DHAKA: ‘La La Land’, starring Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling, is to open the 73rd Venice International Film Festival.

The musical is written and directed by Whiplash’s Damien Chazelle.

Chazelle said he was ‘thrilled and honored’ by the festival’s invitation, reports the BBC.

‘It is deeply humbling for us to join the company of their previous opening night films, and we could not be more excited to share our movie with the audience in Venice,’ he said.

The film also stars JK Simmons, who won an Oscar for best supporting actor for his performance in Whiplash, and singer John Legend.

Festival director Alberto Barbera called the film ‘a surprising tribute to the golden age of American musicals, from An American in Paris by Vincent Minnelli to New York, New York by Martin Scorsese’.

‘It is a film that does not merely reinvent the musical genre, it gives it a brand new start.’

‘If Whiplash was the revelation of a new filmmaker, ‘La La Land’ is his definitive, albeit precocious, consecration among the great directors of Hollywood’s new firmament,’ he said.

BDST: 1612 HRS, JUN 18, 2016
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