Damien Chazelle is an American screenwriter and director best known for his films Obsession and La la Land. He became the youngest director in Hollywood history to receive the prestigious Academy Award for his directing work.
Damien is not only a screenwriter and director, he is also a cinematographer, producer and actor. They started talking about his talent right after the first films appeared. For his film La La Land, Chazelle has received a huge number of awards and nominations as a director and screenwriter.
early years
The boy was born in America in January 1985. His mother is a historian, writer and teacher, and his father is a famous scientist. From early childhood, Damien became interested in art. During his school years, he played in one of the jazz bands, and the image of his teacher Damien later embodied in his film "Obsession". Although the young man devoted a lot of time to musical education, he soon realized that he was not destined to become a famous musician and he delved into cinema.
After school, the young man continued his studies at Harvard University, where he began to study the art of cinema. And soon his childhood dream of working in cinematography began to come true.
Creative career
Damien, from the very beginning of his creative career, decided to take on serious and large projects. He began to write scripts and soon realized that in order to bring your stories to life, you need to do it yourself in order to fully convey your feelings and emotions to the audience.
He wrote his first serious script for the picture "Obsession" based on his own experiences, which were based on the relationship between teacher and student. Damien himself decided that the script was too crude and forgot about it for a while. But soon he told one of the producers about his creative work, who was very interested in the topic and offered to make a film. The budget allocated for the shooting was enough only for a short film, but after showing it to film critics and film producers, Chazelle immediately received an offer to shoot a full-fledged picture. The film made Damien famous and earned several Academy Award nominations.
After 3 years, Chazelle begins to work on the painting "La la Land", which became an even more successful work than "Obsession". The film was immediately accepted not only by the public, but also by film critics. Filled with music, inspiration, dream, love and romance, the film became one of the best musicals filmed in recent years, and won six Oscars at once.
Damien said in his interviews that the idea of the film was born in his youth, while studying at the university. Together with his friend, he planned to shoot a musical in the spirit of the 50s, and for this they spent a long time looking at old photographs of famous Hollywood stars, analyzing their costumes, filming locations and the best moments of famous films. The youthful dream was embodied in a wonderful picture, where there is the spirit of old cinema and a completely new approach to cinema, by the talented screenwriter and director Chazelle.
In addition to two Oscar-winning paintings, Damien's creative biography contains several more works, in particular: Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench (debut picture), The Last Exorcism: The Second Coming, Cloverfield, 10, The Man on the Moon.
Personal life
The first wife was Jasmine McGlade, with whom Damien began an affair during his university years. The couple lived together for several years and then broke up. However, they maintain friendly relations and Jasmine even became one of the producers of his film "La la Land".
In 2015, Damien met actress Olivia Hamilton. They began a whirlwind romance and to this day they are happy with each other.
