Review of Babylon (2022) by Mauro_Lanari — 09 Mar 2023

(Mauro Lanari).

The elephant was already placed at the symbolic center of Hollywood in "Good Morning Babilonia", Taviani brothers '87, one of their least successful films. I have no idea how Chazelle could believe himself captivating with the drama of a handful of protagonists and a historical period after havin' portayed them for the first half of the 189 minutes as "putrid and putrescent" (Roberto Manassero). Nostalgic coprophilia and urophilia? Did he want to evoke the unstoppable decline of a depraved and outrageous age by bypassing the magic of identification with anyone who took part in it? Reassuring monologue: "Art is forever". So why get involved in the tragic fate of the actors? Bouncing between immortality and twilight, eternity and transience, he passes from one contradiction to another in an unresolved ambivalence. A virtuosic ode to cinema in theaters as much as the directors mentioned (Kubrick, Spielberg, Cameron, etc.), and if he has resoundingly flopped in his intent, there will be a reason and I hypothesize that the self-referential metacinematographic indulgence attracts yes and no some cinephiles, the "how" will also be amazing while the "what" leaves indifferent and exhausting.