In the mid-1920s, Hollywood was not yet the universal dream machine it was to become, but the peaceful terminus for all the more or less shady adventurers and other aspirants to fame who thought they could become
moguls
or stars .
cinema – an industry then in full swing.
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> Elon Musk: childhood, love and excess
Silent films are shot in spades, and the greatest sexual freedom still reigns over this wild land (we are in the so-called "Pre-Code" period, before censorship descends on the city).
This is where Damien Chazelle plants his cameras and films the vicissitudes of three characters.
Stupre, grandeur and decadence.
Many (Diego Calva), a Mexican manager, Nellie LaRoy (Margot Robbie, with a hair-raising slaughter), starlet ready for anything, and Jack Conrad (Brad Pitt), star at the end of his career when Hollywood switches to talkies.
Babylon
opens with a stunning orgy scene, Dante's Inferno, highly politically incorrect, filmed with remarkable virtuosity.
The exegetes of this engulfed, scandalous and absolutely fascinating Hollywood will have fun recognizing the ghosts of Fatty Arbuckle, Anna May Wong (first inclusive star in history), John Gilbert, Ramon Novarro and other Clara Bow.
In this Hollywood, without faith or law, we drink, we sleep, we take drugs, we commit suicide:
Babylon
is not a happy ending film, just like
La La Land was already.
Everything is too much, often bloated, but the moments of bravery are spectacular and the final declaration of love in the cinema against the backdrop of
Singing in the rain
is certainly pompous but with a joyful nostalgic enthusiasm.