Based on Don DeLillo’s 1985 novel, “White Noise” is a 2022 comedy-drama film directed by Noah Baumbach. Starring Adam Driver, Greta Gerwig, Don Cheadle, Raffey Cassidy, Sam Nivola, and May Nivola, the story takes place in the 1980s. It revolves around an academic and his family whose lives change after an air contamination accident near their home.
The film premiered at the 79th Venice International Film Festival in August 2022 and received positive reviews for its direction, cinematography, performances, and score, despite mixed reactions to the screenplay, varying tones, and length.
Don DeLillo’s 1985 novel “White Noise” follows the life of Jack Gladney, a professor of “Hitler studies,” and his blended family. The story is set in Ohio in the 1980s. Jack’s life takes a strange turn when a train accident causes a massive evacuation due to chemical waste spreading over the town.
The family is forced into quarantine at a summer camp. Chaos ensues when multiple families try to escape, but the Gladneys return home after nine days. However, Jack’s fear of death becomes exacerbated after being briefly exposed to chemical waste.
His wife, Babette, becomes pale and lethargic and eventually reveals that she joined a shadowy clinical trial for a drug to treat death anxieties. Jack’s hallucinations lead him to take revenge on the man behind the trial. After a violent confrontation, Jack and Babette reconcile at a hospital run by German atheist nuns. In the end, the family participates in a dance number at a supermarket. “White Noise” explores themes of mortality, consumerism, and the fear of death in modern society.
After being exposed to Nyodene D during the toxic airborne event, Jack is told it’s a death sentence that might kill him in 15 or 30 years. Babette, who fears death, admits to taking a new drug called Dylar, which led her to sleep with the man who provided her with it.
Given a gun by his colleague, Siskind, Jack shoots and kills Mr Gray, who had been dealing with Dylar. Babette arrives, and Mr Gray shoots them both. In a drug-induced state, Mr Gray believes he shot himself, and they go to a hospital run by nuns to get treatment.
The hospital they arrive at is unique as it is an atheist German nun hospital where the pictures of heaven on the wall are just for show. The nun who takes care of the sick and injured tells them that heaven does not exist and focuses on her real job.
Babette asks if death is the end and opens up another philosophical theme of the film. The nun admonishes them and tells them that it is their task to believe in things that no one else believes and that they should try to believe in each other.
The film ends with Jack feeling sad for the disasters they create but inventing hope, and the couple arriving at a supermarket, leaving Jack’s illness ambiguous.
No, it is not based on a true story. It is taken from Don DeLlilo’s 1985 novel “White Noise”. The book was released in 1985 and has been a popular bestseller. This eighth book was pivotal in bringing him into the mainstream literary world. Initially, DeLillo wanted to title the book “Panasonic,” but the company of the same name refused.
The book is divided into four parts, with part two focusing on a chemical catastrophe. The final part concludes with a sunset. Director Noah Baumbach’s eleventh feature film is his first to be based on someone else’s work.
To read about the location, set and more: Where was the movie White Noise filmed? Learn all about the location, set and more
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