1985–Present
Who Is Damien Chazelle?
Damien Chazelle is a Harvard-educated musician, director and screenwriter who made his feature film debut in 2009 with a jazz-inspired musical Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench. He received significant acclaim a few years later with Whiplash, a drama about a jazz drummer and his abusive teacher, which received several Oscar nominations. Then in 2016, Chazelle made a huge mark with the box office hit La La Land, a modern movie musical, which won seven Golden Globes, including a best director nod for Chazelle. The film was also nominated for a record 14 Oscars, earning Chazelle the Academy Award for Best Director, making him the youngest filmmaker to receive the prize at the age of 32,
Quick Facts
FULL NAME: Damien Chazelle
BORN: January 19, 1985
BIRTHPLACE: Providence, Rhode Island
SCHOOLS: Harvard University
ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Capricorn
Background and Education
Damien Chazelle was born on January 19, 1985, in Providence, Rhode Island. The child of university professors, Chazelle grew up in Princeton, New Jersey, and went on to attend the local high school, where he was a skilled jazz drummer in the school band. He later attended Harvard University, eventually choosing to focus on film and directing projects for the institution’s Department of Visual and Environmental Studies. Chazelle graduated in 2007 after taking time off.
Breakthrough With 'Whiplash'
As director/screenwriter, Chazelle made his feature-length film debut with 2009’s Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench, a musical shot in black and white that looked at the romance between a trumpeter and two women. Continuing to rely on jazz as a primary narrative thread, Chazelle’s next feature was the 2014 drama Whiplash, which, like Guy and Madeline, was originally created as a short. Based on some of Chazelle’s own experiences in high school, the film features a young conservatory drummer, portrayed by Miles Teller, who enters into an abusive working relationship with an unrelenting instructor, played by J.K. Simmons. The film was a critical hit and received five Academy Award nominations, winning three, including a supporting actor Oscar for Simmons.
'La La Land' Success
Chazelle spent several years making his next film La La Land, which became an unexpected hit at the box office. The film is an homage to old-school Hollywood musicals—particularly conveyed by an opening song and dance number that takes place on a Los Angeles freeway—as well as to the works of French director Jacques Demy, most notably The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964) and The Young Girls of Rochefort (1967). In La La Land, Emma Stone portrays a struggling actress who becomes romantically involved with a jazz pianist devoted to purity of the genre, played by Ryan Gosling. The film co-stars Simmons as well as singer/songwriter John Legend, who also served as executive producer.
Though regarded as a risky prospect by studios, La La Land has proven to be highly popular, earning more than $340 million at the global box office as of late February 2017. (The movie earned significantly more abroad than it did in the United States.) La La Land swept all of its categories and won a record seven Golden Globes in January 2017, including a best director prize for Chazelle, as well as best picture in the comedy/musical category. Yet even with the accolades, the film has faced significant cultural pushback, including criticisms over the lack of depth for the female lead, as well as the movie premise, and the positioning of a white male protagonist as the savior of jazz amid African American musicians.
La La Land has received a record 14 Oscar nominations, tying for the most nominations with the films All About Eve (1950) and Titanic (1997). Chazelle won the Oscar for Best Director, making him the youngest filmmaker to receive the prize at the age of 32, beating out 1930s director Norman Taurog by a few months.
Personal Life
Chazelle married fellow filmmaker Jasmine McGlade in 2010 and they divorced in 2014. McGlade served as an executive producer on La La Land. Chazelle was later romantically linked to actress Olivia Hamilton, who has a small part in La La Land.
Quotes From Damien Chazelle:
- “The beginning [of a film] is when the audience is most susceptible, the most vulnerable, the most fertile. How much do you maximize that moment? And then the other most important moment is when the lights come back on and people exit the theater, because that last scene is going to roll through their heads right afterwards.”
- “I love the idea of thinking of cinema as not that far from music. A lot of my favorite movie makers, the way they move their cameras, or the way they cut just feel very musical – even if the movies have no music in them at all. That, on a taste level, is what I respond to a lot. That said, I definitely want to make a movie that’s not about music.”
- “There [is] something to be said for having even unrealistic dreams. Even if the dreams don’t come true – that to me is what’s beautiful about Los Angeles. It’s full of these people who have moved there to chase these dreams. A lot of those people are told by people around them that they’re crazy, or that they’re living in la la land. I wanted to make a movie that saluted them a little bit, and that kind of unrealistic state of mind.”
- “There's something so brash and defiant and almost avant-garde about the idea of just breaking the normal rules of normal reality. Movies have kind of been engineered over the century to somewhat reflect reality usually, even if it's a fantasy or something. There's some kind of an assumption that things are going to follow a certain order, and musicals just break that. They break it in the name of emotion. That, I think, was a really powerful, beautiful idea to me, that if you feel enough you break into song.”
Fact Check: We strive for accuracy and fairness. If you see something that doesn't look right, contact us!
The Biography.com staff is a team of people-obsessed and news-hungry editors with decades of collective experience. We have worked as daily newspaper reporters, major national magazine editors, and as editors-in-chief of regional media publications. Among our ranks are book authors and award-winning journalists. Our staff also works with freelance writers, researchers, and other contributors to produce the smart, compelling profiles and articles you see on our site. To meet the team, visit our About Us page: https://www.biography.com/about/a43602329/about-us
