Damien Chazelle and Justin Hurwitz, two talented kids in college
What a great and lucky coincidence: two very talented guys find themselves in the same college, experiment, cement their friendship and together make iconic films, which move cinema a little further. We are talking about Damien Chazelle and Justin Hurwitz who together shot “Whiplash” (2014), “La La Land” (2016), “First Man” (2018) and “Babylon” (2022). The first behind the camera, the second composing the music for the films.
Chazelle especially showed up with a touch of shyness at the Masterclass in which they were the protagonists to tell their common journey, given that Chazelle too – who this year is president of the jury of the Festival – is (or rather was) a musician and more precisely a drummer. Dressed in informal clothes (Chazelle with a black T-shirt, Hurwitz with a light blue jacket) they recounted their meeting, their way of working, their way of understanding art as the 38-year-olds they are, always holding firm with the studios, even when they wanted to oust Hurwitz and Chazelle defended him by demanding that he stay by his side.
It was Justin who brought Damien to college to be the drummer for a band that changed its name every week. Justin had played the piano until he was 18, but then his nature as a composer prevailed and, only initially, that of being the singer in the band with Damien.
«Between music and cinema, I realized that cinema was my life», points out Chazelle, who certainly recycled a few pieces of his life in the plot of “Whiplash”. “We were two music addicts,” explains Chazelle pointing at Hurwitz. “Music helps express emotions much more than realistic films,” Chazelle continued. «I didn’t like musicals: you entered the story and then someone started singing, it bored me to death. I wanted to make a genre that was more accessible and popular.”