Damien Chazelle

Damien Chazelle

Damien Chazelle at 2014 Sundance Film Festival
Born Damien Sayre Chazelle[1]
January 19, 1985
Providence, Rhode Island
Alma mater Harvard University
Occupation Film director, screenwriter
Spouse(s) Jasmine McGlade (m. 2010 - 2013)
Parent(s) Bernard Chazelle
Celia Martin Chazelle

Damien Sayre Chazelle (born January 19, 1985) is an American screenwriter and film director. His second film as a director, Whiplash, was released in 2014 to wide acclaim, including five Academy Award nominations, with Chazelle being personally nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay.[2]

Personal life

Chazelle was born in Providence, Rhode Island, on January 19, 1985. He is the son of Celia (Martin), a writer and professor, and French-born computer scientist Bernard Chazelle. Filmmaking was his earliest ambition, but he subsequently wanted to be a musician, and struggled to make it as a jazz drummer in high school at Princeton High School. Chazelle has said he had an intense music teacher, who was the inspiration for the character of Terence Fletcher in Chazelle's breakout film, Whiplash. Unlike the film's protagonist Andrew Neiman, however, Chazelle stated that he knew instinctively he never had the talent to be a great musician, and after high school, pursued filmmaking again, describing it as his first love.[3] He attended Harvard University.[1]

Film career

Chazelle's debut as a writer and director was the film Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench. He shared screenplay credit with director Ed Gass-Donnelly on The Last Exorcism Part II, 2013. He is also credited as the screenwriter on 2013's Grand Piano, a thriller that has an anxious pianist dealing with a death threat during a concert. Chazelle has stated in interviews that he was working as a 'writer for hire' but had the ambition to direct his own script. Chazelle described Whiplash as a writing reaction to being stuck on another script. 'I just thought, that's not working, let me put it away and write this thing about being a jazz drummer in high school.' He stated he initially did not want to show the script around, as it felt too personal, and "I put it in a drawer."[3]

Whiplash gained interest from producers, but nobody initially wanted to make the film.[4] Chazelle's 85 page script was featured on Black List in 2012 as one of the best unmade films of that year; it was eventually picked up by producers, including Helen Estabrook, who suggested J. K. Simmons for the role of the teacher, Terence Fletcher. A short film, made as proof of concept, was accepted at the Sundance Film Festival 2013; financing was raised for the film, and in 2014 it was released to an overwhelmingly positive critical reaction.[2]

Whiplash won the Sundance Film Festival Short Prize in 2013 as a short[5] and in 2014 the top audience and grand jury awards in the U.S. dramatic competition as a full-length feature film.[6] The film also took the grand prize and the audience award for favorite film at the 40th Deauville American Film Festival.[7] On January 15, 2015, Whiplash received 5 Academy Award nominations, including Best Adapted Screenplay for Chazelle.[8] It won three of them on February 22, 2015.

References

External links