The planetarium sequence — Mia and Sebastian drifting up into the stars after slipping into the building at night — was filmed at Griffith Observatory, on the south slope of Mount Hollywood in Griffith Park. It is a working public observatory, it has been free to enter since it opened in 1935, and it is one of the few genuinely democratic landmarks in Los Angeles.
Damien Chazelle's film is a deliberate tour of the city, and most of what it uses is real and visitable. It is also, unusually for a musical, a fairly accurate portrait of Los Angeles geography — the places are where the film says they are.
Griffith Observatory, and its other film
The observatory was funded by a bequest from Griffith J. Griffith, a Welsh-born mining magnate who had donated the surrounding parkland to the city in 1896, on the explicit condition that public access to astronomy be free. It opened in 1935 and the free-admission rule has held ever since.
La La Land is not the first film to use it, and the film knows that. Rebel Without a Cause shot its planetarium sequence and its knife fight there in 1955, and there is a bust of James Dean on the west lawn. La La Land references Rebel directly — the characters watch it at the Rialto and then drive up to the observatory — so the location choice is a deliberate piece of film history, not just a pretty building.
The building underwent a major renovation and expansion between 2002 and 2006, adding exhibition space beneath the lawn while leaving the 1935 exterior intact.
The freeway opening
"Another Day of Sun", the opening number performed on a gridlocked elevated interchange, was filmed on the connector ramp between the 105 and the 110 freeways in south Los Angeles.
The production closed the ramp for two days over a weekend to shoot it, with over a hundred dancers, in August heat on exposed concrete. The sequence is built to look like a continuous take and was assembled from a small number of long takes.
It is not a location you can visit on foot, for obvious reasons. You can drive it.
The rest of the city
The "A Lovely Night" dance, with the bench and the lamp post looking out over the city at dusk, is at Cathy's Corner on Mount Hollywood Drive in Griffith Park — a real bend in the road with a real view, though the bench and lamp post were brought in for the film and are not there now.
The jazz club where Sebastian plays and is fired is the Lighthouse Café in Hermosa Beach, a genuine jazz venue operating since the 1940s. The Rialto Theatre in South Pasadena supplies the cinema; the Warner Bros. lot in Burbank is the studio Mia works at, and the café she works in was built on the lot.
Watts Towers, Angels Flight funicular downtown, the Colorado Street Bridge in Pasadena and Grand Central Market all appear. Sebastian's Seb's club at the end was a set built in a Los Angeles space, not an existing venue.
Visiting the location
- Where
- Griffith Observatory, 2800 East Observatory Road, Los Angeles. Cathy's Corner is on Mount Hollywood Drive in the same park.
- Getting there
- By car up from Los Feliz, or the DASH Observatory bus from the Vermont/Sunset Metro station at weekends and holidays. Parking on the hill is limited and charged.
- Access
- Free admission to the building and grounds, closed Mondays. The planetarium show is ticketed separately and is not free. Grounds open later than the building.
- Go for sunset and stay for dark — the view over the basin and the lit dome are the reason to come, and the building stays open into the evening.
- Parking fills early at weekends. The DASH bus is genuinely easier.
- The planetarium show requires a separate ticket bought on the day; it sells out.
- Cathy's Corner is a short drive or a walk into the park; the bench and lamp post from the film were props and are gone.
Frequently asked questions
Can you visit the La La Land planetarium?
Yes. Griffith Observatory is a public observatory with free admission to the building and grounds, closed on Mondays. The planetarium show itself is ticketed.
Where is the bench from A Lovely Night?
The scene was shot at Cathy's Corner on Mount Hollywood Drive in Griffith Park. The bench and lamp post were brought in for filming and are no longer there — the view is.
Where was the freeway opening number filmed?
On the connector ramp between the 105 and 110 freeways in south Los Angeles, closed for two days over a weekend for the shoot.
Is the jazz club in La La Land real?
The Lighthouse Café in Hermosa Beach is real and has been a jazz venue since the 1940s. Seb's, the club at the end of the film, was a set.