In some jobs, it's hard to draw a line between personal and professional life. But for the artist, the distinction is hopelessly blurred, even for Steven Spielberg, as seen in 2022's The Fabelmans. This fascinating, loose autobiography not only explores Spielberg's motives and perspective on filmmaking, it raises questions about the tension between the communicative and the creative aspects of art itself.
There were a few things I already knew, just from being a film nerd. I knew The Greatest Show on Earth was the first movie to have a big impact on Spielberg as a child, and I'd long ago heard about his meeting with John Ford and Ford's advice about the placement of the horizon in a shot. Casting David Lynch as John Ford was a stroke of genius.
Those are two events that bookend the film and in between is a family drama and a teen drama. The teen drama, about Sammy Fabelman (Gabriel LaBelle), Steven's stand-in, attending high school in California is by itself like an exceptional John Hughes film. These teenagers have a lot more life in them than the ones in Spielberg's West Side Story.
The family drama preceding the high school section reminded me of Ingmar Bergman's Fanny and Alexander, another fictionalised autobiography by a famous director. Bergman, too, used an ensemble cast to show how a complicated and tormented family influenced the young filmmaker. Bergman portrayed two father figures--one passionately committed to creating art and the other committed to abusive, puritanical austerity--to show a contrast between someone who valued art and someone who valued stiff moral discipline. A somewhat similar dynamic is portrayed between Sammy's parents, Burt and Mitzi, played by Paul Dano and Michelle Williams, respectively. Their relationship is much gentler, though, and although Burt dismisses filmmaking as an impractical hobby throughout the film, he never becomes a tyrant about it and Sammy's creative talents are allowed to grow.
Where the contrast becomes a dramatic issue is in Mitzi and Burt's relationship to each other. Sammy's sister, Anne (Julia Butters), at one point explains to her brother that Mitzi has always had to suffer for never being able to equal the genius of her husband--Burt is a pioneering engineer in computer technology (Spielberg's real life father, Arnold Spielberg, co-designed one of the first family computers in 1959). But perhaps what Anne actually reveals to Sammy is that she doesn't consider her mother to be as brilliant as her father. Is Mitzi's problem that she's not as talented as Burt or that no-one can see that she is? That's a little ambiguity that could torment someone throughout their lives and knowing this does a lot to explain Mitzi's erratic personality.
Mitzi was a concert pianist and, at one point, Sammy's uncle Boris (Judd Hirsch) explains that she had the talent to be one of the greats.
Boris makes only a brief appearance in the film but it's one of the most memorable I've seen in years. Spielberg sets it up by having Mitzi dream about her dead mother warning her of Boris' visit. It turns out he's worked in the film industry and was a lion tamer, a made-to-order idol for young Sammy, still a fan of The Greatest Show on Earth. But Boris scares the crap out of the kid and praise should go to Hirsch's weirdly aggressive performance. Spielberg keeps cutting to him at the start of some sudden, violent gesture. He tears his shirt and we're as bewildered as Sammy is, unless you know, as Boris explains, this is a Jewish custom for grieving ("Kriah"). But the really scary thing Boris does is warn Sammy how his life will always be torn apart by the tension between the love of his family and the love of his art.
And some people might say, "Really? Steven Spielberg's coming the tormented, obsessive artist now?" Well, that's just it. Art might look like an obsession from the outside. But as Sammy gets older, he finds art kind of re-writes his DNA. The things he does with film are sometimes as mysterious to him as involuntary muscle movement, yet they can have tremendous impact. There are two magnificent examples--one being a home movie of a camping trip Sammy films and edits, the other being a film he makes about a high school trip to the beach.
In the first example, as Sammy stays up late editing the film, he's startled to notice something about his father's best friend, played by Seth Rogen. What Sammy sees compels him to edit the film further until he's made something that shows him a clear, undeniable narrative. When he finally shows it to someone else, it has devastating consequences for his family. And yet, as certain as the characters are, it's by no means certain to us--was there a problem, or did Sammy create one? Did reality shape his perspective, or did his perspective shape reality?
Lest we think this is a fluke, the film follows it up with the high school beach trip. Sammy makes a film in which he portrays a student positively for reasons he cannot explain to himself. When pushed, he says, the camera sees what it sees. Then he says maybe he just wanted the person to be nice to him. The reality is, he doesn't know. One could theorise that it's part of a pattern with Spielberg--he's always been more interested in sexualising masculinity. The women in his movies are typically kind of asexual, his blockbusters standing as a massive hole in the very concept of "male gaze". But even if that's partially behind it, it's not enough to explain the whole decision. Whatever the reason, it has rapid and dramatic consequences and changes the lives of people around him.
I never would have expected such a daringly raw statement from Steven Spielberg. I'm not entirely sure he intended it, though. What he did do, I think, is let the music take him where it would. Lucky for us.
Twitter Sonnet #1656
A crystal letter travelled over time.
With faded petals, flowers grew again.
At dawn begins another daunting climb.
With hearts as small as rabbits pull the pin.
The crumbs replaced the sheets and sunk the beds.
Becoming food was voted best to do.
You have to put completed brains in heads.
A sack of flour sates the thirstless crew.
The cavern eye could watch the total town.
Desire passed beyond the vaunted gorge.
So lonely damsels hide a constant frown.
And fires dim beneath the freezing forge.
Belief reflects along the glass of sight.
The sky was cut behind the vivid kite.
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