RiffRafe2

RiffRafe2 t1_j6jxxrr wrote

Reply to Babylon (mixed feelings, help needed) by Ealiom

I felt Tobey Maguire's entire storyline could have been streamlined or jettisoned completely and I wonder if Chazelle personally felt that too.

But as Maguire was an executive producer on the film (and it likely wasn't just a vanity title as he probably got his fellow Pxssy Posse members Lukas Haas and Supee cast in it) it would be hard to argue that his role should be decimated. That part of the film was my only complaint in what is otherwise, IMO, a masterpiece.

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/Sidney quits in the next scene and he's not seen again till the end.

/A lot of people walked away from the industry due to slights. I had no problem with that. We saw that he was still doing what he loved. I don't think it was necessary to follow him after he quit.

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Same with Lady Fay. We don't see her after Manny fires her until the end. It was adequate enough to know that she too was still following her own path.

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/Manny is not seen learning or changing in anyway due to this scene

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/Why does he need to learn anything? There are people who go through their entire lives not learning a "lesson".

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We see how Manny who turned his back on his family to ensconce himself on the periphery of the film industry, soared to the top, and then had to retreat where he finally became a devoted family man.

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/and hell when the camera pans around a 1950s American cinema we are show all race, age and sex enjoying movies equally in a very ham fisted way. So its not like the scene itself said anything in of itself. I found this really odd. The actor smashes the scene the director doesn't do anything with it./

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To me it's enough that Manny had enough distance to once again be a spectator to the spectacle of film and to find that beauty and appreciation he had for it which made him want to be in the industry in the first place. There he was surrounded by the audience -a disparate group of people - just as he was surrounded by a disparate group of people in the film industry. Much like then, they were all there at once basking in the joy of cinema.

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