Paul Schrader questions Babylon’s historical authenticity: ‘I was scratching my head’

Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter for all the latest entertainment news and reviews Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Paul Schrader has shared critical input regarding the “putative historicity” of Damien Chazelle’s Babylon. Oscar-winning director Chazelle’s newest romance-drama, starring Margot Robbie and Brad Pitt, chronicles the rise and fall of several ambitious Hollywood dreamers during the transition from silent to sound films in the late 1920s. “After reading a number of planted articles about the filmmakers’ voluminous ‘research’, I was scratching my head,” he added, asking: “Does any film historian agree with the film’s putative historicity?” Margot Robbie in ‘Babylon' Although the movie’s fictional cast of characters reference many films and actors of the silent era, Babylon’s presentation of 1920s Hollywood takes on historical liberties. This should be the movie I should try to make now.’ “So I have to close the book, look at these notes I’ve collected over the years, this dense mass of impenetrable stuff, and actually figure out what the roadmap through that would be.” Read The Independent’s five-star review of the film here.