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Damien Chazelle is a superstar. He’s the youngest director to win a Best Director Academy Award (dethroning the former youngest Best Director, Norman Taurog…who held the record since 1930). His films have a frenetic, in-your-face style that oozes coolness and grandeur and leaves audiences clamoring for more.
Despite starting his career in Hollywood as a self-quoted “writer-for-hire” just trying to “pay the bills,” Damien Chazelle now has free range in his selection of projects. This is in no small part due to the handful of critical darlings under his belt (please go watch Whiplash if you haven’t), but what’s next for the young director, and is it possible to predict with any certainty how his career might unfold?
Chazelle’s Inspirations
In an interview with AOL Originals, Damien Chazelle cited Sir Alfred Hitchcock, Fred Astaire, and other Golden Age of Hollywood juggernauts like Gene Kelly, Vincent Minnelli, and Stanley Donen as influential figures in his work. It logically follows that two of his favorite genres are the thriller and the musical.
In fact, the director suggests that Whiplash, the film that really put Chazelle on the map, is a sort of amalgamation of Hitchcockian-obsession and the director’s natural proclivities toward music and the musical genre.
It’s easy not to notice that detail, but it’s actually reflected in a lot of Chazelle’s work, with many of the characters in his films exhibiting a sort of unwavering ambition that they’ll pursue in the face of irrevocably life-altering consequences. This thematic obsession in unison with a stylish artistic vision rich with whip pans and very rapid edits, among other fantastical cinematography choices.
Chazelle’s Projects Thus Far
To date, Damien Chazelle has been at the helm of four feature films. His debut feature film, Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench, went how most debut feature films go, relatively under the radar. That being said, the film exhibited some promise and garnered decent reviews. After this, Chazelle shot a proof-of-concept film for Whiplash, which got a lot of attention as a short film entry at Sundance and was picked up by Bold Films, who financed the feature-length version.
This was followed by the smash hit, La La Land (no further elaboration needed), and the sleeper hit, First Man, which involved Chazelle and La La Land lead, Ryan Gosling, reuniting to tell the story of Neil Armstrong and the mission to the moon. Things get more interesting when you look to some of the outliers among Chazelle’s credits. He has writing credits on 10 Cloverfield Lane, a surprise sci-fi horror hit taking place in the Cloverfield universe, known for one giant ass moth-like monster.
He has also written The Last Exorcism Two, a bad horror movie sequel, and Grand Piano, a thriller where Elijah Wood plays a stage pianist who’ll be shot by a sniper if he plays a wrong note. Two horror/thriller movie duds, but 10 Cloverfield Lane is excellent. To add to the weirdness, he shot a short film titled The Stunt Double this year…on his iPhone, and executive produced The Eddy, a TV miniseries for Netflix (he also directed the first two episodes). This exemplifies a leaning on the young director’s part to be somewhat unpredictable, and his known future projects take that notion to another level.
The Future (*dun dun dun*)
Damien Chazelle is slated to write and direct Babylon, an old-Hollywood drama occurring right around the time of the shift from silent films to “talkies.” According to Adam Chitwood’s article “Damien Chazelle’s Hollywood Epic ‘Babylon’ Delayed to 2022” at Collider.com, “It follows a number of Hollywood figures both historical and fictional, and Chazelle already has Brad Pitt set in a lead role with Margot Robbie in talks to co-star.” (( Chitwood, Adam. “Damien Chazelle’s New Movie Babylon Delayed to 2022.” Collider, Collider, 8 Jan. 2021. )). Additionally, he has films in the pipeline titled “Marseilles” and “The Claim” (( “Damien Chazelle.” IMDb, 19 Jan. 1985. )), but the details are extremely limited to this point, with the only information to be revealed stating both movies are thrillers.
What Does It All Mean?
Well, that’s a good question. The safest inference that can stand to be made is over the focus of themes and trademarks. Damien Chazelle really likes to put uber-talented and motivated characters (be it Sebastian or Mia in La La Land, Andrew in Whiplash, or Neil Armstrong in First Man) in ultra tense situations and make them choose between their passion or their humanity.
This is a theme equally as fitting of being explored in a Victorian period piece as it is fitting of being explored in a modern-day courtroom procedural, so there’s really no limit in the scope of film Damien Chazelle could aim to make. It’s really just a matter of what kind of films he wants to make. That two of his rumored future projects are currently labeled as thrillers could suggest that that genre will be a staple in his filmography. As previously mentioned, he cites Sir Alfred Hitchcock (the preeminent director as far as thrillers go) as a major influence, so it is perfectly plausible that Damien Chazelle could find his niche there.
But that’s not enough cause to bet the house on that outcome. Additionally, predicting against him making another musical feels misguided. So, is it best to, ultimately, just say he’ll continue to be a bit of an enigma? Probably, yeah, but if strong-armed into making a hot take, don’t be surprised if he ventures into documentary film-making. He has an exquisite eye for capturing the story in his characters’ mundane and subtle actions, which is at the heart of documentary film-making.
