Academy Award winner Damien Chazelle’s audacious new film “Babylon” is out in the world. Or rather, the highly-anticipated movie, the last major Oscar contender of the year (Unless “Avatar 2” surprises), has been seen by critics in New York and LA, and the responses to the wild film have been dividing.
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The post-film Q&A was lively and eventful, with various mishaps adding to the pratfall-like comedy. Brad Pitt almost fell backward out of his chair at the beginning of the discussion, luckily catching himself with the help of some help from Robbie and Smart. Later on, his microphone didn’t work, which led to further antics.
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Brad Pitt tried to answer a question about the tracking shots and choreography and then threw his non-functioning mic behind him in frustration, causing an eruption of laughter. He eventually borrowed Robbie’s microphone. “I shot the first four days, [witnessed] some amazing choreography, and it was raucous, and it was bawdy, and it had this great energy to it, and half the background is naked, and they’re snorting cocaine off someone’s ass,” Pitt explained. “And then I had three days off, and I came back, and it was still going. I was like, oh my god.”
“I still marvel how much this man got in one shot,” Pitt continued. “I’ve never quite seen it. I’ve been really fortunate to work with some of the great filmmakers, and I already consider Damien Chazelle one of the greats.”
The actor described the screenplay when he first read it as “something spectacular … a very visceral read … It’s extreme, it’s big, it’s bawdy, and at the same time underneath it, there’s just real heart and need for meaning.”
“None of us really matter in it,” Pitt said of his character and all the other characters in the film, one of the themes being cinema will outlast us all. “But we’re all a piece, a little piece of this art of storytelling, and I feel pretty damn honored.”
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