MovieChat Forums > Babylon (2022) Discussion > If you wondered about the real life insp...

I'm not clicking those, please summarise them in a paragraph or two, since you created the thread, you should post some actual words not just links!

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Is that a rule? Please cite.

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Don't mind the asshole.

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They cast 60 year old Brad Pitt as an "aging matinee idol"??? Hollywood was as ageist as hell during the 1920s, any woman pushing 30 or many pushing 40 was pushed out of leading roles and either dumped, or relegated to playing parents or bosses. About the only exception were Douglas Fairbanks and John Barrymore, who were still playing leading hot-man roles in their forties, but their A-list careers didn't last into their fifties.

I sort of want to see this film, I like Chazelle and Robbie and movies about old Hollywood, but fuck. Everything I look at in advance shows a total disregard for getting period detail right, from Robbie's hair on down.

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He doesn't look anywhere near 60 though...

Well, if you're into hair styles... most of us wouldn't really know I guess. Ascribe it, I guess, to her being "the wild child".

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There was a 1920s "wild child" hairstyle, look up pictures of Clara Bow to see it. It's wild and curly but much shorter than Robbie's hair in the film, because in the 1920s short hair meant "sexy and height of cool" and long hair meant "old-fashioned, frumpy, and won't kiss you until her wedding night".

And Pitt looks his age. He just looks good *for* his age.

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Originally Margot was listed on IMDB as playing Clara Bow in this.not sure why it was changed. I guess you don't wanna mess with the ghost of Clara Bow!

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Probably because the script took too many liberties with their stories. Changing the names protects them from being labeled inaccurate in that sense.

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Probably to keep people like me from complaining about historical inaccuracies.

And BTW here's the real Clara Bow, and the 1920s version of "wild child hair".

https://th.bing.com/th/id/R.473feec6bcc1c19a4ff1830e75e845ec?rik=4N3JjywSWZ3Cwg&riu=http%3a%2f%2f25.media.tumblr.com%2f2fecbac00f47dab5fdaff127fc56fb2c%2ftumblr_mywg11LZrm1r3mh0to1_400.gif&ehk=ao8vHEfZcdNdzIcaQAM6qsFsnnkZKDDYw8EsWHQVZRA%3d&risl=&pid=ImgRaw&r=0

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The people who would have wanted to see her in that frumpy do would fit in a thimble.

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Actually the hair is rather similar to that of silent movie star Bessie Love:
https://twitter.com/DavidIMcKendry/status/1639680120670806017?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1639680120670806017%7Ctwgr%5E9e91103b2d818f57b18a410cff52136c87a811ac%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fpublish.twitter.com%2F%3Fquery%3Dhttps3A2F2Ftwitter.com2FDavidIMcKendry2Fstatus2F1639680120670806017widget%3DTweet

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Yes, Bessie Love had the same hair stye. Also, she wore a pair of overalls with nothing underneath like Robbie did in the snake fight scene. You should be able to find a pic of her in the overalls with a Google image search. Bessie was very pretty.

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Aha, thanks!

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When I watch, for example, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1966), which is supposed to be about Ancient Rome, what I notice is, Wow, this movie is so 60s. Every movie has to make concessions to its time period and her hair is undoubtedly part of that (the party is too hyper frenetic, the music is not period, people ate different foods then so body fat is different, and on and on and on). And they're not making Bernice Bobs Her Hair after all.

Looking good for your age is generally considered looking younger. But what's more important is that he has that 'matinee idol" look. I'm not sure there are many younger actors who can offer that, if they can, would be willing to do an ensemble movie for probably a lower than usual paycheck. Plus, since Pitt took an executive producer credit, it's likely he helped fund the making of the film. Every movie is a packet of compromises. You do the best you can.

You're really into externals it seems. I'm more into the evolutionary story, seeing how things started and the way they developed and why.

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