For the first time or almost, Spielberg tells himself.
His story, he has already mentioned, "
by part and by plots throughout his career
", with
ET, the extraterrestrial
, AI
Artificial intelligence
or even
Encounters of the third type.
“But I never had the courage to face this story completely
,” he confided at the Golden Globes ceremony, when he was presented with the best picture award for
The Fabelmans
in mid-January.
"
Everyone sees me as an incredible success story, but nobody knows anything until you have the courage yourself to say, 'This is who I am'".
The Fabelmans
is more so, as critics have pointed out.
"Impossible not to have a heavy heart in front of such a nakedness",
admits
La Voix du Nord
.
The film retraces the journey of young Sammy (Gabriel LaBelle), from his 6th to his 16th birthday.
Already in the grip of night terrors, the boy dreads the big and dark cinemas.
His parents insisted and took him to see
Under the biggest tent in the world
, by Cecil B. DeMille.
It is the revelation.
With his electric train and his camera, he reproduces the railway accident that impressed him so much on the screen.
After that, he never let go of his reel again.
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“
The thirty-fourth feature film by the American filmmaker is one of his finest.
The most personal too, since he retraces his childhood, his discovery of cinema and the separation of his parents,
marvels Éric Neuhoff, critic at Le
Figaro
.
And yes, cinema unveils uncomfortable truths.
It will create tears and misunderstanding, will lead to a divorce of mute sadness.
This is a story of initiation, a sentimental education on silver nitrate.
From Steven to Spielberg
"What movie!"
,
“unforgettable”
,
“masterful and overwhelming”.
.. The press is unanimous.
With
The Fabelmans
, the director confirms "
his status as guardian of the temple of American cinema",
writes Olivier Lamm in the columns of
Liberation
.
"
As always with the filmmaker, the story twirls with sparkling ease, but at the same time his cinema has never seemed so refined
", continues the journalist.
For
Le Parisien,
the film is quite simply
“a tender and splendid fresco, the self-portrait of an artist who is both fragile and determined”
.
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This fragility comes from his difficult adolescence, his parents' divorce and his Jewishness.
The discovery of cinema in 1952 was an outlet for Spielberg.
“It is while filming that he puts in his pocket one of the small anti-Semitic strikes which harass him in high school.
By still filming he reconnects with his mother, to whom
The Fabelmans
pays a moving tribute.
By filming, finally, that he is reconciled with his own story, ”
says
L'Humanité
.
Far from wanting to line up among the biopics,
The Fabelmans
stops where the career of Sammy, Steven in reality, begins.
And it was when he met director John Ford that
“something happened and was passed on
,” says Mathieu Macheret.
“
We don't really know what, but it's the mystery of the talisman that makes this splendid film so valuable,”
explains the journalist from Le
Monde
.
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