In his next feature film expected in France in January 2023, The Fabelmans, American director Steven Spielberg, considered one of Hollywood’s greatest living directors, looks back on his own childhood in Arizona, between parental disagreement and anti-Semitic bullying. The filmmaker premiered the film on Saturday September 10 at the Toronto International Film Festival.
Movies are dreams that you never forget #TheFabelmans directed by Steven Spielberg.
Starring Michelle Williams, Paul Dano, Seth Rogen and Gabriel LaBelle.
In theaters everywhere Thanksgiving. pic.twitter.com/OkFlSCp2yl— The Fabelmans (@thefabelmans) September 11, 2022
This coming-of-age drama explores the family secrets of a young movie-loving man, Sammy Fabelman. In front of an enthusiastic audience, Spielberg explained that he had wanted to make a very personal film for a long time but had finally drawn his motivation from “fearsparked by the coronavirus pandemic.
“I just felt that if I was going to leave anything behind, what did I really need to clear up and unpack about my mom and dad and my sisters?“, he explained after the screening. “It wasn’t now or never, but almost“.
Whether The Fabelmans is only semi-autobiographical, the parallels with the life of Spielberg appear clearly. Like him, the Fabelman family moved from New Jersey to Arizona and then to California and Sammy fell in love with cinema, perfecting himself with the help of his friends and inventing techniques for the camera.
“I was really using glue and saliva, trying to figure out how to hold things together“, he recalled. The film picks up a lot of the home movies he made as a teenager.”In this movie I did all the behind the scenes stuff much better than the 8mm movies I’ve shot.“, he launched. “It was a great cover!”.
Although the cinema is a source of solace and escape for young Sammy, the film does not hide his problems at home, such as the difficulties of his parents’ marriage, played by Michelle Williams and Paul Dano.
It also shows the anti-Semitic bullying inflicted by two bullies in his Californian high school. “Harassment is only a small aspect of my life. Anti-Semitism is an aspect of my life but in no way a dominant force in my life“, he assured. “It made me very, very aware of being an underdog growing up.“.
Spielberg also dismissed press reports that this film would be his last. “It’s not because I decided to retire and this would be my swan song“, he assured, “don’t believe any of this!“.
The Toronto Film Festival, which kicked off Thursday September 8 and is due to end Sunday September 18, is expecting a host of stars, including Jennifer Lawrence, Jessica Chastain, Viola Davis, Sam Mendes and Nicolas Cage.