From the 1978 film ‘Jaws’ to the 1984 film ‘E.T’, the 1993 film ‘Jurassic Park’, the 1998 film ‘Saving Private Ryan’, the 2001 film ‘Ai’, the 2003 film ‘Catch Me If You Can’ ‘, until the 2004 film ‘The Terminal’.
I have only listed some of Steven Spielberg’s films, but it really is a series of masterpieces. Watching Spielberg’s films, you wonder, ‘Where does that imagination come from?’ makes me feel like I’m dreaming of endless creation. Spielberg, who has been sincere in addition to his limitless imagination, presents his works consistently even in his eighties. The film ‘Pabel Mans’, released on the 22nd, is a work that deals with the actual experience he went through, suspending the reins of his imagination for a while. The original title of ‘Pabelmans’ is ‘The Fabelmans’, which refers to the surname of the main character Sammy’s family.
Although not his mother, who asked, “When are you going to make a film about our family story?” now in the world, Spielberg looked back on his childhood and the personal stories of his parents at the age of 78. Spielberg, who was directly involved in the script work, working with co-screenwriter Tony Kershner, said, “I’m a professional. It’s an autobiographical story, but there’s no reason to worry. I already know everything about what happens on set,” and looking professional like in any other shoot. I was confident that I would be able to keep it. However, Spielberg broke down in tears when he saw Michelle Williams and Paul Dano, who played his parents, on set together.
enough to melt the heart of the veteran and master the heart of Spielberg, ‘Pabel Mans’ follows his experience thoroughly. Except for a few staged scenes, all of them are real, so you can watch the interesting process of how he grew up as a genius director through what kind of time he went through from childhood to adolescence. Also, ‘Pabelmans’ is a work that makes us understand why Steven Spielberg focuses so much on the relationship called ‘family’ when making a film.
* with spoilers
The film ‘Pabelmans’ begins in New Jersey in 1952. 6-year-old Sammy (who is a projection of Steven Spielberg), visits the theater with his parents, comes across ‘The Greatest Show on Earth’ by Cecil B. DeMille as his first film. Shocked by the ‘train crash scene’ in the film, Sammy replays the scene in his head throughout the film. Later, seeing Sammy crash and destroy the toy train given to him by his father, his mother put an ‘8mm camera’ in her hand and said, “If you record the moment the train collision, you can watch it over and over again. Then the fear will disappear and the real train will disappear. ” It doesn’t have to keep breaking,” explained the gist of the video. The early part of ‘Pavelmans’ shows ‘the birth of a legend’, making the audience feel overwhelmed.
Sammy’s film life, which began with the ‘8mm camera’ his mother gave him, continues as a teenager. His mother, Mitch, who was a pianist, fully supports his dream. However, Burt’s father, a highly realistic engineer, recommends Sammy, who is immersed in films until he enters adolescence, “to study rather than as a hobby (films).” Although there are small and big conflicts like this until he realizes his dream, his parents always support Sammy in making films.
If you watch Steven Spielberg’s films, you can see that there are many works that focus entirely on ‘family’. In addition to this, it is not difficult to see scenes where children witness their parents’ struggles or conflicts. This is a reflection of Spielberg’s childhood, in fact, his mother, Leah Adler, divorced her husband Arnold Spielberg in 1967, after 19 years of marriage, and remarried in the same year to a close friend Bernie Adler.
In ‘Pabelmans’, Spielberg directly depicts his mother and father’s divorce and his mother’s affair with a friend. Mitch, who was a talented pianist, gave up his dream after getting married and lives as a full-time housewife. Unlike Mitch, who has an artistic nature, his father Bert, who works for a technology company, is a person who loves scientific logic and work. As Mitch and Bert move forward in their marriage, they keenly sense their differences. Afterwards, Sammy finds out about the relationship between his father’s colleague and best friend, Benny, and his mother, who have been like family since childhood, while editing the family camping footage to make it into a movie .
Spielberg said, “I felt a catharsis as if I had given up a burden I had been carrying for a long time” about the depiction of ‘Family Secrets’ in ‘Pabelmans’. Looking at his childhood scars that always followed him from the perspective of a dozen years later, he was like someone who realized, ‘It’s been a long time since the blood stopped and the scab fell off and new skin sprouted’ .
Spielberg, who left his mother and father in turn in 2017 and 2020, asks himself the question, “What if there’s only one film I haven’t made yet?” In response, Spielberg, who revealed that he had made a film about the family’s story, ‘Pabelmans’, described the work as “psychotherapy worth 40 million dollars (about 51.2 billion won).” In this way, for him, making an autobiographical film was ‘a process that must be passed’.
In this regard, Spielberg said, “Making ‘Pabelmans’ was definitely a healing process for me. It is a great privilege to be able to make a film like this. I hope the audience can see their own family in this film.” convey the wish.
Steven Stillberg’s 34th feature film, ‘Pabelmans’, was honored with seven nominations at the 95th Academy Awards. It also won the Best Director and Best Picture awards at the 80th Golden Globe, and won the Audience Award at the 47th Toronto International Film Festival, showing its status as never before.
Rookie Gabriel Ravel takes on the role of Sammy, a boy who mirrors Steven Spielberg’s childhood and loves movies. The fact that the competition was ‘3000 to 1’ that pierced him to take the role of Sammy was also a surprise. Regarding this, Spielberg said, “The character that was the most difficult to cast was ‘Sammy’.”
Michelle Williams plays Mitch, the mother, and Paul Dano plays the father, Burt. Paul Dano said, “Through ‘Pabelmans’, you can get a glimpse of director Spielberg’s way of seeing the world.” He said, “This is the story of everyone who has a family, loves movies, and has never had a bold dream. “He showed his love for his work.
“A film is a dream. A dream that will never be forgotten.”
What Mitch told 6 year old Sammy.
Reporter Namkyung Hwang: namkyung.hwang@huffpost.kr
