20 films to watch before ‘Babylon’ hits theaters
Ahead of the release of Damien Chazelle’s ode to 1920s Hollywood, BW professor Mitchell Fields shares watchlist inspired by the film.
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Disclosure: The Exponent contributor Alyssa Klauminzer is a Cleveland college ambassador for Paramount Pictures, the production studio behind “Babylon.”
The new movie “Babylon,” director Damien Chazelle’s decadent ode to 1920s Hollywood starring Margot Robbie and Brad Pitt, opens in theatres on December 23. In preparation for the film’s release, I reached out to Mitchell Fields, lecturer in film studies at Baldwin Wallace, to compile a list of films to watch before going to see “Babylon.”
Films Set in the 1920s
- The Sheik (1921), dir. George Melford
- Foolish Wives (1922), dir. Erich von Stroheim
- La Bohème (1926), dir. King Vidor
- The Jazz Singer (1927), dir. Alan Crosland
- Pandora’s Box (1929), dir. G.W. Pabst
- Madame Satan (1930), dir. Cecil B. DeMille
- Some Like it Hot (1959), dir. Billy Wilder
- Chicago (2002), dir. Rob Marshall
Films About Filmmaking
- A Star is Born (1935), dir. William A. Wellman
- Sunset Boulevard (1950), dir. Billy Wilder
- Singin’ in the Rain (1952), dir. Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen
- The Bad and the Beautiful (1952), dir. Vincente Minelli
- A Star is Born (1954), dir. George Cukor
- 8 ½ (1963), dir. Federico Fellini
- Day for Night (1973), dir. François Truffaut
- The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985), dir. Woody Allen
- Postcards From the Edge (1990), dir. Mike Nichols
- The Player (1992), dir. Robert Altman
- Ed Wood (1994), dir. Tim Burton
- Hugo (2011), dir. Martin Scorcese
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