Damien Chazelle, the youngest Oscar-winning director—in 2016 for La La Land—returns after First Man (2018), the biopic of Neil Armstrong starring Ryan Gosling, with «Babylon.» He says his new film is inspired by Federico Fellini's «La Dolce Vita,» Robert Altman's «Nashville,» and Coppola's «The Godfather,» «old-school epic films that managed, through a handful of characters, to portray a changing society.».
Although the first images released to the public last September were extremely impressive, reactions following a press screening held a few days ago at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills were extreme: From «bold Hollywood epic» to «truly monstrous,» with some critics considering the first part of the film—which, according to Variety, is indeed epic in length (188 minutes)—to be better than the second. In any case, the film will be talked about, especially in the final stretch leading up to the Oscars.
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The story takes place during a particularly unstable period in early Hollywood, when in the 1920s the fledgling industry made the transition from silent films to talking pictures, and recounts the events—the ambitions, exaggeration, eccentric behavior, and the rise and fall of the heroes—through the eyes of a low-level production assistant, Manny, an outsider, in fact, played by Diego Calva.
Brad Pitt and Margot Robbie reunite after Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, while the cast also includes Jean Smart, Tobey Maguire, Olivia Wilde, Lee Jun Lee, and Eric Roberts, as well as Olivia Hamilton (Sazel's wife), Yovan Adepo, PJ Byrne, and Lucas Haas.
In the new two-minute video entitled «Welcome to Babylon» released by Paramount, the director, Brad Pitt, who plays Jack Conrad, an actor of the era at the height of his fame, and Margot Robbie, who plays his wife, among others, speak between clips from the film. Brad Pitt, who plays Jack Conrad, an actor at the height of his fame, and Margot Robbie, who describes Nellie, the character she plays, a young actress who wants to enter the industry on her own terms, as a «whirlwind.».
The film premieres in North America on December 23 and in Greek cinemas on January 19, 2023.
