It may seem paradoxical that the Berlinale is now awarding Steven Spielberg an honorary Golden Bear, although in the last sixty years no film has been nominated to compete at this festival; On the other hand, yes, to get to know place of privilege The fact that he is among the most important directors of history is inconsistent with assuming that this is not the natural setting of his cinema. In any case, none of this seems to matter to him. “Receiving this award represents one of the high points of my career,” he said at a press conference hours before receiving the statuette today. “It means I must have done some things right. Awards like this force me to do something I would never do, namely look back. in time to reflect.”
The truth is, despite these promises, Spielberg has been shown to have been immersed in the exercise of introspection for some time. ‘Fabelmans’, the movie that won him the first two Golden Globes of his career and he’s looking forward to seven Oscarsis nothing more than a meditation on the trauma she experienced during her adolescence due to the death of her parents and how cinema saved her life. “My mother was a woman who celebrated life every day; if he wanted to do something, he just did it”He remembers the director of classics like ‘Jaws’ (1975, ‘ET the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) and ‘Schindler’s List’ (1993) – they don’t all fit here -‘: “For years he asked me to make a movie. I made a movie about him and he used to tell me : ‘I’ve provided you with a lot of material, why don’t you do it?’ to finally make that movie.
While never quite as directly as in ‘The Fabelmans’, however, the Ohioan has spent his entire career talking about broken families, failed marriages and orphans, even in films that seem so far removed from these themes like ‘Crazy Evasion’ (1974). ) or ‘Encounters in the Third Stage’ (1977). “I never consciously use movies as therapy but when you’re an artist, all the experiences you have have to come out and permeate your work, even if it wasn’t your intention. And when I make a movie, everything I am is put at his service.”
Spielberg describes his professional career as a “bullet train,” a fast, non-stop journey between each film and the next. But right now, it’s taking a while to figure out what his next project will be. “My last two films have been two very personal works.because before ‘Los Fabelmans’, after I spent my whole life wanting to shoot a musical, I did ‘West Side Story,’” he explains. “But ever since I started working on one, until I finished working on the other, I didn’t have time to think about what to do next, and on the one hand, the lack of commitment makes me feel good, but at the same time, the uncertainty scares me.”
If the databases don’t lie, this is her 208th major film award for which she has received the honorary Golden Bear; He also has a Golden Lion honorary award given to him by the Venice Film Festival in 1993. And while the awards alone don’t confirm that he’s a giver of good advice, they do confirm that he’s someone many would like to take from him. He gave one at the Berlinale today: “If you want to be a director, be a writer first. And if writing isn’t your thing, find someone who’s for it and form an alliance with that person as much as you can. Because it is the stories that draw the attention of the audience, not the framing of the shots.”