As a true lover of Hollywood history, Damien Chazelle did not miss out on the reputation he earned after being crowned the youngest filmmaker to win an Oscar for Best Director (La La Land, 2016). For his next project, the filmmaker decided to show the darkness that lived in the beginnings of Hollywood, something that, according to himself, had never been seen in this way. In his new movie, Babylonportrays, through absurd and superficial humor, the decline of thousands of people within the film industry during the transition from silent to sound films.
A monumental party with the stars and executives of Hollywood is the entrance to the history of the beginnings of the film industry in the United States. Through the fast camera movements that characterize Chazelle’s filmography, we soon meet our two main leads: Manuel (Diego Calva), a Mexican immigrant actor, and Nellie (Margot Robbie), a star looking to become a movie actress. Hollywood. Both dreamers manage to sneak into their first big production, a film that would coincidentally make history by becoming the first commercial film with sound.
The journey through the beginnings of Hollywood is very clear, both for the movie buff who detects the references to the films of the time, and for those who do not know the context behind them. Babylon. The film is divided into chapters that work to give the film rhythm and humor, however, after three hours of humor that pursues laughter without reflection, it ends up being exhausting.
From the lengthy introduction to the film with grotesque scenes – like the one in which three men bathe in elephant dung or Nellie urinates on the face of a man lying on the floor – to the constant and absurd deaths on the film set, everything is a sign that laughter without reflection is the priority from start to finish.
After the premiere of his film The first man on the moon, Chazelle commented that it was important to him to leave a memory in his viewers of an important part of history. However, the emotional connection in the film Babylon it is much less strong than in his previous tapes. Despite the fact that the Mexican actor Diego Calva is one of the protagonists of the film, we know little about his character and it is difficult to empathize with him.
Unlike Manuel’s character, Nellie’s deep exploration of the past is what conveys the emotions of an actress who rose and fell in the 1920s. In addition to being the most complex character, Margot Robbie exploits the potential which she showed as Harley Quinn, again as an outgoing woman who breaks the standards of a lady’s behavior.
Babylon he ends up having the strength to remember an important event from early Hollywood. Thus, Nellie represents various actresses who were exploited and humiliated by studios… to later be silenced.
One of the actresses with whom Robbie was able to find meaning in his character, according to what he told in an interview with Time, it was in Clara Bow. She was an American actress who went from being the most recognized movie star, to being left without a single role, after being humiliated by the studio, who canceled her films because they considered her a “man-eater.” And while we don’t know the detailed history of Clara Bow, Chazelle has great subtlety in weaving some details of Clara Bow into Nellie.
Even though the pace is fast, most of the time it’s not exciting. There isn’t a strong emotional connection to the characters, except for Nellie. It seems that Chazelle tries so hard to clarify the congruence of the story and make people laugh with the grotesque and baseless absurdity, that Babylon It ends up being an extremely exhausting movie.
Due to the health crisis caused by COVID-19, at Cine PREMIERE we recommend that you check with the health authorities the necessary health measures (especially the General Guidelines for the mitigation and prevention of COVID-19 in closed public spaces) before going to the cinema to watch a movie.
Susana Guzman De la O Writing and cinema are my greatest loves. I admire Tarkovski, but I cry every time I see Up.