Who Is Damien Chazelle & What Movies Did He Make?
In short, he is the youngest Oscar winner in the Best Director category.
Damien Chazelle has already made cinema history – he broke the record as the youngest Oscar-winning director (at 32) for La La Land.
In addition to the musical about the struggle between love and ambition, the director has a number of projects in his portfolio that offer a fresh look at familiar plots.
1. Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench, 2009
The plot of Chazelle's debut film is quite simple: a guy breaks up with a girl, they date other people, but get back together. It seems like a standard story that hundreds of movies have been made from. But at the same time, Chazelle's film is one of the most inspiring debuts of indie cinema in recent years.
The secret lies in the movie's main ingredient – its musical component. It was written by Justin Hurwitz – a composer who later won an Oscar for La La Land.
2. Whiplash, 2014
An ambitious young drummer, Andrew, enrolls in a music school where he meets a ruthless teacher, Terence. The music lessons become an ordeal, and the desire to rise to the top becomes an obsession.
Whiplash is one of the most exciting and intense films of recent years, a brilliant story of confrontation. The movie's apparent simplicity is compensated for by the effective editing, which turns each of Andrew's performances into a thrilling action spectacle better than any Fast and Furious installment.
3. La La Land, 2016
Is there a couple in 21st century cinema that broke hearts more than Mia and Sebastian? He lived for music and dreamed of owning a jazz club; she grew up watching classic movies and dreaming of an acting career.
The relationship between the two Los Angeles residents begins in the spirit of a Hollywood fairy tale. But the perfect romance does not stand the test of reality: the ending of Damien Chazelle's creation is a nightmare for romantics all over the world.
4. First Man, 2018
Damien Chazelle is a simple man – he gets a big budget for a new project and still makes an auteur movie. And First Man is not a biopic about the outstanding astronaut Neil Armstrong, as it might seem at first glance.
Chazelle set himself a slightly higher goal, using space as a tool to talk more about the inner processes of the main character than about his achievement. Chazelle sent a man to the moon to show the all-consuming feeling of inner emptiness and the pain of losing a loved one.
5. Babylon, 2022
Damien Chazelle took a risk and created a giant colossus – an ode to early cinema, jazz, the world of Hollywood's ups and downs. In Babylon, the director does not hesitate to fantasize about the Hollywood of the 20s – a place drunk with parties that drive you crazy and leave you with a dizzying hangover.
The movie lifts the curtain on time: the filming pavilions are now filled with microphones due to the advent of sound, and Brad Pitt embodies the type of John Gilbert – an actor of the silent film era who struggles to find himself in the new era.