Chazelle's newest epic is all about the man behind the screen.
85/100
Original Release: 2022
Directed By: Damien Chazelle
Cast: Diego Calva, Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie, Jovan Adepo
Favourite Quote:
"There’ll be a hundred more Jack Conrads. Hundred more me’s. Hundred more conversations just like this one, over and over again, until God knows when. Because it’s bigger than you. I know it hurts. No one asks to be left behind. But in a hundred years, when you and I are both long gone, any time someone threads a frame of yours through a sprocket, you will be alive again. You see what that means? One day, every person on every film shot this year will be dead. And one day, all those films will be pulled from the vaults, and all their ghosts will dine together, and adventure together, go to the jungle, to war together. A child born in 50 years will stumble across your image flickering on a screen and feel he knows you, like… like a friend, though you breathed your last before he breathed his first. You’ve been given a gift. Be grateful. Your time today is through, but you’ll spend eternity with angels and ghosts."
Favourite Shot:
Thirty minutes have passed when the title card for Damien Chazelle’s Babylon finally appears.
We have spent the majority of that time witnessing a party. Fat guys have been peed on, every drug under the sun has been taken (in the drug room), cars have crashed into things and men have been divorced.
And in the climactic moment of this crazy, frenzied party, an elephant walks through the room - catching every eye (yes, literally the elephant in the room).
But if we think clearer about the details of this opening sequence we remember the scene where immigrant workers struggled to get this gigantic animal up the hill and into the party. And also that two rich white men asked the same immigrant worker to carry an unconscious young lady out of the party while the elephant distracted everyone.
Babylon lives and breathes this: explaining how the elephant got in the room, revealing the secrets behind the magic trick, introducing you to the man behind the screen. And ultimately suggesting that maybe we should just stick with the screen.
Set in the 1920’s, the film is concerned with the period in film history where Hollywood was transitioning from silent films to sound.
There are four main storylines (amidst a few other minor ones) which all follow a similar pattern.
Sidney Palmer (Jovan Adepo) dreams of being a jazz trumpeter, Nellie LaRoy (Margot Robbie) wants to be a star, Manny Torres (Diego Calva) wants to be with Nellie, and Jack Conrad (Brad Pitt) is a huge actor who hopes that he will stay a huge actor forever.
All four achieve, to some extent, these dreams only to find that they were perhaps better when they were just dreams.
And it’s what comes after this realisation for each character which creates the most interesting aspect of each respective storyline. After dedicating your life to something, what do you do when you achieve it and realise you never wanted it?
It’s like if Andrew Neiman in Whiplash finally became a great drummer and realised he was chasing an idea - not reality. After going through so much - what is your response to this?
For Sidney, we watch, steadily throughout the film, how he is manipulated by Hollywood to become someone else. Someone they want. And it all culminates in this truly uncomfortable and devastating scene where he is asked to do something degrading and terrible. He immediately gives up his big career and goes back to the small stage.
The same happens for Nellie. She initially wows the film industry with her confidence and charisma. But when Hollywood decides they don’t want her to be that person anymore they try to get rid of her.
She eventually can’t bring herself to change and become the person they want and - with her dream lost - becomes despondent and loses herself in drugs and gambling.
Mannie is only in love with the idea of Nellie and what she represents, but barely has any conversations with her - and knows she doesn’t reciprocate his love.
It comes to the point where he almost dies because of her and has to face the reality that there is no other choice than to give up on his love for her.
And Jack Conrad, who is already famous when we meet him, has a passion for movie making and the process of making movies. He makes it his entire world, and refuses to believe that it has to end.
As always though, he falls out of favour and in a second it’s over as though it never happened. And the moment his world is lost, so is he.
All four achieve their deep wishes, but when the reality behind the imaginary is revealed they find themselves lost. Jack and Nellie vanish with their dreams because their dreams were essentially their will to live. And it seems as though Chazelle is suggesting that perhaps if their dreams only continued to be fantasy, they would still be alive.
Pitt’s character is the most devastating to watch. So many highlight moments which include the phone call where he is told his best friend has committed suicide, a nostalgic, quiet moment where he simply looks around a film set and realises completely what he is losing, a final conversation with a friend where he utters the painful words: “Well, I had a good run, didn’t I?”
And of course the switch to handheld camera and decision to stay behind the half opened door for his last moments.
But the standout scene of the film is the conversation he has with journalist Elinor (Jean Smart) just prior to the falls of all the major characters. Some of the best writing Chazelle has ever done and the performances from both actors is phenomenal. It’s a scene that just embodies the simple truth that all things must come to an end at some point - even your dreams.
Chazelle ends the film on a controversial, but spectacular note. Babylon informs us that reality will always be there to knock on your door just as you think your dreams are coming true. It states that imagination never defeats reality, unless you put it on a screen.
The ending suggests that movies are the platform where all of these imaginary dreams can be safely translated to screen. Just like the quote in the beginning:
“You can be in the fucking Wild West! You can be in fucking space! You can be like a gangster. And people dance in movies and people die in movies. And they’re not really dead. It’s fucking amazing.”
The movies are where these dreams go when reality rejects them. You can fall in love with someone you barely know. You can be whoever you want to be. And you can live forever.
Babylon is an epic film, and its not perfect (three hours is probably a little excessive), but it is filled with immaculate detail and passion and creativity. There is scene after scene of excitement, sadness, joy, humour, nausea, darkness (I didn’t even get to mention Tobey Maguire), and passion and love for the art of filmmaking. The use of sound, and silence, is unmatched. The performances are all splendid. The set design is remarkable.
Films are a wasteland for lost dreams, and perhaps that is one reason why they are essential and will go on surviving for as long as humans do.
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