Blood and Tears: Music in the Flesh in « Whiplash » by Damien Chazelle

Abstract

How does Damien Chazelle manage to build and bring to life the figure of the musician at the center of his film Whiplash (2014)? In this story of apprenticeship and initiation, a young jazz drummer joins a band at the prestigious school where he studies, led by a tyrannical teacher who does not hesitate to use humiliation and violence against his musicians. To film musicians is then to show the savagery of the didactic link between the student and the master, while making the spectator experience the feeling of possession and sacrifice that this devouring passion implies.