After the wildly successful La La Land, Oscar-winning director Damien Chazelle continues his cinematic obsession with Hollywood and cinema itself with new flick Babylon, an opulent exploration of Los Angeles during the Jazz Age in the 1920s, which saw the transition from silent films to the ‘talkies’. The very first trailer for Babylon arrived online today, and shows that Chazelle is holding nothing back when it comes to conveying all the excitement and excess of this period in Hollywood history. Have a watch below:
The trailer open with the Paramount logo disappearing to the sound of Margot Robbie’s aspiring actress Nellie LaRoy snorting, and only gets wilder from there. There are speeding vintage cars, champage bottles popping, more coke-snorting, flashing cameras, swooping shots of glamorous party sequences, rogue alligators, even more coke-snorting, and Brad Pitt’s aging icon Jack Conrad dancing in his undies, all set to a bombastic jazz-infused score. Oh, and Nellie fights a snake at the end. How much more Hollywood hedonism could one ask for?
Other cast members include Diego Calva, Jean Smart, Li Jun Li, Tobey Maguire (also on exec producing duty), Samara Weaving and Katherine Waterston. Strap in, folks, because Babylon looks like one helluva ride – and arrives in peak awards season, with a UK release on 20 January 2023.