The film was nominated for 5 Oscars out which it won three: Best Actor in a Supporting Role (J.K. Simmons), Best Sound Mixing (Craig Mann, Ben Wilkins, Thomas Curley ) and Best Film Editing (Tom Cross). I believe Simmons has given his best performance in this film. Off the heels of Whiplash’s success, Chazelle came out with another film- La La Land (2016). The film starred Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling. This film too was surrounded around music and was an absolute visual and narrative treat. It performed great at the box office as well as garnered critical acclaim. The film was nominated for a record tying 14 awards and out of which the film won 6: Best Director (Damien Chazelle), Best Actress (Emma Stone), Best Cinematography (Sandgren), Best Original Score (Hurwitz), Best Original Song (“City of Stars”), and Best Production Design (the Wascos).
It almost won Best Picture until “correct” envelope was delivered to the presenter. With this, Chazelle (32) became the youngest person to win an Oscar and Golden Globe for Directing in the same year. Naturally after two great films, I was always excited for what Chazelle would do next. However, he was dormant for a while until we got the update that he is working on a new feature film – Babylon. We’ve hearing a lot of things about Babylon but nothing in particular except for a few images from Vanity Fair. However today we have gotten the first official trailer of the film.
Babylon Trailer: Margot Robbie and Brad Pitt Shine in The Golden Age!
The trailer is not a short one, however, due to the chaos that is going on in this world we’re barely able to capture or a get sense of what exactly is this film about? We don’t have any details of the plot. It has been very intentionally kept under the lid. Based on the trailer and the information that has been made available to us, this is what I think the plot is: Brad Pitt stars as Jack Conrad, a party-loving superstar in his late prime, whereas, Robbie plays Nellie LaRoy, a talented young actress, whose recent breakthrough performance has made heads turn.
The images in the trailer don’t fail capture the lust for fame in 1920s Hollywood. The sets look lavish and each character so distinct. The film is supposed to be different period piece and both of these things are a major requirement. While I though we’ll get to see more of Tobey Maguire’s character however, his screen time in the trailer was limited to the one still we’d already seen. The trailer mostly focuses on Margot Robbie, Brad Pitt and Diego Calva who has a French accent in the film.
The film is going to present us with much darker characters and themes than Chazelle’s previous works. However, the themes would reminiscent as this film too plays with themes like ambition, love, lust for success. These themes are predominant in Chazelle’s filmography. In comparison the trailer has more of a fun, dark comedic vibe. All I know is this is a film you have to watch on the big screen. The trailer looks fantastic as well. I’m extremely excited for Babylon.
The film has been made on an hefty budget of $110 Million and we can see where the money has gone. Babylon stars Brad Pitt and Margot Robbie in the lead with supporting performances from Diego Calva, Jovan Adepo, Li Jun Li, Jean Smart, and Tobey Maguire.
Watch the Full Official Trailer of Babylon on YouTube:
Damien Chazelle’s Babylon will hit select theatres this Christmas i.e., 25th December 2022 and will release worldwide on 6th January 2022.
If you have any questions regarding Babylon, feel free to ask in the comments below. For more content, stay tuned. As usual, like, subscribe and share our articles as we here are trying to build a community of people High on Cinema!
