In Babylon, Oscar-winning Franco-American director Damien Chazelle (Whiplash, La La Land) takes on a daunting subject — the birth of Hollywood and the advent of talking pictures. Divisive among critics upon its release in 2023, but since turned into a cult classic, this larger-than-life epic starring Brad Pitt and Margot Robbie will rise up from the ashes as a live cine-concert at the Grand Rex in Paris in October 2026.
By Violaine Schütz.
The trailer of Babylon (2023).
Let’s get it straight away… Babylon (2023), by Oscar-winning Franco-American director Damien Chazelle (Whiplash, La La Land), is undoubtedly his most divisive feature. Ambitious, vulgar, spectacular and excessive, this three-hour-long film tackles both a fascinating and thorny topic — the advent of talking pictures and the birth of Hollywood. It captures the madness and debauchery of parties and chaotic film shoots in the 1920s and 1930s.
Babylon to be screened as a live cine-concert in Paris in 2026
In the years following its theatrical release, the film has become a cult classic, particularly in France. So much so, it will be screened at the Grand Rex in Paris as a live cine-concert on October 23rd and 24th, 2026. For the very first time, the flamboyant epic will come to life on stage under the direction of composer Justin Hurwitz. He will conduct a jazz band performing the Babylon soundtrack live during the screenings.
Margot Robbie starring in Babylon (2023) by Damien Chazelle © Paramount Pictures.
Margot Robbie and Brad Pitt, the dazzling stars of Babylon
But why has Damien Chazelle’s film become such a cult classic? In this project, the director paints a gallery of portraits, following the trajectories of several characters in their relentless quest for fame. There is the wild, ambitious aspiring actress (played by the splendid and moving Margot Robbie), the actor at the height of his fame whose light begins to fade just as movie stars start to talk (Brad Pitt, in one of the finest roles of his career), and the idealistic, naïve production assistant determined to make it in show business without losing his soul (played by Mexican actor Diego Calva, seen in the series Narcos: Mexico).
They all find themselves swept up in decadent bacchanals, featuring a mesmerizing lesbian cabaret singer, an elephant and actors in the midst of an orgy that spirals out of control, as well as on chaotic film sets plagued by the struggle to capture clear sound once the camera starts rolling. Through the rise and fall of its main characters, Babylon sets out to tell a tale as old as time… The myth of Icarus, who ultimately burns his wings by flying too close to the sun.
Margot Robbie and Diego Calva in the film Babylon (2023) by Damien Chazelle © Paramount Pictures.
The influence of Martin Scorsese and Baz Luhrmann on Damien Chazelle
Too much, sexy, grandiose, zany… The wild and hallucinatory Babylon doesn’t shy away from anything and sometimes loses us along the way with its lengthy digressions. One can remember the disturbing scenes in a basement filled with crocodiles and rat-eating men, starring the terrifying Tobey Maguire.
However, this carnivalesque epic conceived as a conflicted love letter to cinema, proves exhilarating, most of the time, like a tragic and satirical take on Singin’ in the Rain (1952).
Margot Robbie in the film Babylon (2023) by Damien Chazelle. © Paramount Pictures.
Vulgar or fabulous? A film that divides opinion
The film also brings to mind Ryan Murphy’s Netflix series Hollywood (2020), the flamboyant, colourful films of Baz Luhrmann (Moulin Rouge!, The Great Gatsby), the frenzy of Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street (2013), the sensual exuberance of Boogie Nights (1998), Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood (2019), and above all filmmaker Kenneth Anger’s book Hollywood Babylon (1959). A cult classic that delves into the sordid secrets of Los Angeles’ dream factory.
Brad Pitt and Diego Calva in the film Babylon (2023) by Damien Chazelle. © Paramount Pictures.
Like Kenneth Anger, whose book blends crime and sexual perversion, Damien Chazelle sets out to shed light on the vices and sordid excesses of the entertainment industry. After spending three hours immersed in this vanity fair, set to a blaring jazz soundtrack, we come out both irritated and fascinated. We have just witnessed a sprawling epic that mirrors old and new Hollywood, whose sins inspire both and excitement…
Babylon (2023) by Damien Chazelle, available on Canal VOD. The film will be screened as a live cine-concert on October 23rd and 24th, 2026, at the Grand Rex in Paris.