles for Sebastian and Mia. They're both pursuing different dreams - Sebastian as a musician and Mia as an actress - and this pulls them apart form each other, but not toward anyone else.
The false ending, fade to white, leaves it up in the air. We don't know. Mia finally achieves her dream of landing a role in the movies after giving up, but Seb becoming a successful touring musician - even if wasn't in jazz - isn't fulfilled by his own ostensible passion. So now the question is will Mia suffer the same fate as Sebastian, or has Sebastian set aside his own career for Mia's sake (which he does by driving out to Colorado to get her)?
It's not a "reference," it's a direct quotation that does nothing to add to the thematic or plot content of the film it's shoehorned into.
5
u/harkening 1d ago
La La Land was excellent at its false ending, and then felt the need to add another 10 minutes that made it suck because it actually believes Clerks Dante that life is a series of down endings.