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Letter from Venice: 'La La Land' kicks off a grand old festival in high style

The Venice International Film Festival has its share of red carpets, as just about all festivals do. But Venice, which kicked off its 73rd edition Wednesday night with the fizzy modern musical La La Land, also has an entryway all its own.

Culture critic Chris Vognar is at the Venice Film Festival participating in a panel discussion on the Biennale College, a higher-education training workshop for the development and production of micro-budget feature-length films. He will be reporting from Venice for the next week.

The Venice Film Festival has its share of red carpets, as just about all festivals do. But Venice, which kicked off its 73rd edition Wednesday night with the fizzy modern musical La La Land, also has an entryway all its own.

Call it the wet carpet. To get from the airport to the Lido, the Venice sandbar where the festival takes place, you take a water taxi along the lovely Laguna Veneta. The water narrows as you approach the festival headquarters, at the Hotel Excelsior, and autograph seekers and photographers crowd the dock, looking for someone famous. When they see someone not famous, like, say, me, their disappointment is palpable.

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We got here about 9 a.m. local time, or 2 a.m. in Dallas, groggy but enchanted. That gave us time to catch an early screening of La La Land, a kinetic delight even to my bleary eyes.

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It's a Los Angeles fable, set to song, about romantic creatives trying to make a life and follow their passions. Emma Stone is an actress sick of the humiliating audition grind. Ryan Gosling is a jazz pianist trying to stay employed and make enough cash to open his own club. They dig each other.

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The film functions as both a love letter to and a cultural map of L.A.; the Griffith Observatory, in an overt nod to Rebel Without Cause, is the site for the film's most magical number. Directed by Damien Chazelle (Whiplash), La La Land honors the musical with its use of long takes that allow us to drink in the movements and emotions. I eagerly await another viewing.

Ciao, for now.