There are no two words in the English language more harmful than
"good job"
Whiplash is a 2014 American drama film, written and directed by Damien Chazelle.
It is the story of an initiation and the apprenticeship of a young jazz drummer who joins an orchestra led by a tyrannical teacher.
Damien Chazelle creates here a character of a complex musician who lives only for his art with violence and relentlessness, threatening his health and his life.
Whiplash's Schaffer Conservatory seems secluded from the world and also seems to escape common law, which would explain why Fletcher can pour out his hatred without any authority intervening.
It is interesting to see that the spaces are often closed, without windows. You never know if the rehearsal and concert stages take place at night or during the day. As a spectator, we are always in an uncertain temporality.
From master to student, from student to instrument, every relationship becomes a fight. The physical and verbal relationship between the drums and Andrew, like the relationship between the master and the student, resembles a struggle where each seeks to master, dominate the other.
Is Damien Chazelle influenced by Scorsese's cinema? The nervous rhythm in Whiplash, where music and violence are associated with the fate of the characters, can testify to this. The war film and the thriller are also narrative tracks for this story which at first glance resembles a musical film. But the script goes beyond that. They are indeed jazz musicians in search of an artistic ideal, out of this world and destructive.
“I watched films by Scorsese, Peckinpah, Leone, Fincher instead."
An intense shoot
The director and screenwriter of the film, Damien Chazelle, had not obtained the necessary financing for its production. He then chose to adapt it into a short film and present it at the Sundance Film Festival in 2013. He won the jury prize there, which will allow him to find funding shortly after. J.K. Simmons plays the same role in both.
The first drafts of the screenplay are written as a psychological thriller. The entire film was shot in 19 days. An entire day will be devoted to a scene in Fletcher's office which will ultimately be cut during editing. According to Damien Chazelle, this scene would have helped Miles Teller and J.K. Simmons to develop the bond between their two characters.
J.K. Simmons will win 47 awards for his role in Fletcher.
During the training scenes, Damien Chazelle refrained from shouting "cut!" for actor Miles Teller to keep playing the drums until he runs out.
J.K. Simmons said that when his character, Fletcher, calls Andrew a "selfish little asshole" it was his only off-the-cuff contribution during the film.
For the slapping scene, several takes were done with J.K. Simmons and Miles Teller miming the slap. But the one that can be seen in the film is the last of the takes where it is indeed a real slap.
Melissa Benoist has less than ten minutes of total screen time despite being the fourth cast member to appear in the end credits.
Musical training
Even though Miles Teller has been playing the drums since he was fifteen, he had to take lessons four hours a day, three times a week, to perfect his technique. The scenes were also shot by his teacher to perform the remaining 30% of the film's musical sequences.
Some of Miles Teller's drumming was used in the soundtrack.
J.K. Simmons for his part already had a musical education and graduated in music from the University of Montana. His mother was a college music teacher and his father was head of the music department at the University of Montana.
At the heart of Jazz…
At the start of the film, Andrew is listening to an album by Buddy Rich. Buddy Rich was a drummer famous for his tough and violent temper. He regularly insulted the musicians of his group.
During his meeting with Nicole, the song we hear is by Jackie Hill from 1938. In fact, Jackie Hill does not exist, it is a composition by Justin Hurwitz.
Whiplash is a piece whose difficult technique is recognized. Its author Hank Levy is known for his unusual time signature
The story Fletcher tells about Charlie Parker is true, but it didn't quite turn out that way. While drummer Jo Jones did throw a cymbal in response to Parker's playing, he didn't intend to attack him. He had just thrown it on the ground to signal that Parker had to leave the stage.
Jazz historians explain that this was not a response to poor performance but because these older musicians disapproved of the fast improvisations Parker played.
Yet it is his improvisations that have become his signature.
The little details
A "fletcher" is a person who puts the feathers on the arrows. We can think that Fletcher is preparing the next Charlie "Bird" Parker.
One of the posted signs reads:
« If you don't have ability, you wind up playing in a rock band. »
When Andrew reads the chart at the jazz club, the first performer listed is H. Estabrook; Helen Estabrook is one of the film's producers.
Both Miles Teller and J.K. Simmons played comic book characters in a Marvel movie. J.K. Simmons was J. Jonah Jameson in Spider-Man and Commissioner Gordon in Justice League. Miles Teller starred as Reed Richards/Mr.Fantastic in Fantastic Four. Melissa Benoist will play the role of the heroine of DC Supergirl (2015).
Most of the musicians on screen are all local musicians and music students. Most had never acted in a film.
This contributed to more realism for the group scenes.
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