Babylon - Rausch der Ekstase

Eine subjektiv irrelevante und ästhetisch ungeordnete Darstellung des jungen Hollywoods, in der man eine banale (Brad Pitt), eine uninteressante (Diego Calva) und eine nervige (Margot Robbie) Figur findet. Chazelle hat es übertrieben. Ohne die Jazz-Begleitung würde man ihn gar nicht erkennen. Die wilden Partys und das hektische Filmen sind unterhaltsam, aber auch schrecklich theatralisch. Der beste Moment des Films ist das Drehen der ersten Szene mit Ton – einerseits dank der Pointe, andererseits wegen der cineastischen Bedeutung. Sobald aber die ellenlange Laufzeit in das schicksalhafte Jammern über die Unfähigkeit, mit dem Fortschritt mitzuhalten, übergeht, wird es immer schlimmer. Schließlich kommt ein „LA shit hole“, d. h. die größte WTF-Szene des ganzen Films. (06.03.2023)

I guess I'm too old for this kind of conceptually and dramaturgically disjointed and incoherent films, where nothing works and the mess on the screen slaps you so hard that you're completely numb and tired at the end. The only thing that works a little bit is the references to old classics, but these days they can emotionally enrich you incomparably more and they only need half the running time. This looks like it wasn't even made by Damien Chazelle, but by some egomaniac who merely needed to propel himself over his supposed genius. The production design and music are top notch, the should by shat on elephant shit and flushed. (06.09.2023)

Babylon can make a very impressive first impression. Within the opening thirty minutes, Damien Chazelle serves up physical humour that even Dumb and Dumber would be proud of and a wild orgy of fun filled with sex, cocaine, alcohol, loud music and plenty of reasons for anyone who despises Hollywood to despise it even more. The Wolf of Wall Street would probably walk away from this party disgusted halfway through. But this is where we meet several protagonists who will spend the next few years trying to carve out a little fame, fortune, wealth or respect in Hollywood. And far from all of them succeed. Babylon looks like a grand Luhrmann-type film at first glance, but it's only superficial. Chazelle knows very well how to make the viewer admire his depiction of Hollywood in the 1920s and 30s on the one hand and despise it on the other. He knows how to make his characters laugh, but at the same time make the viewer worry about them, wish them luck or watch their slow, unavoidable fall. And while it looks truly spectacular – not only during the lavish parties, but even during the actual filming of one small scene, which the director manages to turn into an absurd grotesque – at its core this epic drama is actually a rather intimate story of people who have been "there" for a while, had a chance to create dreams and didn't notice that their own lives were turning into a nightmare. Great film. (05.01.2023)

“Never have I seen such a maelstrom of bad taste and sheer magic.” Two feature films in one, each about something different. One is riveting, bold, frantic, brash; like a Mad Max: Fury Road of the film industry during the silent era. The other is also very good, but classic in themes and concept. It's about nostalgia for bygone times, inevitable progress and the love of cinema. Both are superb, though each in their own way. The first is an ocean liner better, for it is purely Chazelle's. The latter, for all its qualities, comes across as "merely" Chazelle's respectful homage to Sunset Blvd., Cinema Paradiso and the like. The worst thing for both films, however, is that they pretend to be one, which doesn’t help either of them. (28.05.2023)

An epic Masterpiece by Damien Chazelle and a future cult classic! I'm sorry I missed the film at the cinema and I deserve a bullet in the head, this one of the best films I've ever seen. Movies, jazz and cocaine clearly define Babylon, a film divided into three acts and they all have their own angle. The first act is one crazy sick and epic party, where my only regret is that I didn't attend it. The 1920's and depravity of the highest caliber, drugs and sex at every turn, that’s the first 30 minutes. Thanks to the daring, crazy dance creations and the incredibly dynamic music, it draws the viewer fully into the plot and keeps them there until the end. (I'll be watching this act a lot, it’s properly wild!!). Act Two – The Birth of Hollywood – is a wonderful peek behind the curtain as it was and is still going on with all the bad and the good. The journey to fame for ordinary people, the making of movies – incredibly chaotic and people are getting hurt at every moment – the battle of the big companies (Warner, MGM), the transition to talkies, in short, it was incredibly engaging for me and it was great to have been able to experience from the beginning the film industry I could not imagine life without today. Chazelle's strong ambition made my dream come true. The third act takes an unexpected turn into a twisted underground exploitation hell. The underworld of early Hollywood is reminiscent of the world's greatest evil and my mouth was wide open with all that was happening on screen again. The whole film is uniquely shot, 3 hours passes like water thanks to the incredibly fast pace, the dynamics ( the pace here is better and faster than in Avatar 2, and that's saying something). Thanks to the great jazz music, even an ordinary scene can get incredibly dramatic, and I felt like the whole movie was one crazy action ride, pumping me up with one awesome remarkable scene after another. Margot Robbie gives the best performance of her career, she steals the show and outdoes even the excellent Brad Pitt, while the likeable Diego Calva is brilliant. The film isn't afraid to be twisted, bizarre, sick and even brutal (I really didn't expect to see gore here!!), and if that crocodile had eaten someone at the end, I would have been over the moon. A film that has heart, incredibly explosive energy, a compelling script, top actors, top direction and top ideas. I have nothing to complain about. 10/10. (09.03.2023)

The Hangover meets The Great Gatsby. A trampled reel with La La Land inserted into the projector upside down. Above all, a pure ode to the joy of cinema and at the same time the shine and misery of great actors. Every time it seemed that Babylon was taking a breath for the final act, another twist came. And another one. From stabbing joy to sadness on demand, the most positive emotions hand in hand with pain. Damien Chazelle probably got an excessive budget for the last time and used it to the last cent for a film that too few viewers saw. But in creating this, he climbed so high that it takes courage to even follow him. (21.02.2023)

An opulent fresco depicting the transformation of old Hollywood into new. I'm terribly sorry that I didn't catch it in the cinema, I wish I had when I think it was there for a measly week. Damien Chazelle pays deep tribute to what movies mean to people with a cynical comedy framed by weeping and mourning for the change that is the only certainty in the world. Margot Robbie is fantastic, she’s insufferable, but at the same time very genuine and worth of protection. The music is incredible, as only Chazelle and Hurwitz can deliver. (21.07.2023)

Explosive in places, but mostly unnecessarily theatrical, hectic and extremely long. Chazelle is recognizable thanks to the musical interludes, which are imaginary mini-peaks of the film. An ode to old Hollywood that has its positive moments, especially on the technical side. Starting with fantastic cinematography, impressive production design and good music. But watching this coked-up wilderness for 190 minutes requires a great deal of patience. Most of the dialogue passages oscillate somewhere between a selection of Tarantino and Scorsese, but never getting it right. A bold, unusual but hard to digest film. (11.03.2023)

Babylon - Rausch der Ekstase ist ein Erlebnis. Wegen solcher Filme geht man ins Kino. Ich weiß wirklich nicht, ob ich dieses Jahr etwas Besseres sehen werde. Vielleicht wird ein Film genauso gut sein (Oppenheimer traue ich es zu). Etwas Besseres wird es aber höchstwahrscheinlich nicht geben. Der dreistündige Ausflug in das lasterhafte Hollywood der 20er Jahre tritt während der ersten halben Stunde Luhrmanns kitschigen Der Große Gatsby auf dem mit Kokain bedeckten Parkett nieder. Der Film hat einen Tarantino-Coen-Stil. Jede Szene ist perfekt geschrieben und dargestellt. Spannung wird mit einem unwiderstehlichen schwarzen Humor und verschiedenen bizarren Szenen kombiniert. Das alles passiert in einem völlig verrückten Tempo, welches die perfekte Musik von Hurwitz bestimmt. Und die Schauspielerinnen und Schauspieler! Margot Robbie hat nie besser gespielt. Brad Pitt hat schon lange keine so schöne Rolle bekommen. Der eher unbekannte Diego Calva hält mit den beiden problemlos mit… Ich war im siebten Himmel und wollte nicht weg. Und obwohl mich Filmpreise normalerweise nicht interessieren, würde ich Babylon - Rausch der Ekstase alle wünschen. Ehrlich gesagt bin ich überrascht, dass er nicht in den Oscar-Kategorien bester Film, beste Regie, bester Hauptdarsteller und beste Hauptdarstellerin nominiert wurde… Hoffentlich werden wenigstens die Musik (Hurwitz ist nämlich ein Genie), das Szenenbild und das Kostümdesign Erfolg haben. (28.01.2023)

Der Filmkoloss. Babylon erinnert nicht nur durch sein Thema, sondern auch durch seinen opulenten Stil und das riesige Set an das alte Hollywood und scheint die Megalomanie von David Lean mit der Vulgarität von Martin Scorsese zu kombinieren. Es ist genau der Typ eines großartigen Spektakels, von dem viele sagen: "Solche Filme dreht heute keiner mehr." Und manchmal gelingt es trotzdem. Kurz gesagt, ein wirklich epischer Anblick. Es ist außerdem eine sehr erfrischende Gegendarstellung zu anderen kürzlich veröffentlichten Werken zur Feier des Films, denn es zeigt, dass die Kinematografie nicht nur von Zauber und Sentimentalität lebt, sondern vor allem von Schweiß, Blut, Schmutz und nicht zuletzt einer Menge Mist... Gehen Sie ins Kino, ich werde es mir auf jeden Fall noch einmal ansehen! (07.01.2023)

Ein opulenter, aufwendiger Spielfilm, der wild ekstatische und tragisch traurige Geschichten von Filmstars betrachtet, deren Träume und Lebensgewissheiten verschwanden, als das Interesse an ihnen erlosch. Die Rückkehr in die 1920er Jahre des letzten Jahrhunderts zur Zeit des Aufstiegs des Tonfilms dient nicht nur der Liebe zum Film an sich, sondern auch der außergewöhnlich scharfen Kritik an Hollywood als Fabrik, die auf Unterdrückung und Verletzung der Menschenrechte aufgebaut ist. Dieser hypnotisierende Film wechselt je nach vorherrschender Stimmung der Figuren die Genres – das erste Drittel ist fast wie ein traumhafter und berauschender Drogenrausch, das zweite Drittel ist mehr eine Komödie und der Rest tendiert wieder zu einem Drama mit kriminellen Elementen. Obwohl der Film insgesamt nicht ganz zusammenhängend wirkt und sich von Anfang an am Rande eines aufgeblasenen Exzesses bewegt, sind seine einzelnen Teile größtenteils meisterhaft inszeniert. Die gesamte Zeit handelt es sich jedoch vor allem um eine stilisierte und überzogene Exkursion hinter die Kulissen des Films, die daran erinnert, dass viele der Filme, die wir lieben und bewundern, oft in einem Meer von Unrecht, Blut, Schweiß, Erbrochenem und Exkrementen entstanden sind. (04.01.2024)

Ich gehöre nicht zu den Fans von dreistündigen Filmen, aber dieses opulente und dekadente Vergnügen habe ich gerne gesehen und hätte vielleicht sogar noch eine weitere Stunde ausgehalten. An erster Stelle möchte ich die Musik erwähnen, sie ist absolut perfekt. Obwohl ich immer noch La La Land höre, das mir nicht so zusagt, passt sie perfekt zu den verrückten Partys. An zweiter Stelle muss man Margot Robbie loben. Sie hat diese Rolle sicherlich unglaublich genossen. Eine beängstigende Energie strahlte von ihr aus, die Energie einer Frau, die mit niemandem und vor allem nicht mit sich selbst leben kann. Ihre Leistung war fesselnd und ich kann nicht verstehen, warum sie übersehen wurde. An dritter Stelle stehen die Kostüme, das Szenenbild, der Schnitt, die Opulenz und was ich bei solch einer langen Laufzeit schätze, ich habe mich nie gelangweilt. Das potenziell nervenaufreibende Wiederholen einer Szene wegen des Tons entwickelte sich zu einer der besten Szenen des ganzen Films. Und schließlich ist da dieser Wahnsinn, ein manchmal perverser Humor und die allgemeine Stimmung des Films – für mich ist es bisher das beste Werk von Chazelle. Der Glanz und das Elend von Hollywood, wo der Erfolg nur eine Sekunde dauern kann und nach einem schnellen Aufstieg ein noch schnellerer Fall kommen kann. Ein großartiges Filmerlebnis, das vielleicht erst mit der Zeit gewürdigt werden wird. (25.11.2023)

I was really looking forward to Babylon, so my disappointment was even greater when I spent three hours watching a movie that I could only react to with a slight shrug. Even the introduction with the elephant should have warned me to lower my expectations, but I ignored it and continued to hope. I know. I have only myself to blame. Gradually, it became increasingly clear that the creators were trying to shock the audience, and I'm sure they succeeded with the prude American public. For me, a European, their attempt shamefully failed. A naked female body truly doesn't shock me (unless it is morbidly obese or rachitic and emaciated, and even then, I'm disgusted rather than shocked). As a long-time consumer of pornography, urination play doesn't surprise me, and I consider defecation and vomiting to be the last desperate attempt by filmmakers to grab attention and create "controversy." Sure, that's not what the movie was about. It was mainly about the story, but I found it somewhat weak. Only Brad Pitt and Diego Calva impressed me with their performances among the actors. Margot Robbie pushed too hard, and my disappointment was considerable. I found the filming of Nellie's first sound scene amusing, I was surprised by the significant number of casualties during the filming of movies, and I still can't help feeling that this film must have sexually aroused more than one American lawyer when they saw the number of potential lawsuits. If the creators wanted to pay tribute to the art of filmmaking (judging by the ending), the Hungarians clearly beat them. / Lesson learned: Drugs, alcohol, and gambling are bad. 3*- (11.04.2023)

I have long noticed that my comments repeat a few of the same thoughts year after year. My "reviews," as FilmBooster euphemistically calls these creations of mine, describe the orbits of predictably recurring ideas. Their cyclically closed ellipses circle around the radiant Star, never touching it, but as if with the first repetition they might finally succeed, although, like a cockroach in the shadow of a burning building, I have known from the beginning that they never will. And once again, I will escape from failure into the safety of the darkness of another basement, where I will look up at the next revolution. Chazelle built his cinephile monument on the transition from a revolution in the modern sense to the revolution of the classical origin of this word, which means to return, to rotate around in a circle. It is his Stars of the Silver Screen. His Film not only returns backward in terms of costumes but allows the cinematic idea of itself to cycle - the Idea of the material return of the same as the essence of the film, which is constantly changing and, like a modern revolution, seemingly devours its children. But in reality, it only repeats eternal sameness, giving these seemingly dead children the ability to survive forever through the idea of the essence of film itself. Like a cockroach, the moviegoer always gets what he wants because, even unconsciously, he knows what to expect. A perfect ideological self-deception, which Hollywood has an obsessive tendency to project onto everything, everyone, everywhere... - recently, increasingly into the past (anachronistic rewriting of history according to current politically correct measures, and more), but it is not afraid of a utopian future either, as seen recently in the over three-hour "opus" Avatar 2, where a captivating race of beautiful pseudo-people fulfills a story about the Christian duty of a nuclear bourgeois family connected with a new-age climate greenwashing fantasy of merging with unspoiled nature, delivered to us by a complete CGI oversaturated creation worth millions. Fortunately, in the second half, Chazelle showed the other side of the Film planet, which Hollywood often neglects when creating its perfect products. However, his supposed cinephilic epiphany only reproduces with its entire being the conventional linear plot of love story-desire-collision-crisis-catharsis, etc., which is presented to us as the essence of the cinematic Idea. (19.01.2023)

An incredible treat. Another tribute to the craft of filmmaking. While Spielberg took a rather sensible approach in The Fabelmans, Chazelle went for a drug-induced adrenaline rush. Sure, the three-hour running time is unnecessarily excessive, but the movie just races by anyway. Aside from Babylon being a fun and crazy ride with some wtf scenes, it has plenty of moments that will be a feast for a movie fan's heart, especially the very end. Not to mention the soundtrack! Hurwitz is a god. (12.03.2023)