Babylonian decadence on screen
Image: Scene from Babylon. Image: film still
It’s a film that has been preceded by a lot of hype and expectation; Damien Chazelle’s uproarious, steamy, comedy-thriller, Babylon hits cinema screens this January and looks likely to polarise audiences.
Starring Margot Robbie and Brad Pitt, the film is a fictionalised retelling of some of the most scandalous gossip that rocked Hollywood during the 1920s and ‘30s. Set during a period when the Hollywood film industry was simultaneously going through a growth spurt and transitioning from silent to “talkie” films, Babylon captures the hedonism, excesses and improprieties of the time.
Robbie plays Nellie LaRoy, a character purported to be based on Clara Bow who was one of Hollywood’s biggest stars at the time. Pitt plays Jack Conrad, a philandering producer. The film also stars Toby Maguire, Diego Calva, Phoebe Tonkin, Olivia Wilde, and many more as characters who can be credibly paralleled to real people.
Though Chazelle never cites it as his source, there are a lot of similarities to the book, Hollywood Babylon by Kenneth Anger which was published in 1959 and caused a sensation.
Babylon opens across the country on January 19 but you can catch a preview screening at Dendy Newtown on January 18 at 6pm and enjoy a complimentary cocktail into the bargain.
