Babylon on M6: our review of Damien Chazelle’s film

The shift from silent cinema to sound reshuffles Hollywood in Babylon. M6 will air the Damien Chazelle film on Thursday, November 12, 2026 at 9:10 p.m., with Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie and Diego Calva. Released in France on January 18, 2023, this 3h09 epic follows intertwined careers in 1920s Los Angeles.

At a party hosted by a producer, Manny Torres—an ambitious studio worker who longs to be on set—meets Nellie LaRoy, an aspiring actress. The star Jack Conrad already belongs to the world they’re trying to break into. Centered on these three, the film follows an industry whose rules and faces are transformed by the arrival of sound.

After Whiplash, La La Land and First Man, Chazelle revisits the history of cinema through the people who make it. Brad Pitt, already at the heart of Quentin Tarantino's Hollywood in Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood, portrays Jack Conrad here; Margot Robbie plays Nellie and Diego Calva embodies Manny.

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Our review of Babylon, published when it was released in theaters:

With a lengthy opening sequence set at a party of Gatsby-esque excess, Damien Chazelle introduces all his characters and stakes: viewers are plunged into the Hollywood elite of the 1920s, its first golden age, where stars are true gods and alcohol and drugs flow freely. It is pure hedonism, and those who aren’t part of this world do everything they can to get closer to it, even if it means debasing themselves. It’s also the perfect opportunity for filmmaker Damien Chazelle to prove he hasn’t lost his touch: still as virtuoso as ever behind the camera, he is a master of the long take and has an absolutely prodigious sense of rhythm. After this opening party, there’s no doubt about it: Babylon is a great masterpiece, and the three hours that follow never stop proving it.

With this film, Chazelle wants to celebrate the magic of cinema in all its forms. But it’s also a scathing portrait of the industry, which makes and breaks stars in the blink of an eye and corrupts even the noblest souls. Hollywood is depicted as the worst kind of mob, where the advent of sound in movies turned everything upside down. Forced to become more respectable, both the stars and the films are smoothed out and made to appeal to the widest possible audience, even if it means losing everything that made them magical. One could see this as negativity, as Damien Chazelle criticizing—or even mourning—a bygone world, but the film’s every formal choice says otherwise. Babylon is far more than a nostalgic tribute to a bygone era: it’s a love letter to the seventh art, which he sees as the best refuge there is.

Once again, Chazelle delivers an authentic masterpiece, a monumental film that explores numerous themes and features a cast of actors more brilliant than the next. It’s impressive from beginning to end, and despite its three-hour runtime, you wish the spectacle would go on.

To go further, also discover our selection of films, séries et émissions à voir à la télévision cette semaine, our guide to sorties toutes plateformes, and today’s pick Que voir aujourd’hui en streaming.

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