STACK #222 April 2023

FEATURE MOVIE

LOOK WHO’S TALKING – AND SINGING! Hollywood’s revolutionary transition from silent movies to sound – “talking pictures” or “talkies” – took place between 1926 and 1930, with gangster films and musicals driving the change. Romantic adventure Don Juan

(1926) featured a synchronised music score and sound effects, but it was the Al Jolson musical The Jazz Singer – released the following year by Warner Bros. – that became the first feature film with synchronised dialogue (albeit the sound sequences were limited) and was a huge hit that opened the floodgates.

While Babylon explores this

era, it’s also the setting for 1952 classic musical Singin’ in the Rain , which presents a more lighthearted look at Tinseltown’s awkward transition to the talkies.

Director Damien Chazelle’s Babylon is a wildly entertaining watch, with Margot Robbie and Brad Pitt dazzling in a Hollywood that’s transitioning from silent movies to sound during the RoaringTwenties. Words Gill Pringle

The casting of Brad Pitt as Jack Conrad, a silent movie star at the top of his game, was just as natural as it sounds. “Brad’s one of the few people today where you get some sense of what the old school movie star really might’ve been like,” says Chazelle. “That sort of larger-than-life aura that a star of that time could exude seemingly effortlessly. That’s the thing with Brad, especially at this point in his career. You don’t see the work… it’s completely invisible and effortless. That’s part of what’s so magical about it.” In a throng of admirers,

I f there was a special award for “most energetic performance,” then Margot Robbie would surely win with her wild yet bittersweet portrayal of starlet Nellie LaRoy in Babylon . In a tale of outsized ambition and outrageous excess, Robbie's LaRoy is the movie’s beating heart as we follow her through an era of unbridled decadence and depravity in 1920s Hollywood. “The biggest influence in coming up with Nellie’s backstory and understanding where a fictional character like her could have come from was largely inspired by Clara Bow's childhood,” Robbie tells STACK , outlining how she studied the real-life black and white movie star. “She had a horrible, horrible childhood, but it was really helpful as a foundation for Nellie. Sadly, a lot of her movies are lost now but I also watched Joan Crawford, who really captured that energy.” Australia’s golden girl looks slightly embarrassed as she admits some of her other preparation might be considered extreme. “I did a lot of active prep,

everyone wants a word with or a glance from the most famous man in the movies – which is pretty much Pitt’s lifestyle today. “Having him play a movie star of this era felt meta in the most beautiful way,” adds Chazelle. “But it also gave us something to collaborate on together, because the story became a canvas that he could inform with his own

Margot Robbie

Diego Calva and Brad Pitt

• Babylon is out on Apr 12

experiences, so that you could see the humanity underneath – the vulnerability, the insecurity.” Like Robbie, Pitt also did his homework. “I watched a lot of [John] Gilbert, [Douglas] Fairbanks, and [Rudolph] Valentino. There’s a real charm in those performances. Silent films didn’t have dialogue to rely on, they only had the occasional title card, so the performances have a style to them that’s different than what we have now,” he says.

Damien Chazelle originally pitched Babylon to a producer in 2009, who suggested he write a musical instead. The result was La La Land (2016). DYK?

I thought that could be helpful, like just trying a new avenue – and those clown classes were very fun,” she laughs. "And then I tried on 31 accents for Damien before he decided what Nellie would sound like.”

which makes me sound like an absolute weirdo, but I did. I worked with a movement coach, and I even worked with a clown because

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