Damien Chazelle’s ambitious new film “Babylon,” a tale of Hollywood’s debauched early years, has polarized critics and audiences alike with its raunchy, over-the-top imagery. The title of the movie embraces the depiction of Tinseltown as the height of excess going back to the silent era. As Mr. Chazelle told Entertainment Weekly, “Babylon” was a name given Hollywood in those days to denote “a sinful place, a city of decadence and depravity that was heading to ruin.” The new movie tips its hat to the underground filmmaker Kenneth Anger and his lurid, gossipy 1965 book “Hollywood Babylon.” “Hollywood, California became a synonym of Sin,” Mr. Anger wrote. “Professional do-gooders would brand Hollywood a New Babylon whose evil influence rivaled the legendary depravity of the old.”

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