[ad_1]
Despite being one of the most famous directors and producers of all time, Steven Spielberg was visibly nervous as he stood on the red carpet at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). Within the framework of the festival, the premiere of the last film of the 78-year-old director – “The Fabelman Family” was coming. According to Spielberg, his daughter gave him breathing exercises to ease his nervousness.
The film won the coveted TIFF Audience Award.
For Spielberg, this was a very special film. There are autobiographical aspects in all of his work — even, “believe it or not,” in the Indiana Jones character, he told reporters in Toronto.
But “Fabelmans” is his first “very focused, conscious coming-of-age story” inspired by his own family.
The movie that started it all
Sammy (played by Matteo Zorion Francis-DeFord as a child and by Gabrielle LaBelle as a teenager) is the son of two very different parents. His father, Burt, is a practical and reserved computer engineer, while his mother, Mitzi, is a bright, creative and outgoing woman who actually wanted to be a concert pianist and now takes care of the household and their four children.
One day they take their son to the movies to see Cecil B. DeMille’s The Greatest Show on Earth. The film left a lasting impression on the young Sammy Fabelman – just as it did Spielberg as a child.
Sammy is particularly fascinated by the train crash scene. He recreated it at home with his model railway and his father’s Super 8 camera – partly to understand how the scene worked technically and partly to be less haunted by it.
Making films as a necessity
Encouraged primarily by his mother and later by his uncle Boris, Sami further develops his passion for cinema as his parents’ marriage slowly disintegrates. He involves his sisters and friends in increasingly complex scenes.
Although Sammy’s father describes filmmaking as a “hobby”, working with the camera feels important to the boy.
One day, Sammy is taking pictures of his family on a camping trip, and just by observing everyone with his camera, he discovers that his mother’s relationship with a family friend is more than platonic.
Master of cinema
Born on December 18, 1946 in Cincinnati, Ohio, Steven Spielberg has enjoyed an unparalleled career as a director. According to the Hollywood Reporter, he is the most commercially successful director of all time.
With films such as Jaws, ET the Extra-Terrestrial, the Indiana Jones series, Schindler’s List, Saving Private Ryan and Jurassic Park, Spielberg has demonstrated his mastery of all genres of cinema.
Abused for being a Jew
Like Sammy Fabelman in the film, Steven Spielberg comes from a Ukrainian Jewish family; some of his family members died in the Holocaust.
At school he was often bullied for being Jewish. Spielberg later abandoned his Jewish faith.
With the Holocaust drama Schindler’s List, which won him his first Oscar for best director, he also reworked the anti-Semitism he encountered in his youth.
In total, the director now has three Academy Awards and 19 nominations, along with numerous Golden Globe and Emmy awards.
In past interviews, Spielberg has often talked about his childhood; how his family often had to move because of his father’s work; how he wanted to get a photography badge when he was a Boy Scout in Arizona; how he directed a nine-minute film entitled The Last Shootout using his father’s 8mm film camera; and also how he suffered from his parents’ divorce and how much it shaped him.
In The Fabelmans, Steven Spielberg tackles this dramatic period of his youth head-on. To this end, he teamed up with Tony Kushner as co-writer and producer. The two previously worked together on Munich (2005), Lincoln (2012) and West Side Story (2021).
Critics in the US and UK have raved about the new film, an “emotional crowd-pleaser” that is so “rigorous and emotionally honest” that it makes it “one of the year’s most sincerely felt films”, according to the BBC.
“The Fabelman Family” is already considered an Oscar favorite. Spielberg will also receive an Honorary Golden Bear for Lifetime Achievement at the upcoming Berlin International Film Festival in February 2023, and his semi-autobiographical film will be screened at the awards ceremony.
“The Fabelmans” opens November 23 in the US and will be released in Germany in March 2023.
This article was originally written in German.
[ad_2]
Source link