Ambitious Venture with Over-the-top Indulgence: The Babylon Saga Revealed
Babe in the (Old) City: Damien Chazelle's Tale of 1920s Hollywood Decadence
For director Damien Chazelle, Babylon is the culmination of 15 years of immersion in the glamour and grit of 1920s Los Angeles. This epic tale, fueled by years of world-building, began swimming in Chazelle's mind around 2009, just as he embarked on his filmmaking journey with Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench.
Chazelle's big idea, a multi-character tragicomic epic set during Hollywood's silent-era twilight, intrigued Focus Features' Matthew Plouffe, who believed it could push the boundaries of filmmaking. Their shared passion for this ambitious project evolved over the years, eventually transforming from a distant dream to an unstoppable reality.
To prepare, Chazelle and Plouffe arranged screenings of cinematic masterpieces reminiscent of directors aiming to expand the film experience. Movies like D.W. Griffith's Intolerance, Robert Altman's Nashville, and Orson Welles' Citizen Kane served as inspiration, reminding them that the kind of ambition they sought would not be bound by the conventions of the time.
As production neared, their screenings broadened to include works like Martin Scorsese's Mean Streets, Wong Kar Wai's In the Mood for Love, and Paul Thomas Anderson's There Will Be Blood. Collaborators such as production designer Florencia Martin, cinematographer Linus Sandgren, and costume designer Mary Zophres also joined the discussions, spurring further ideas.
The goal? Create the greatest American epic about the birth of early Hollywood - an epic as timeless as the one they envisioned.
Diving deeper into the era's historical records, Chazelle discovered that the people who lived during the Roaring Twenties were far from the glamorous, carefree figures often depicted. Instead, he found a group of audacious visionaries constructing an industry from the ground up amidst chaos and madness.
"We tend to see the Twenties as a time when maybe a few too many martinis were consumed," Chazelle admits. However, the reality revealed the extreme nature of this world, where the rapid growth of both the city and the industry required a certain madness.
Researcher Padraic Murphy aided Chazelle in tracking down obscure interviews, oral histories, film clips, and photos to create a more comprehensive portrait of the L.A. of the time. The Getty Museum also provided access to their photographic archives, while historians and music collectors supplied additional materials.
This exploration led to a richer understanding of Los Angeles' evolution - from a small desert town blooming into a world-class city, an evolution symbolic of the American experiment.
"It's an American story," says Chazelle, "one of a motley crew of dreamers, hucksters, and misfits who fled their old lives to erect an industry in the desert, transforming it into a global behemoth. And the glory and tragedies that came from that."
By 2018, Chazelle had a 100-page Word document bursting with ideas for the movie, which Plouffe fondly dubbed "The Dissertation." With this treasure trove of inspiration, Chazelle penned the Babylon script in December 2018 and January 2019. Over the following months, he carefully revised this script, finalizing it in May 2019.
Impressed by the script, producer Marc Platt joined the team that May, expressing, "Through 1920s and 30s L.A. and the silent era, there was a depth and resonance that I'd never experienced before, all while feeling incredibly true to the period and absurdly relevant for today."
From July 12th, 2021, to October 20th, 2021, principal photography for Babylon commenced. Despite the movie's grand scale, the cast and crew felt its deft hands with Chazelle at the helm, crafting a vivid tapestry of ambition, excess, and madness.
The film, set to be released soon, features an ensemble cast led by Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie, and Diego Calva. This sordid tale tells the rise and fall of various characters during the unbridled decadence and depravity of early Hollywood's silent era.
- Damien Chazelle's impending movie, Babylon, promises to be a stunning exploration of 1920s Hollywood decadence, marking the culmination of his 15-year immersion in the era's glamour and grit, which he pursued as part of his filmmaking journey in movie and television entertainment.
- As they delved deeper into researching the era, Chazelle and his team discovered that the people who lived during the Roaring Twenties were a diverse group of dreamers, hucksters, and misfits, not just the glamorous, carefree figures often depicted, showcasing the era's significant ties to entertainment and America's cultural transformation.
