Damien Chazelle
Babylon

One thing I feel I can guarantee, and damn it, I'm even putting it in writing for you.

You certainly won't forget Babylon, and despite the substantial running time, over three hours, it won't put you to sleep while watching at the cinema.

Signed ‘gnurant

I wouldn't underestimate this statement. In the era of rampant streaming and faucet-like releases, the so-called "works", whether they are literary/cinematic/musical makes little difference, seem more and more cookie-cutter, (or algorithm-driven), and have the common characteristic of being friggin' cold, identical, impersonal, and anonymous. You read/watch/listen to them and they are already forgotten, stuck in the gray folds of your brain, along with the Saturday morning shopping list.

The 190 minutes of Babylon, on the other hand, rush by like a speeding train and carve deep grooves in the viewer's memory, and in the end, I tell you yes, I would have wanted more! To be clear, several people, certainly more educated, competent, and proper than myself, did not think like me and indeed, half disgusted, left the theater in the middle of the screening.

Technically, the film has a monstrous editing: eye-pleasing long takes, tracking shots, zooms, and pans to the rhythm of a soundtrack that almost makes you want to dance and step into the screen, with the first 30 minutes being of dizzying quality. Margot Robbie, whom I admired very much in “Tonya,” is memorable in this film for her expressiveness and ability to embody a complex and eclectic character equipped with at least three/four personalities.

To let us experience the surreal atmosphere of the 1920s Los Angeles, Chazelle wanted to give us complete exaggeration with an intoxicating scent of piss, elephant dung, sweat, and vomit. That city in the desert that until a few years before was a suburb, with oil first and then the explosion of silent film, magically turned into the most coveted place in the world. We can also understand that someone lost their mind a little. Yes, there's also drugs in abundance in the film just to be original. And yes, alcohol flows like water, not to mention wild sex, but these are the elements I honestly took for granted: a nice fight with a rattlesnake in the middle of the night and the truly repugnant spectacle of a rat eater... those I did not see coming!

It’s a film that unfolds on two tracks. Some viewers might love or hate the aesthetic and hyperbolic side of the work, which amazes from the start with excesses and a frantic pace made of furious accelerations and extreme inventions with characters that are nothing short of eccentric perfectly rendered by a very well-constructed cast. Tobey Maguire, for instance, with Oscar-worthy makeup, in less than 10 minutes manages to impeccably portray a psychopathic gangster. But in general, the entire cast, even in the secondary roles, is spot on, and the result is the enjoyment of the work in its entirety.

But the aspect that makes me appreciate Babylon exceedingly is that in all this great chaos, there is always a philosophical vein with melancholic tones. It is not a particularly brilliant message, mind you, but it is simply true. The technical revolution destroys the careers of the three main characters who can't keep up with the times. From silent film stars, Brad Pitt and Margot Robbie become embarrassing and ridiculous by not knowing how to tackle the greater technicalities that acting in sound cinema demands: with rapidly declining fame, they will lose total control of their already struggling lives. Suddenly, after the excesses of the '20s, America discovers itself to be modest and puritanical, and so all of a sudden Brad Pitt's character becomes worm food even though cinema will render him immortal forever.

Here, much broader discussions could be made about the ability to accept the passage of time, the decline of popularity, and this obviously applies not only to the world described in Babylon but to our normal existence. All those moments of breakdown due to a technological revolution that, from one day to the next, makes us obsolete, out of fashion, no longer suitable. And come to think of it, in today's society, these "breaks" are increasingly disruptive and frequent compared to the past, and that, in my opinion, should make us reflect at least a little bit.

The film, in the end, is also a love letter to cinema itself and its overwhelming beauty, as evidenced by the final scene masterfully interpreted by the third protagonist. And here I must say a few words for the excellent Diego Calva who plays Manny, who manages to express all the joy of an outsider who wants at all costs to experience the explosion of Hollywood. He is a dreamer in love with everything connected to the film production machine and takes advantage of the luck of being in the right place at the right time, just like the protagonist he becomes infatuated with, transitioning from a jack of all trades to an executive producer.

For me, it is great Cinema, and I might even go see it again, perhaps in its original language, to once again enjoy all of this on the big screen. Including the soundtrack.