Before the entry into force, in 1934, of the Hays Code under which films had henceforth to stick to promoting beautiful and good morals, Hollywood was the realm of excess and, according to the clergy, of sin. Hence her nickname of Babylon, “mother of fornicators and abominations of the earth”, said the Bible. In his fabulous book Hollywood Babylon, filmmaker Kenneth Anger recounts many anecdotes and sulphurous rumors about the pre-Code era. Without quoting it, it is obvious that Damien Chazelle was influenced by this book for his film babylon (Babylon). For the director of La La Land (For the love of Hollywood), it is a second portrait of Hollywood, but this time painted in dark tones.
Set in the mid-1920s to around the mid-1930s, in the midst of the transition between silent and talking, the fictional story follows three characters: Manny (Diego Calva), a Mexican immigrant who dreams of making his place on the sets of cinema, Jack Conrad (Brad Pitt), a star whose reign is coming to an end, and Nellie LaRoy (Margot Robbie), a gifted but self-destructive aspiring actress. Around them gravitate a depressed producer (Lukas Haas), a brilliant black trumpeter (Jovan Adepo), a Chinese actress and singer (Li Jun Li, à la Anna May Wong)…
Like in the movie The Day of the Locust (The day of the plagueby John Schlesinger, 1975), another obvious influence, including the era, Hollywood’s “dream factory” is more like a “nightmare factory” for those who frequent it too closely.
It is therefore in these putrid lands under their surface glamour that ventures Damien Chazelle, who tries very hard to shock and transgress. However, as evidenced by, apart from La La Landthe formidable whiplash and first-man (The first man), this is hardly his style.
It doesn’t feel like Chazelle is stepping out of his comfort zone so much as he’s trying to prove his ability to get along. This explaining that, he puts on far too much: satire becomes caricature, drama turns into syrup, and audacity turns into childish bluster.
In this regard, all bodily fluids pass through it: sweat, blood, sperm, urine… The film also opens with a Dantesque orgy sequence (“ golden shower » included) technically virtuoso: a real piece of bravery (photography, artistic direction, music: everything is top notch).
Just before, a prologue shows an elephant which, like this ship in Fitzcarraldois transported to the top of a hill (in this case to the villa of a studio bonze), not without first relieving himself, like a fecal geyser, in the face of a poor unfortunate.
The tone is set.
Ambient complacency
We get along, and Triangle of Sadness (Without filter, by Ruben Östlund) proves it, all this could have been funny and full of acuity. Alas, it is above all very superficial and very long: the duration of more than three hours is indicative of the ambient complacency.
On the positive side, the stars interpret with talent and an obvious pleasure of the characters larger than life. That being the case, Nellie does not enjoy the same writing attentions as Manny and Jack. She is at the end exactly what she was at the beginning (in general, the female characters are hysterical, haughty or shipwreck figures). A constant use of cocaine, in quantities such as Tony Montana of scarface (the scarred) would be jealous, forced Margot Robbie to maintain a paroxysmal game that will impress or annoy, as you choose.
Conversely, Manny and Jack are given complex dramatic curves, rich in doubts, torments and often fascinating contradictions. For example, in order to remain in the good graces of the studio whose ranks he climbed, Manny will perpetuate a racism that he himself has nevertheless suffered.
As for Jack, we witness his slow descent into a deadly melancholy that Brad Pitt makes even more poignant by the fact that he plays this one with a smile on his face.
A moment of truth
In this regard, we will point out a wonderful scene during which Jean Smart (as amazing as in the series hacks), a gossip columnist based on Elinor Glyn, explains to Jack the fleeting, yet enduring nature of movies. What she says is very moving, and very true. Too bad there aren’t more moments like this in the movie.
As an epilogue, Damien Chazelle offers an experimental montage of clips taken from masterpieces by Orson Welles, Jean-Luc Godard, Stanley Kubrick and others, implicitly proclaiming himself their equal. At the end of The Fabelmans (The Fabelmans), his autobiographical tribute to cinema, even Steven Spielberg was careful not to do the same.
At this point, we just want to say to Damien Chazelle what we would also have wanted to say to Nellie LaRoy: “Let’s calm down. »