Oscar Winner LA LA LAND’s Film Location Map

by JP Webber / SLF

La La Land:  The Ultimate Los Angeles Filming Location Map

The 2017 Oscar Best Picture nominee La La Land captures the sweetest version of Los Angeles with its cotton candy sunsets, iconic architecture, neon signs, quiet streets and towering palm trees.

“You can’t have a better tourism brochure than this movie,” Mayor Eric Garcetti told The Wrap at the musical’s Los Angeles premiere. “It highlights 60 locations. It shows that L.A. is not just about the stars. It’s about the romance.” Garcetti loves the film so much that he declared April 25, 2017 “La La Land Day” in honor of the film. So here we have below – identified more than a dozen of the locations that appeared in the movie:

1   105/110 Freeway Interchange
No one has ever handled LA’s notorious traffic jams as gracefully as the characters in La La Land’s opening musical number, which was shot over two hot days on the 105/110 freeway carpool lane overpass.   (Interstate 110, Los Angeles, CA 90061)

2   Warner Bros. Studios
It is true that many aspiring actors work day jobs in the service industry, but Mia’s workplace, at a coffeeshop on the Warner Brothers lot, is actually fictional. The Los Angeles Times says the production team “plastered the walls with vintage photographs of actors like Lucille Ball and Spencer Tracy.” The faux cafe was set up on the lot, right across the street from a window used in Casablanca. Director Damien Chazelle “was so jazzed when he found out about the historic window that he added a line into the script where Mia gushes over her love of the 1942 classic,” the Times said.   (4000 Warner Blvd, Burbank CA 91522 / Phone 818 954-6000)

3   Mia’s pink apartment
Mia’s pink stucco El Cordova apartment is a lovely example of the Spanish Colonial Revival architecture that helps define the look of LA, Long Beach included. Called Rose Towers, the 20-unit condominium complex, built in 1928, was carefully restored 10 years ago. A 2 bedroom one bath 1291 sqft unit in the building recently went up for sale at $495,000. In writing about the preservation effort, the Los Angeles Times noted the building’s Moorish decorative motifs were “evident in graceful arches, multicolored tiles, wrought iron balconies and carved wooden doors.”   (1728 E 3rd Street, Long Beach CA 90802)

4   Mount Hollywood Drive
On a paved street hugging a hillside inside Griffith Park, Mia and Sebastian tapdance to the movie composer’s original song, “A Lovely Night.” The location overlooking the Valley is called Cathy’s Corner, and, if what’s seen on-screen looks unfamiliar to the local eye, that is because the producers brought in the street lamps and park bench.   (Mt Hollywood Drive, Los Angeles CA 90027)

5   Smoke House Restaurant
The interior of the restaurant where Sebastian begrudgingly plays Christmas tunes was filmed inside the old-school the Smoke House restaurant, which is right across the street from Warner Bros Studios.   (4420 W Lakeside Drive, Burbank CA 91505 / Phone 818 845-3731)

6   “You Are the Star” Mural
This Hollywood Walk of Fame mural, depicting such famous actors as Richard Pryor, Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, and James Dean, sitting in a theater, serves as the exterior of the fictional restaurant from which Sebastian is fired.   (Wilcox Avenue & Hollywood Boulevard, Los Angeles CA 90028)

7   Jar Restaurant
The upscale, retro-modern restaurant where Mia ditches her boyfriend is located near the Beverly Center Mall and also made an appearance in the Paul Rudd and Jason Segel 2009 movie I Love You Man.   (8225 Beverly Blvd, Los Angeles CA 90048 / Phone 323 655-6566)

8   Rialto Theatre
Built in 1925 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the single-screen theater where Mia and Sebastian catch Rebel Without a Cause has been closed since 2007. In its heyday, in addition to movies, it also staged vaudeville acts. It is a romantic setting for a first date, even if Mia and Sebastian’s doesn’t play out quite as planned. The National Park Service website describes it this way: “The interior … is a lavish example of flamboyant eclecticism. Multiple rows of crown molding surround the first level of seating, and below the massive balcony, also finished with extensive molding, hang chandeliers mounted in Moroccan-influenced ceiling fixtures.”   (1023 Fair Oaks Avenue, South Pasadena CA 91030 / Phone 626 799-1824)

9   Griffith Observatory
The observatory is “a monument the same way that the Arc de Triomphe or Big Ben are monuments, but those rise out of a clustered urban environment. Griffith sits atop a hill as if it’s in its own world. That speaks to the sprawl and the spirit of Los Angeles. It’s totally, authentically, ironically its own thing,” director Damien Chazelle told Entertainment Weekly. It’s an architectural stunner made all the more majestic by a beautiful couple floating through the air inside its planetarium.    (2800 E Observatory Avenue, Los Angeles CA 90027 / Phone 213 473-0800)     @wbbrjp

10   Griffith Park Fern Dell
Fern Dell, in the lower part of Griffith Park located by the western entrance, is one of the city’s better kept secrets. It is shady, lush and green, but it is void of the pastel flowers you see blooming when Mia and Sebastian walk through the parklet.   (Western Canyon Road, Los Angeles CA 90068)

11   Grand Central Market
Grand Central Market, which has been around since 1917, is Downtown LA’s open-air market featuring Chinese and Mexican food, hipster coffee and wine bars and pricy cheese and meats. It is one of city’s trendiest food destinations right now. It shows up only briefly in a montage of Mia and Sebastian’s first dates.   (317 S Broadway, Los Angeles CA 90013 / Phone 213 624-2378)

12   Colorado Street Bridge
Their summer romance also brings Mia and Sebastian to this stunning concrete bridge. Spanning nearly 1,500 feet over the Arroyo Seco and built in 1913, it made its first movie appearance eight years later in the silent movie hit The Kid.   (504 W Colorado Blvd, Pasadena CA 91105)

13   Watts Towers of Simon Rodia State Historic Park
As they continue to explore LA, Mia and Sebastian visit this famous folk art monument made from scrap metal and concrete and bedecked with drawings and tile and glass.   (1765 E 107th Street, Los Angeles CA 90002 / Phone 213 847-4646)

14   Angels Flight Railway
From 1901 to 1969, Angels Flight, a short funicular railway, ferried passengers up and down Bunker Hill, which, at the turn of the 20th century, was one of LA’s most fashionable residential neighborhoods consisting of multiple Victorian mansions. Service only resumed almost thirty years later in 1996 after it was rebuilt and relocated. Unfortunately service was suspended again in late 2013 due to safety reasons. La La Land got it up and running again for a shoot, though Downtown News has reported that the state public utilities commission said that should never have happened.   (351 S Hill Street, Los Angeles CA 90013)

15   El Rey Theatre
A John Legend performance was filmed inside the Art Deco music venue on the Miracle Mile district. It was built in 1936 as a movie theater and in 1994 was converted into a live music venue. It is still being used today for dance and concert events.   (5515 Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles CA 90036 / Phone 323 936-6400)

16   The Lighthouse Café
Jazz isn’t huge in LA anymore, but it still is at this cafe near the Hermosa Beach Pier, so it is a natural den for Sebastian in the movie. In the 1950s, the Los Angeles Mirror called the venue “the top citadel of jazz on the south coast.”   (30 Pier Avenue, Hermosa Beach CA 90254 / Phone 310 376-9833)

17   Château Marmont
Booking a (minimum $435 a night hotel) room at The Chateau is proof that you have made it in tinseltown. Congrats, Mia!   (8221 W Sunset Blvd, West Hollywood CA 90046 / Phone 323 656-1010)

18   Orcutt Ranch
The interior shots of Chateau Marmont were filmed inside a Spanish-style adobe at this Los Angeles County Park and popular wedding venue.   (23600 Roscoe Blvd, Canoga Park CA 91304 / Phone 818 346-7449)

19   Blind Donkey
The lowkey whiskey bar in Downtown Long Beach served as the interior of Seb’s.   (149 Linden Avenue Suite B100, Long Beach CA 90802)

“Do not go where the path leads, travel instead where there is no path and leave a trail.”   @wbbrjp

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