‘Babylon’: Damien Chazelle pays homage to Hollywood in excessive bacchanalia, for better or for worse

Among the great changes that cinema has undergone throughout its history, we can highlight from the arrival of the blockbuster in the 70s with films such as ‘Jaws’ or ‘Star Wars’ to the technological revolution in the form of digital effects preceded by the trilogy of ‘Lord of the Rings’ or ‘Avatar’. However, perhaps most important of all is the arrival of sound in the late 1920s. Silent films, which had only one sign to represent dialogue, were replaced by sound films with characters speaking for the first time, displacing what which was never seen before and revolutionizing the film industry like never before. Show all of this and more what Damien Chazelle intends to do with ‘Babylon’, the gigantic epic about the paradigm shift in Hollywood and the author’s definitive homage to the seventh art.

The theme of his fourth film could only go more to the hair, as Chazelle has always had a complicated relationship with Hollywood; and more after the traumatic experience at the 2017 Oscars, those of infamy, where ‘Moonlight’ snatched the Best Picture category from him. In the director’s own words, “Babylon” is a love letter to movies, but an attack on the industry. An industry in which, by the way, Chazelle joined in 2014 when he rose to fame by making one of the best early films in memory: the masterful ‘Whiplash’, with an already legendary acting duel between JK Simmons and Miles Teller. But that was in 2016 when The American director went from being a surprising young man to an accomplished filmmaker when he released the brilliant ‘City of Stars: La La Land’. After that, it was obvious that the next thing Chazelle released would be under everyone’s watchful eye. He directed the claimable “First Man,” also starring Ryan Gosling, as well as two episodes of the series “The Eddy.”

For this big event, Chazelle had the creme de la creme. Brad Pitt is Jack Conrad, famous and accomplished silent film actor, the greatest gentleman in Hollywood. As a counterpart, Margot Robbie is Nellie LaRoy, an aspiring star who comes to conquer all, trampling on anyone who serves and taking what she has to take. The third in contention is Diego Calva Hernández, who plays Manny Torres, a waiter who goes here and there satisfying the great characters of the cinema while his head fills with dreams imagining success, in this case, behind the cameras; He is about the viewer’s eyes and ears because they will discover everything at the same time. Three characters imbued with the magic of the city, deceived by ambition and fame, who must adapt or die in the face of the turbulent times afflicting American cinema.. This renowned triumvirate is accompanied by a cast of supporting actors (so many, this film is gigantic) who only feed the crowded scene of flamboyant producers, writers and directors, who make Hollywood a place as unique and attractive as it is dangerous.

The Rise and Fall of the Dawn of Hollywood

That said, we could divide the film into two clearly differentiated parts. The first, made up of a very long initial party that is completely outdated and from the filming of both the last silent productions and the first sound productions. The second, after being stretched over time, shows us those same characters who suffer the consequences of so much excess and fall into a spiral of decadence and ruin. Framed in its three-hour duration, ‘Babylon’ needs every minute to tell, as if it were an epic tragedy, the rising and setting of the stars at the dawn of a classical age which was still fermenting.

The director makes use of a clear and already existing metaphysics, such as the one reflected in “The Twilight of the Gods” or “The Artist”, and mixes it with the unstoppable gear of something bigger than himself, so masterfully explored by Rodrigo Sorogoyen in ‘The Kingdom’, to take a recent example. Talkies supplanted silent cinema and ostracized the stars of the era, forcing them to adapt or die into oblivion. Chazelle shows with vigorous adrenaline how the hectic life of the Walk of Fame can be felt. It’s as if the industry is a crouching predator, ready to prey on you at the slightest opportunity. ‘Babylon’ radiographs the joy of entering and the painful sadness of leaving; Hollywood pulls you in, swallows you up, chews you up and spits you out without you caring in the slightest at any moment. Because he’s bigger and more transcendent than anyone, whether your name is Jack Conrad and you’re a prestigious face or Nellie LaRoy and you just came in wanting to destroy everything. The scene between Brad Pitt’s Jack and the columnist Elianor Saint John, played by Jean Smart, deserves a separate mention, which materializes the ephemeral nature of people and the consistency of an industry that has just begun. Chazelle makes it clear (very spitefully and slyly) that Hollywood is going to kill you before you’re even able to scratch it, while, at the same time, making it clear in every shot, in every idea, in every mention. (like Charlie Chaplin or Gary Cooper), his total and total love for movies and the way of making movies.

The film comes out triumphant portraying the follies of a promised land, of a vandal and ferocious Los Angeles, without rules or constraints, as if it were the Far West itself. Chaotic shootings including deaths, improvisations and escapes from productions, unattended media or elephants roaming freely in the middle of a party are some of the characteristics that define this change of baton between silence and sound. Furthermore, “Babylon” erects a subtle criticism of the studio system and its working dynamics, relegating the artistic part to nothing and encouraging executive decisions during the production of a film. Chazelle uses all of this to elevate an overloaded, baroque story that rolls over the viewer, crushing the audience into their seats with powerful visuals and a thunderously varied soundtrack. Damien Chazelle slows down Baz Luhrmann and ‘Babylon’ makes ‘Elvis’ look sober and stripped down.

Keep the party going

The grandiloquence surrounding ‘Babylon’ is explained not only by the ambitious narrative intent, but also by its brilliant formal aspect. As in his previous works, Chazelle tightens the camera to give shape to a frenetic, exhausting and punk production, including without a filter all the shots done and to be done. He plays a few kilometers of flat sequence at the beginning of the tape to portray the pomposity of parties and orgies filled with alcohol, sex and drugs. The viscera of the images is accompanied by a huge soundtrack, one of the best composed by Justin Hurwitz (composer who accompanied Chazelle in his previous films), mixing the jazz music of the time with modern rhythms and elevating all the elements of the film to their maximum exponent.

All of this is aided, of course, by the schizophrenic editing so that every character, plot or feeling has a place and development. Editing that, among other things, contributes to the tone of the film, emphasizing the dramatic moments and softening the atmosphere with hilarious comedy scenes. Whether it’s Margot Robbie who repeats a take twenty times because at any moment something happens that causes production to stop, or the monstrous battle sequence in a desert shot a la ‘Lawrence of Arabia’, which gathers an exasperated crowd and delves into the adrenaline-pumping heart of the matter as if it were that mythical scene from “Battle of the bastards” in “Game of Thrones” or the crazy and psychotic beginning of “Saving Private Ryan”.

A third act sold out

However, what goes up must come down. In the same vein as ‘Elvis’, ‘Babylon’ takes a major dip towards the start of the third act, not so much in its content as in its pacing. It’s understandable, considering its 189 minutes of footage (necessary to build an epic, if you ask me), that the tape doesn’t continue at that diabolical pace. He needs to relax and rest after having intoxicated the audience with his intoxicating images, causing the viewer discomfort comparable to the worst hangover..

However, there would be one last firework linked to Tobey Maguire’s character, resorting (already with the characters completely shocked and plunged into a vortex of self-destruction) to the underworld of Los Angeles, that other sordid, dark, dirty and grotesque Hollywood. .. A fall into hell takes place, a degeneration typical of the endings of Martin Scorsese’s films like ‘Goodfellas’ or ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’, where the protagonist really has the water around his neck and is looking for a desperate solution.

In summary, ‘Babylon’ is Damien Chazelle’s declaration of love to the world of cinema but a frontal attack on the industry that generates it (especially, obviously, the North American one). With a more than stellar cast and some sequences to remember, the director’s fourth film consolidates him (even more) as one of the most attractive and hypnotic voices of the scene, and reviews with great humor and depth one of the most important and bizarre changes in history of the cinema. It just remains to be seen what role he will play in this year’s award race (since his role at the box office has been virtually non-existent). Let’s hope a major one deserves it.

Note: 8

The best: Damien Chazelle’s virtuoso production, which leaves the viewer to his fate in front of some powerful and magical images. The performances and the soundtrack.

Worse: The abrupt but necessary change of tone and pace that divides the film in two. His third act weighs on him, even if it closes well.