Damien Chazelle is one of my favorite directors of all time. His talents precedes his age. From the time he has been active he has only made two feature films. The first one was of course his directorial debut – Whiplash (2014). Whiplash was a short film that Chazelle made (available on YouTube) which starred J.K. Simmons. He later went onto convert his short film into a full fledged feature that blew our minds. I’m not a big fan of musicals but there is a distinction with which Chazelle handles his films. Despite being heavy on music you never feel like the plot is being dragged rather the music complements and pushes the plot forward. The quality of the composed pieces are phenomenal. Whiplash is one of my favorite films of the 2010s.
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 until today as Vanity Fair has just released the first look for the film.
Babylon’s First Look Released: The Jazz Age is Back?
Following images are the courtesy of Vanity Fair:
Chazelle’s Babylon is a period drama set in the 1920s Hollywood or the Jazz Age. Chazelle was developing a period piece for over a decade but it is only after his meteoric rise in Hollywood that is his vision is coming to life. It was previously rumored that the film will star Emma Stone and Brad Pitt in lead roles, however, Stone stepped away from the project in 2020 because of scheduling delays. Margot Robbie was then cast in the film in place of Stone and since then the film has been coming along quite well.
While the details regarding the film are quite sparse and the plot of the film has been kept under the lid. The information that has been made available to us is 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 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.
It is going to present us with much darker characters and themes. The images are absolutely stunning and they capture the mighty Hollywood of that time. The film also seems to play around with the type of roles that actors are given. For example, Tobey Maguire looks unrecognizable in the film and from what I can make out, he will play a dark character. I’m sure he’ll be one of the stand outs in the film. The fil has been made on an hefty budget of $110 Million and we can see where the money has gone.
Babylon is one of the highly anticipated films for me this year and the awe-striking images simply elevated my hype for the film. The film can’t get here sooner. 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.
Damien Chazelle’s Babylon will hit theatres this Christmas i.e., 25th December 2022.
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