Damien Chazelle
Damien Chazelle
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Full Name and Common Aliases
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Damien Sayag Chazelle is an American film director, screenwriter, composer, and producer.
Birth and Death Dates
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Born on January 19, 1985, in Providence, Rhode Island. Currently active in the industry.
Nationality and Profession(s)
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American Film Director, Screenwriter, Composer, Producer
Early Life and Background
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Damien Chazelle grew up in a musical family. His father, Bernard, was a French jazz pianist who introduced him to the world of music at an early age. Chazelle's mother, Celia, was an American with Italian roots. He has two younger sisters. Damien began writing his own songs and composing music as a teenager.
Chazelle attended Harvard University for one semester before transferring to the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), where he graduated in 2007 with a degree in Film Studies. During this time, he started working on short films, experimenting with different styles and genres.
Major Accomplishments
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Chazelle's feature film debut, Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench (2009), premiered at the Sundance Film Festival.
His sophomore effort, The Last Exorcism Part II, was released in 2013.
* In 2014, he directed the critically acclaimed film Whiplash, starring Miles Teller as a young jazz drummer and J.K. Simmons as his demanding instructor. The movie earned Chazelle three Academy Awards: Best Director, Best Film Editing, and Best Sound Mixing.
Notable Works or Actions
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Chazelle's breakthrough success came with the 2016 biographical musical drama La La Land, starring Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone. The film received a record-breaking 14 Academy Award nominations and won six. Chazelle made history by becoming the youngest person to win the Best Director award at 32 years old.
Impact and Legacy
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Damien Chazelle's contributions to cinema have been met with widespread acclaim. His films often explore themes of ambition, perseverance, and the pursuit of creative excellence. Through his work, he has inspired a new generation of filmmakers and musicians.
Why They Are Widely Quoted or Remembered
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Chazelle's innovative approach to storytelling, combined with his dedication to artistic expression, has earned him recognition in both the film industry and the music world. His commitment to pushing boundaries and taking risks has left an indelible mark on modern cinema.
As a director who consistently challenges himself and his audiences, Damien Chazelle is widely quoted for his insightful commentary on the creative process and the importance of staying true to one's artistic vision.
Quotes by Damien Chazelle
There's something about some of my favorite musicals that they put me in a sort of heightened state where I feel like I'm floating out of the theater rather than walking out.
There are no large-scale original musicals being made right now. They're all Broadway adaptations and jukebox musicals or catalog musicals, and they just don't interest me as much.
There's something very particular about the kind of rage you feel when you're alone in a practice room by yourself, unable to master a simple thing like a rudiment. You keep trying to master this very basic thing, and when you don't get it, you just scream. I broke a lot of drum heads, and I broke a lot of sticks.
I never desperately wanted to be a jazz drummer. If anything, I was motivated a lot by fear. Fear of the conductor, fear of the future.
Whiplash' was just a lucky kind of convergence of events in that I'd been trying to get a bigger project off the ground with no success for a while, and then finally, out of frustration, I just wrote this leaner, meaner, personal script about my experiences as a jazz drummer, and that's the one that wound up getting made.
I remember moving out to L.A. straight after college and just starting to try to write scripts and trying to get stuff off the ground.
The first thing I did as a child was draw. I wanted to make animated movies. I think Disney's 'Cinderella' was the first movie I ever saw. 'Peter Pan' was the first movie I ever saw in the movie theater. I grew up with 'Dumbo' and 'Pinocchio' and 'Sword in the Stone.' Those were the movies I wanted to make.
