An elephant s anus opens and lets fecal matter fly. It runs, a river of sewage, over a misfortunate man. The movie is Damien Chazelle s Babylon (2022), .
When 25-year-old Natacha Rambova was interviewed by the film magazine Photoplay in December 1922, the celebrated costume designer was surely thinking of her own secret love affair with Rudolph Valentino when she discussed Hollywood’s celebrity circus. “Fame is like a giant X-ray,” she once said. “Once you are exposed beneath it, the very beatings of your heart are shown to a gaping world.”