A cult musical drama by Damien Chazelle that won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival and three Oscars.
Drummer Andrew, a 19-year-old conservatory student, dreams of playing in the orchestra of the legendary Terence Fletcher. Terence is a talented jazz musician and teacher but is known for his strict teaching methods. Andrew passes the audition and gets caught up in a whirlwind of intense rehearsals and creative breakthroughs, accompanied by constant psychological pressure. The dual nature of the orchestra that the new drummer dreamed of joining has something in common with the dual nature of jazz—at first the melodies seem to be simple and sparkling, with frequent improvisation, but they turn out to require serious work and physically demanding playing. Andrew will do anything to achieve the reputation of a performer of genius, such as Louis Armstrong or Duke Ellington.
Damien Chazelle filmed his debut feature having trained as a drummer. In order to cope with the traumatic experience of playing in a jazz group, the director set it down on paper. The journey of the young drummer is presented as a thriller in which the main tormentor is also a musical maestro.
Cinematographer Sharone Meir shows the almost physical tension between Andrew and Terence and their changing roles as victim and predator. She captures the shaking fingers and constant fear in the student’s eyes and the hypnotic submission of the young drummer to the rhythms of jazz compositions. The most intense moment is Andrew’s final performance, where he battles the master’s hegemony using bold improvisation. This dramatic thriller about struggle and survival in art is somewhat like films about military discipline: critics compared it to Stanley Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket, where soldiers without rights, like Andrew, were in a space of constant violence and cruelty.
The film will be shown in English with Russian subtitles.
Whiplash
Director Damien Chazelle
USA, 2014, 106 min.
16+