Return to Babylon

Return to Babylon is a 2013 black-and-white silent film about the silent movie era. It was directed by Alex Monty Canawati. It stars an ensemble cast of Jennifer Tilly, María Conchita Alonso, Ione Skye, Debi Mazar, Laura Harring, and Tippi Hedren.

Return to Babylon
Directed byAlex Monty Canawati
Produced byMaría Conchita Alonso
Stanley Sheff
Written byAlex Monty Canawati
Bruce Pitzer
Stanley Sheff
StarringJennifer Tilly
María Conchita Alonso
Debi Mazar
Ione Skye
Laura Harring
Tippi Hedren
CinematographyScott Dale
Cricket Peters
Edited byStanley Sheff
Release date
11 August 2013 (USA)
16 January 2019 (World Internet Release)
Running time
75 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Premise

Photographed with a hand-cranked camera and scored with music of the roaring twenties, this silent film strings together the lives of the most famous and infamous stars of the 1920s, including Rudolph Valentino, Gloria Swanson, Clara Bow, Lupe Vélez, Fatty Arbuckle, and William Desmond Taylor.

Cast

Background

Return to Babylon features locations in and around Hollywood, California, including the original home of Rudolph Valentino, Falcon Lair, as well as the Norma Talmadge estate, the Canfield-Moreno Estate, and the Magic Castle in the Hollywood Hills.

The feature was shot using 19 rolls of 16mm film supposedly found sitting on a sidewalk on Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California.

Reports of paranormal activity

The film's marketing played up the notion that the film was haunted. Media releases and interviews stated that the actors faces can be seen "morphing" into grotesque shapes in certain shots. There were reports of actors having elongated and webbed fingers, full bodied apparitions, seeing the faces of dead actors (such as Lon Chaney) manifest in shots, and shadows resembling demons or skeletons. Many of the cast and crew had confirmed many of these reports and stated they experienced odd events during production, with Jennifer Tilly in particular describing feeling "watched" and "touched" by unseen forces during filming.[1]

Release

The film was released on 11 August 2013 in the United States.[2] It was re-released on 16 January 2019 on YouTube after years of not finding home video distribution.

References
  1. "Return to Babylon". Return to Babylon. Retrieved 2015-06-01.
  2. "Return to Babylon". 11 Aug 2013. Retrieved 2015-06-02.
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