In this blog post, we explore how the film ‘Babylon’ allows us to understand the fleeting nature of art and the hidden desires and futility beneath it.
The film opens with ‘Manny’ struggling to push a truck loaded with an elephant up a hill. The vehicle, weighed down and barely moving, arrives at a chaotic party filled with Hollywood celebrities, covered in elephant dung. Upon entering the massive mansion, a dizzying party scene unfolds. People clinging to each other in a drug-induced haze, others dancing naked—the scene is depicted as nauseatingly repulsive to sober eyes, yet dizzyingly extravagant. Manny is merely a delivery worker bringing an elephant for a show, a lone outsider. An ordinary young man without an invitation has no right to be swept up in this whirlwind of madness.
There, Manny meets ‘Nelly,’ another uninvited guest like himself. But unlike Manny, who stands bewildered and dazed, merely observing the party, Nelly has swindled her way in by claiming connections to celebrities. Soon, however, she becomes completely absorbed in the party’s atmosphere. Amid the swarming crowd, Nelly unabashedly takes the stage, radiating energy as she dances. As if born on stage, as if she’d been a guest at this party from the start, Nelly puts on a show that draws Manny in powerfully.
‘Babylon’ mocks the sleaze of Hollywood, the mecca of cinema, while simultaneously proclaiming the beauty of the films born here—and, in a broader sense, of art itself. Just as Manny falls for the unruly Nelly, audiences often experience a shocking love affair through the art of cinema. Manny was already a young man dreaming of entering the film industry, but it was only after meeting Nelly and tasting the stimulating essence of art that he truly came to love cinema. Watching ‘Babylon’, I found myself thinking that film (or art) possesses conflicting, dualistic attributes.
The first of these is the ‘fleeting nature’ revealed in this scene. Why do humans engage in artistic activity? Art is fundamentally an act of capturing the beauty, inspiration, or appreciation of a moment. Words, paintings, images, or music become storage vessels that preserve moments. Art is like an impurity that briefly intrudes into the viewer’s life. Yet, that fleeting moment when a work interferes with life, that instant’s sparkle, sometimes remains deeply embedded in the viewer’s soul, shaking them for a lifetime. Just like Nelly, who captivated Manny in an instant.
Nelly was, as she confidently claimed, a “natural star.” She revealed her talent without reserve in a brief scene she happened to appear in, sparking a whirlwind of popularity. Having risen to celebrity status in a short time, Nelly took her fame for granted, just as she did at parties. But soon, new technology is introduced to the film industry, the silent film era fades, and Nelly’s popularity vanishes in an instant. Her naturally less-than-clear voice made her unsuitable for sound films.
Another ‘star’ who loses popularity as the times change appears in the story. Jack Conrad, once a film star who dominated his era, meets with universal ridicule in his ambitious first talkie and begins his descent. Unable to comprehend why he is being mocked, he seeks out a critic and receives this response: there is no reason for the audience to laugh at him. The changing times, shifting fashions, and fading brilliance of stars are simply inevitable currents, so natural they require no explanation.
Yet paradoxically, art is both fleeting and eternal. While I previously described art as existing to ‘preserve’ a moment, it actually possesses a crucial attribute that distinguishes it from preservation. A preserved butterfly crumbles at the slightest touch, but art is completed through communion with its audience, allowing it to live and breathe eternally, even as time passes. The audience breathes new life into art. Though Jack’s era has passed, even after his death, viewers watch his films, conversing with Jack, and his shining moments, captured in silent film, will be passed down for a very long time. While remaining a star forever is impossible, preserving the moment when he was a star is possible. This is the ‘permanence’ of art, contrasting with its ‘fleeting nature’.
Stars craving eternal popularity may seem futile and foolish at first glance, yet this is also an inescapable human desire. Forgetting the fleeting spark as if it never existed, humans are beings thirsty for beauty. Longing for a higher realm of beauty, we set out in search of ‘Babylon’. We yearn for a fantasy city untouched by the divine influence of time’s passage, filled only with eternal glory and riches. The Hollywood depicted in the film is a real-world place that crudely recreates ‘Babylon’. In this depraved Hollywood, boiling with madness and desire, stars can taste joy, if only briefly.
If asked to pick the most memorable scene representing the film, it would likely be the one where Jack is filming his starring movie. Manny, having secured a good opportunity, was assisting with odd jobs on set. Amidst the harsh conditions where extras and camera assistants faced unfair treatment, Manny is instructed to retrieve a camera before sunset. This mission was nearly impossible due to camera rental availability and traffic conditions, but Manny uses his wits to arrive safely with the camera just in time. Thanks to Manny, the director captures the final highlight scene on film with a beautiful sunset. Behind the actors delivering their lines, the sunset falls at perfect timing, and a butterfly happens to fly by, briefly resting on Jack’s shoulder as he confesses his love. This scene became an immortal masterpiece, propelling the film to massive success. Though the shoot was chaotic and countless people behind the camera suffered, what ultimately lingered in the audience’s hearts was the fleeting beauty of that moment: the sunset, the love, and the butterfly.
Through this scene, we are reminded of the essence of cinema. Isn’t art, ultimately, the act of capturing the beauty of a fleeting moment that blooms amidst pain and chaos? Sometimes, no matter how chaotic and difficult the process, what remains is a fleeting moment forever etched in memory. Within a succession of tedium, the beauty of a fleeting moment blossoms into art, and the ephemeral moments that pass become eternity. It was a film that allowed us to contemplate the essential beauty of art by understanding even its painful attributes.
