Chazelle began developingBabylon in July 2019, withLionsgate Films as the frontrunner to acquire the project. It was announced thatParamount Pictures had acquired worldwide rights in November 2019. Much of the main cast joined the project between January 2020 and August 2021, and filming took place in Los Angeles from July to October 2021.
In Bel Air, 1926, Manuel "Manny" Torres organizes the haphazard transport of an elephant to a debauchedbacchanal at the mansion of his employer, Kinoscope Studios boss Don Wallach. Witnessing this event rife with sex, jazz, and cocaine, Manny becomes smitten with Nellie LaRoy, a brash, ambitious self-declared "star" fromNew Jersey. Himself the son of impoverished Mexican refugees, Manny shares his dream with her—to be part of something "bigger". He helps carry away young actress Jane Thornton, who overdosed on drugs with actor Orville Pickwick, having the elephant walk through to distract partygoers.
Also attending are Chinese-American gaycabaret-singer Lady Fay Zhu and African-American jazz trumpeter Sidney Palmer. The flamboyantly-dancing Nellie is spotted and swiftly recruited to replace Jane in a Kinoscope film. During filming, she crudely upstagesConstance Moore. Manny becomes a personal assistant to the benevolent, oft-married film star Jack Conrad who helps him secure Kinoscope assistant jobs. When a camera is urgently needed for one of Jack's scenes before nightfall, Manny procures it at the last moment, helping him climb thestudio system's ranks.
Nellie becomes an "it girl" covered by gossip columnist Elinor St. John, who also follows Jack's career. Assound film displaces silents in the late-1920s, Manny skillfully adapts to the changes. At Sidney's suggestion, he pitches films starring Sidney's orchestra toIrving Thalberg and becomes a studio executive. Nellie struggles to navigate sound film's demands (one cameraman dies filming her), and increases her drug use and gambling, tarnishing her reputation, despite Manny's assistance.
Nellie, shown to have aninstitutionalized mother, eggs on her drunken father (and inept business manager) Robert to fight a rattlesnake at a party; he passes out. Nellie fights the snake, which bites her neck; Fay kills it and sucks out the venom. Nellie passionately kisses her.
By 1932, Jack's popularity is waning but he still finds work in low-budgetMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer films. As Hollywood's audience becomes less tolerant oflibertine behavior, executives order Manny tofire Fay, a Kinoscope title-writer, because she is a lesbian. While practicing lines with new wife Estelle, Jack is devastated to learn his longtime friend/producer, George Munn, has committed suicide.
Elinor and Manny try to revamp Nellie's image and get her intohigh society, but Nellie lashes out against upper-class snobbery at a party, demonstratively vomiting onWilliam Randolph Hearst. Jack confronts Elinor over her cover story on his declining popularity; she explains that his star has faded, but he will be immortalized on film.
Comparatively light-skinned Sidney is offended when studio executives insist he donblackface to assuageSouthern audiences' aversion to interracial orchestras; he leaves Kinoscope to perform live in black establishments. Jack encounters Fay at a hotel party; she reveals her departure for Europe andPathé. After returning to his hotel room, a despondent Jack shoots himself dead.
Eccentric gangster James McKay threatens Nellie's life over her gambling debts. Manny rejects her pleas for help, but later secures funds from the movie-set drug-pusher/aspiring actor "The Count", and visits James with him to pay the debts. Manny panics upon learning the money iscounterfeit, made by his prop-maker. Raving about potential film ideas, the gangster drags them along to a subterranean gathering space for depravedzoosadist parties. When he realizes the cash is counterfeit, the two are about to get shot but escape, killing James's henchman Wilson.
Manny asks Nellie to flee with him to Mexico, marry and start a new life; she eventually agrees. James's associate finds Manny, killing The Count and his roommate. When a terrified Manny loses control of his bladder, the hitman spares him on condition he leaves Los Angeles. While Manny gathers their belongings, Nellie reneges on her decision, dancing away into the night. Amontage of newspaper clippings reveals Elinor's death at 76 and Nellie's death from a drug overdose at 34.
In 1952, Manny returns to California with his wife Silvia and young daughter, having fled to New York City and established a radio shop. He shows them the Kinoscope Studios entrance, then visits a nearby cinema alone to seeSingin' in the Rain, whose depiction of the industry's transition from silents to talkies, albeit sanitized, moves him to tears. A century-spanning series of vignettes from various films follows. As the focus returns toSingin', Manny tearfully smiles.
J.C. Currais cameos as the truck driver during the film's opening scene,[7] whileMike Manning makes an uncredited appearance as a "New York fan." Damien Chazelle "voice cameos" as partygoers outside the bathroom Nellie hides in at one point in the film.[8]
It was announced in July 2019 thatDamien Chazelle had set his next project followingFirst Man (2018) as aperiod drama set in theGolden Age of Hollywood.Lionsgate Films was the frontrunner to acquire the project after distributing Chazelle'sLa La Land (2016), withEmma Stone (also having worked onLa La Land) andBrad Pitt in the mix to star.[9] In November,Paramount Pictures acquired worldwide rights to the project, with Stone and Pitt still circling roles.[10] Pitt confirmed his involvement in January 2020, describing the film as being set when thesilent film era transitioned intosound.[11] He was set to play a character modeled on actor-directorJohn Gilbert.[12]
By December 2020,Margot Robbie was in early negotiations to replace Stone, who exited the film due to scheduling conflicts, andLi Jun Li was also cast.[13][14] Robbie was confirmed in March 2021, withJovan Adepo andDiego Calva also joining.[12][15]
Filming was originally set to take place in California in mid-2020 but was postponed due to theCOVID-19 pandemic. It began on July 1, 2021 andwrapped on October 21, 2021.[18][22][23][24][25]Shea's Castle was used for the exterior shots of the mansion in the opening party scene, and interiors were shot inside theAce Hotel Los Angeles. Themovie ranch, Blue Sky Ranch, served as Kinescope Studios.[26]
Justin Hurwitz, a frequent collaborator of Chazelle, composed the film's score. Two tracks from the score, "Call Me Manny" and "Voodoo Mama," were released digitally on November 10, 2022, the latter track being used to underscore the film's first trailer. The soundtrack album was released byInterscope Records on December 9, 2022.[27]
In an essay for/Film, Robert Daniels asserts thatBabylon is essentially a story ofidentity andassimilation in early Hollywood. While noting the similarities it shares with films such asThe Last Black Man in San Francisco (2019),Bamboozled (2000), andMedicine for Melancholy (2008), Daniels focuses on character Manuel "Manny" Torres and his rise into the Hollywood studio system: "In the process, Manuel cuts off ties with his Mexican roots—though they live in Los Angeles, he never visits his family—heAmericanizes his name to Manny, and at a party thrown by William Randolph Hearst, he presents himself as a Spaniard. Manuel becomes intoxicated by his proximity to the white capitalistic greed that governs Hollywood (and partly theAmerican dream ofupward mobility), causing him to traverse a tenuous betweenness of identity." Daniels writes that Manny's erasure of his identity is sparked by his fantasy romance with Nellie LaRoy—who represents what he loves about Hollywood: "An indefinable magical quality, upward mobility, picturesque happiness, and the ability to permanently define yourself." Daniels also adds that, while climbing thesocial ladder, Manny contributed to the mythology of Hollywood, recalling one scene where he expeditiously retrieved a camera for a large, destructive set and a picturesque scene is shot without future film audiences' knowledge of its production, and another scene where Manny pressures Black trumpeter Sidney Palmer to donblackface during the filming of ajazzshort, so that the lighting on the set doesn’t lighten his complexion in the final product.[28]
Lisa Laman ofCollider observed thatBabylon functions as a rumination on how human beings try to outrun and ignore their innate mortality, pointing to the various nonchalant depictions of death (such as a newscaster's casual account of the suicide of a female Jack Conrad fan) as an especially discernible example of this thematic element. Laman also pointed to a key scene in the middle ofBabylon concerning Conrad briefly being overwhelmed by the death of his friend George Munn before returning to his default unflappable persona to be another key instance of the feature functioning as a tragic meditation on people trying to evade the inevitable presence of death.[29]
Babylon was first screened for critics and industry people on November 14, 2022, at theSamuel Goldwyn Theater in Los Angeles and in New York City the following day.[30] It was released on December 23, 2022.[31] The film was initially scheduled for a December 25, 2021, limited release and a January 7, 2022, wide release,[10] but was later delayed by an entire year, with a December 25, 2022, limited release, and a January 6, 2023, wide release, due to theCOVID-19 pandemic.[32] In October, the film was moved two days earlier to the current date and set for a solely wide release instead.[33]
The film was released onVOD platforms on January 31, 2023, and onParamount+ on February 21, 2023. It was released onBlu-ray,DVD and4K UHD a month later on March 21, 2023.[34][35]
The firstred-banded trailer forBabylon premiered on September 12, 2022, at the2022 Toronto International Film Festival during a Q&A event with Chazelle and TIFF CEOCameron Bailey. It was released to the public the following day, alongside character posters of the main cast.[36][37] Noting its uncensored nudity, profanity and drug use, several publications compared the trailer's atmosphere to that of films such asThe Wolf of Wall Street andThe Great Gatsby (both 2013), which star Robbie and Maguire, respectively.[38][39][40][41] A featurette about the making of the film was released on November 21, 2022.[42] The second and final trailer for the film and its theatrical release poster were released on November 28, 2022.[43]
As Maggie Dela Paz notes at ComingSoon.net, "a brand new behind-the scenes featurette ...highlight[ing] Chazelle’s ensemble cast of A-list stars and familiar supporting actors[, and] also featur[ing] commentary from the Oscar-nominated director as he talks about the challenge of handling this massive cast" was released on December 29, 2022.[44]
Babylon grossed $15.4 million in the United States and Canada, and $48 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $63.4 million.[6][5]Deadline Hollywood noted that with a combined production and promotion budget of around $160 million,Babylon would need to gross $250 million worldwide in order tobreak-even.[45] The site ultimately calculated the film lost the studio $87.4million, when factoring together all expenses and revenues.[46]
In the United States and Canada,Babylon was released alongsideWhitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody, and was initially projected to gross $12–15 million from 3,342 theaters over its four-day opening weekend.[47][48] The film made $1.5 million on its first day (including Thursday-night previews) and went on to debut to just $3.5 million in its opening weekend (and a total of $5.3 million over the four days), finishing fourth at the box office.Deadline cited the general public's declining interest inprestige films, the threat of atripledemic surge inCOVID-19 and flu cases, and the nationwide impact ofWinter Storm Elliott as reasons for lower-than-expected theater attendance.[4] In its sophomore weekend the film made $2.6 million (a drop of 27.5%), finishing in fifth.[49]
In Europe, the film took $3.3 million on its opening weekend in France and $1.6 million (£1.3 million) in the United Kingdom, coming second and third respectively at the box office.[50]
According toIndieWire andThe Hollywood Reporter, as well as the opinion of Chazelle himself, response to the film was "polarized".[51][52] On thereview aggregator websiteRotten Tomatoes,Babylon holds an approval rating of 57% based on 363 reviews, with an average rating of 6.4/10. The site's critics consensus reads: "Babylon's overwhelming muchness is exhausting, but much like the industry it honors, its well-acted, well-crafted glitz and glamour can often be an effective distraction."[53] OnMetacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 61 out of 100, based on 63 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[54] Audiences polled byCinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "C+" on an A+ to F scale, whilePostTrak reported 74% of audience members gave the film a positive score, with 47% saying they would definitely recommend it.[4]
In his review for theSan Francisco Chronicle,Mick LaSalle praised Chazelle's ambition and direction, writing that "Babylon is what movie love really looks like."[55]THR's David Rooney described it as a "syncopated concentration of hedonistic revelry", praising the cast performances, score, cinematography, costume and production design, but criticizing the screenplay and direction—ultimately concluding "it’s hard to imagine the overstuffed yet insubstantialBabylon finding its way into many screen-classic montages".[56] Conversely, Pete Hammond ofDeadline Hollywood wrote that "it is guaranteed to be a movie that will stay in your head", commending the direction, production design, and performances.[57]
In his review forThe Guardian,Peter Bradshaw assigned the film three stars out of five, applauding the performances of Robbie and Pitt for elevating "a story in no hurry to engage with the true-life nastiness of its era".[58] Writing forVanity Fair,Richard Lawson concurred with Bradshaw's sentiment, stating: "These are little islands in a sea of mannered chaos, but it begins to feel, asBabylon stretches out across three hours and eight minutes, that Chazelle has no clear idea where all of this is going."[59] In a scathing review forTime,Stephanie Zacharek highlighted Jun Li's performance, but criticized Chazelle's screenplay and direction, summarizing: "Babylon is a manic sprawl that only pretends to celebrate cinema. It's really about prurience, dumb sensation, self-congratulation and willful ignorance of history."[60]
In his review forThe Ringer, Adam Nayman describedBabylon as "a nauseous, high-calorie sugar rush of a movie that not only wants to have its cake and eat it too, but also to puke it up, smear it around, and cram it in the viewer's face". While praising Chazelle's direction and ambition, Nayman wrote that the film was a "deliberately designed career-killer" for the director.[61] Writing less enthusiastically about the film inVariety, Peter Debruge stated that "Babylon presents itself as the apotheosis of all that has come before, thene plus ultra of the medium's own potential, and indeed, it's an experience that won't be easily topped, in this or any year. But that doesn't make it great or even particularly coherent".[62]
Richard Brody ofThe New Yorker praised Chazelle's storytelling and characters, but criticized other aspects of his screenplay, ultimately concluding: "Artistically, whatBabylon adds to the classic Hollywood that it celebrates is sex and nudity, drugs and violence, a more diverse cast, and a batch of kitchen-sink chaos that replaces the whys and wherefores of coherent thought with the exhortation to buy a ticket, cast one's eyes up to the screen, and worship in the dark."[63] John Mulderig ofThe Catholic Review says, "Along the way, Robbie effervesces, Pitt charms and Calva smolders and endures. Yet Chazelle's depiction of Tinseltown's behind-the-scenes decadence takes needless explicitness to the point of obscenity. [He] repeatedly references ...Singin' in the Rain, which unfolds in the same place and time. But comparisons with that beloved classic only highlight the ugliness of his own portrayal of human debasement."[64]
Despite the polarizing response, later critical and public reevaluation has tended to focus more on the film's strengths while deeming it as a misunderstood masterpiece. AuthorStephen King praised the film, calling it "utterly brilliant–extravagant, over the top, hilarious, thought-provoking" and "one of those movies that reviews badly and is acclaimed as a classic in 20 years."[65] In August 2023,IndieWire ranked the film's score at number 15 on its list of "The 40 Best Movie Scores of the 21st Century," writing "Filled with booming trumpets and epic saxophone solos, it’s a truly epic score, perfectly fitting the changing world of ’20s and ’30s Los Angeles perfectly. But it’s the way the score builds upon itsmotifs and elements from song to song, that makes it special."[66] In June 2024,Collider ranked it number 30 on its list of the "30 Best Movies of the 2020s So Far," with Jeremy Urquhart writing "It's another movie of his [Chazelle] about passion, a desire for greatness, and the ups and downs of pursuing one's dreams, only this time the scope is epic, with such an approach taken to investigating Hollywood in the 1920s and 1930s, instead of just one or two people, like his smaller/more personal movies.Babylon is dazzling from a technical perspective and has some of the best music composed for a movie in recent memory. It challenges, provokes, celebrates, and condemns all at once. It's overwhelming and messy, but history will likely be kind to it."[67]
The Birth of a Nation (1915): American silent epic historical drama film, depicting the filming scenes of a horse racing inBabylon.
The Artist (2011): Frenchblack-and-white, partially silent film byMichel Hazanavicius, also depicting the transition to "talkies", and featuring a "Kinograph" studio resembling the "Kinoscope" ofBabylon.
A Clockwork Orange (1971): Film byStanley Kubrick (with heavy doses of sex, violence and reflection on art, likeBabylon) which extensively uses the music fromSingin' in the Rain (1952), including in the end credits (compared toBabylon's end scene showingSingin' in the Rain), albeit in a much more cynical and sarcastic way than inBabylon.
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019): Film byQuentin Tarantino which, likeBabylon, features not only Pitt as an aging film-industry veteran (fictionalstuntman Cliff Booth) facing difficulty with changes in the industry, but also Robbie as an upcoming, celebrated young actress (Sharon Tate) facing dangerous possibilities and people.
The Wild Party, a 1975Merchant-Ivory film shot in Riverside, California, loosely based onthe 1926 narrative poem byJoseph Moncure March, about an aging silent-era star attempting a comeback via a party with a huge guest-list of industry figures, to show them his new film. (The poem was also made into two musicals, a Broadway show which followed the poem very closely, and an off-Broadway production, which took some artistic liberties, but still less than the film.)
The Last Tycoon (1976): Film byElia Kazan, based on the 1941 unfinishednovel byF. Scott Fitzgerald, about early Hollywood artifice, skullduggery, sex, betrayal, and desperation, ending with studio head Monroe Stahr (Robert De Niro) walking off into the darkness, as Nellie does inBabylon.
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