Bespin 6819 Posted December 16, 2022 Share Posted December 16, 2022 All the "childhood" years are without any score. It's obvisously a choice... But, hey, all the beginning of a movie without an original score... that's heavy man. And that "cameo" at the end of the movie, the "famous" director scene... that was half-funny and half-distracting (wait a minute, is it really... yes it's him... no? Google!). Generally, I've found the casting of this movie to be very uneven anyway. A nice movie in the ensemble, some too long scenes (you know, when you have to wait the music to end... sort of those kind of things, I said cut to myself more than one time!). I don't think Spielberg is very at ease to tell personal stories, even his own one. Molly Weasley 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Disco Stu 15468 Posted December 16, 2022 Share Posted December 16, 2022 Laura Dern and Michelle Williams in conversation, talking about The Fabelmans and working with Spielberg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JNHFan2000 1365 Posted December 19, 2022 Share Posted December 19, 2022 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bayesian 993 Posted December 19, 2022 Share Posted December 19, 2022 On 16/12/2022 at 6:14 AM, Bespin said: All the "childhood" years are without any score. It's obvisously a choice... But, hey, all the beginning of a movie without an original score... that's heavy man. And that "cameo" at the end of the movie, the "famous" director scene... that was half-funny and half-distracting (wait a minute, is it really... yes it's him... no? Google!). Generally, I've found the casting of this movie to be very uneven anyway. A nice movie in the ensemble, some too long scenes (you know, when you have to wait the music to end... sort of those kind of things, I said cut to myself more than one time!). I don't think Spielberg is very at ease to tell personal stories, even his own one. Apostasy! If this movie fails to maintain its frontrunner status as best pic and JW fails to win his sixth Oscar because of it, I’m pinning the blame on your indifference to the film! Bespin 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post TownerFan 4974 Posted December 20, 2022 Popular Post Share Posted December 20, 2022 I saw the film last Saturday and I liked it a lot. Is it a masterpiece? No. But it's perhaps Spielberg's most sincere and heartfelt film so far, possibly unlike anything he ever did before. The closest in tone and style is perhaps Catch Me If You Can, but the level of poignancy in The Fabelmans is imho on a different league. Imho, it's a profound film that touches deeply anyone who decided to follow the muse and tried to create something with it, and how all of this inevitably ties with your own story and your own roots. It's a film that speaks truthfully about many things. I was touched about the feeling of nostalgia for things that now belong to the past and that we miss dearly. Plus, I loved how the references to virtually each of his own films throughout all of it (some of them very clear, others very subtle). In this way, it almost felt like his own swan song, even though Spielberg stated clearly that it's not. John Williams scores the film in the only way he could have possibly done, i.e. with the utmost respect toward the personal story of Spielberg, who is first a friend for him and then a colleague. It's his most restrained score in decades and yet it's touching and very poignant. He let source music, classical pieces and also classic film music bits have the more prominent role, and reserved for the original score a minimum role mostly to offer a comment on the emotions of the characters. I found this choice very moving and also very humble in how Williams decided to stay out of the way most of the time. I only detected one cue that isn't on the album, but I'm trying to figure out if it's actually JW because it didn't sound like him at first glance. I'm referring to the cue that accompanies the moment where Sammy is filming the "long walk" of the final scene of Escape to Nowhere. It features a Morricone-esque solo electric guitar, and later strings and horns join in. It's almost a source music-like moment and initially I thought it was a selection from a classic score, but the recording was too clean and crisp as all the classic film score selections that appear in the film are used when Sammy is actually showing the films to the audience and they're clearly sourced from the original recordings. Holko, blondheim, Jay and 1 other 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Edmilson 4497 Posted January 14 Share Posted January 14 😦 Brando 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Not Mr. Big 4047 Posted January 14 Share Posted January 14 29 minutes ago, Edmilson said: 😦 The author of Blonde. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay 30969 Posted January 15 Share Posted January 15 OK I saw the film at the cinema this afternoon Who made the incredibly inane decision to have Michelle Williams compete in the Best Actress category instead of Best Supporting Actress? In no possible way is she the lead or a co-lead of this film; The only lead in the film is Sam Fabelman, everyone else is either supporting or a one-scene cameo She might have had a chance at winning Supporting but won't win Best Actress Was this Universal's idea, or her agent's? Either way, someone fucked up Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay 30969 Posted January 24 Share Posted January 24 Tiny new interview with Spielberg https://deadline.com/2023/01/oscars-2023-steven-spielberg-the-fabelmans-indiana-jones-disney-series-1235239433/ I hadn't realized until reading that, that The Fabelmans is his first Oscar nom for writing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Disco Stu 15468 Posted January 24 Share Posted January 24 Yeah somehow CE3K wasn't nominated for screenplay or picture. I'd guess that in the voters minds, Star Wars got those spots instead. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Michael Grigorowitsch 367 Posted January 28 Popular Post Share Posted January 28 Just watched the film. 10/10. Had it all; cried, laughed, thought about it. This film really says a lot about how creative people feel. The last shot!!!! I will never forget the sudden excitement that came straight from my gut and coursed through my body as I watched the camera shake. A masterpiece of a film, I think. Disco Stu, May the Force be with You, Brando and 3 others 5 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Disco Stu 15468 Posted January 28 Share Posted January 28 Yes! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay 30969 Posted January 29 Share Posted January 29 Watched the camera shake? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Not Mr. Big 4047 Posted January 29 Share Posted January 29 15 minutes ago, Jay said: Watched the camera shake? Spoiler The last shot bruce marshall 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay 30969 Posted January 29 Share Posted January 29 Yea, I saw the movie, and I remember the last shot. What camera shake are you talking about? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
filmmusic 1245 Posted January 29 Share Posted January 29 15 minutes ago, Jay said: Yea, I saw the movie, and I remember the last shot. What camera shake are you talking about? Maybe he means that weird camera shake, Spoiler where the horizon is in the middle and the camera goes up abruptly and now the horizon is down. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay 30969 Posted January 29 Share Posted January 29 Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh right, I remember that now! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muad'Dib 1622 Posted January 29 Share Posted January 29 Finally watched it on the big screen. Overall it was good, I liked it but I did find it a bit too long. Also, to me there were two competing movies -one being the family drama and the other the filmmaking stuff- that never quite ended up relating as much as I hoped. I actually found myself more interested in most of the family drama stuff than the movie-making material. Personally, I think the movie suffers a bit by presenting the kid Sammy at the start. It's like there are 20 minutes of movie at the beggining before it actually starts to get going. Personally, I think it would have been better to start with the Sammy that accompanies us through most of the movie. While I loved the ending, the whole movie left me feeling a bit... empty. And kinda sad. It's the least Spielberg-ian movie of his carreer. Which is both its biggest strenght and its biggest weakness. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Naïve Old Fart 7510 Posted January 29 Share Posted January 29 12 hours ago, filmmusic said: Maybe he means that weird camera shake, Hide contents where the horizon is in the middle and the camera goes up abruptly and now the horizon is down. I've not yet seen the film. Is it like the upside down image, in AMISTAD? Perhaps not in style, but in meaning? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay 30969 Posted January 29 Share Posted January 29 What upside down image in Amistad? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Not Mr. Big 4047 Posted January 29 Share Posted January 29 3 minutes ago, Jay said: What upside down image in Amistad? The reflection in the old fashioned camera taking a picture of Martin Van Buren? Naïve Old Fart 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Naïve Old Fart 7510 Posted January 29 Share Posted January 29 Exactly! It says that everything is not what it seems. Not Mr. Big 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post AC1 3800 Posted February 1 Popular Post Share Posted February 1 I'm in the process of watching this (very long) movie but so far I really like what I'm seeing. In fact, I don't think I've liked a Spielberg movie since Catch Me If You Can. Wasn't uncle Judd Hirsch fantastic? That was magic right there! Or what about the 'Dancing in the headlights' scene? Brando, Holko and Muad'Dib 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Naïve Old Fart 7510 Posted February 1 Share Posted February 1 I've not seen this, yet. Is there a scene where Spielberg's dad takes him to the oil refinery? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rough cut 1401 Posted February 1 Share Posted February 1 For a anyone interested in the conception of this movie, I can recommend this interview with Tony Kushner, who is the screenwriter for The Fabelmans (as well as for Lincoln and Munich to mention a few others). https://podcasts.apple.com/se/podcast/script-apart/id1518622561?i=1000596967816 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thor 5792 Posted February 1 Share Posted February 1 FINALLY saw the film this morning! Superb, 5 out of 5. Although there are some real, dramatic moments in Spielberg's early life that I would have loved to see adapted into the story (the meteor shower, more of the resentment he felt for his father that eventually turned into the spielbergian trait "deceptive father figures", the making of FIRELIGHT, the recruitment of his bullies into the films he made, the sneaking into the Universal lot etc.), I took it for what it was, primarily a story about his parents and love of cinema. Disco Stu and bruce marshall 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tallguy 1514 Posted February 1 Share Posted February 1 47 minutes ago, Thor said: the making of FIRELIGHT Yeah, there were a few things that I wanted to see, just because they would have been more of a showcase for Phoenix in the 60's. There's only one scene that really relies on specific landmarks, the scene where Bennie buys him the camera features Camelback Mountain and The Kachina cinema. The mountain is still there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Disco Stu 15468 Posted February 1 Share Posted February 1 57 minutes ago, Thor said: more of the resentment he felt for his father that eventually turned into the spielbergian trait "deceptive father figures" I think changing the story so that the kids are blaming the mother instead of the father for the divorce (or at least aren't blaming the father completely) might be the single biggest reason he made it THE FABELMANS instead of THE SPIELBERGS, because it is such a fundamental change. bruce marshall 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay 30969 Posted February 1 Share Posted February 1 Yea that Judd Hirsch scene was absolutely fantastic! He was great!! Tallguy 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thor 5792 Posted February 1 Share Posted February 1 I was thinking that maybe Mitzi taking the kids out to see the tornado was a 'substitute' for when Arnold Spielberg took the kids out at night to see the meteor shower, but the only thing they have in common is that a parent suddenly takes them out to see a natural phenomenon. Other than that, they're very different. The meteor shower incident fuelled young Spielberg's imaginative powers, the curiousity for life "out there", while the tornado scene just seemed to be a metaphor for Mitzi's "inner tornado" at that point in the story, so to speak. bruce marshall 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Disco Stu 15468 Posted February 1 Share Posted February 1 7 minutes ago, Thor said: I was thinking that maybe Mitzi taking the kids out to see the tornado was a 'substitute' for when Arnold Spielberg took the kids out at night to see the meteor shower, but the only thing they have in common is that a parent suddenly takes them out to see a natural phenomenon. Other than that, they're very different. The meteor shower incident fuelled young Spielberg's imaginative powers, the curiousity for life "out there", while the tornado scene just seemed to be a metaphor for Mitzi's "inner tornado" at that point in the story, so to speak. I think Spielberg has said that it is something his mother actually did, the tornado thing. I think you're right about the metaphor, but I don't think it was invented for the purpose, but chosen from his memories. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thor 5792 Posted February 1 Share Posted February 1 Ah, so he's said that? It's not in any of my biographies, as far as I can recall, but maybe it's something he said in a recent interview. By the way, speaking of the meteor shower incident, I did look for his trademark shooting stars in the film, but couldn't see any. Plenty of backlight, though, loved that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Disco Stu 15468 Posted February 1 Share Posted February 1 9 minutes ago, Thor said: Ah, so he's said that? It's not in any of my biographies, as far as I can recall, but maybe it's something he said in a recent interview I've watched so much of Spielberg talking about the movie in various contexts the last few months, I have no idea where I might have seen it, but I'm pretty sure he said it really happened. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
filmmusic 1245 Posted February 1 Share Posted February 1 Does anyone know, is that whole John Ford episode true? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Holko 8018 Posted February 1 Share Posted February 1 He told it multiple times in interviews years before and the scene was pretty close to it. filmmusic 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Disco Stu 15468 Posted February 1 Share Posted February 1 Here's a fun video somebody made to compare the scene to one instance of him telling the story in 2011 filmmusic and Tallguy 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brando 863 Posted February 1 Share Posted February 1 7 hours ago, Naïve Old Fart said: I've not seen this, yet. Is there a scene where Spielberg's dad takes him to the oil refinery? No Naïve Old Fart 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
filmmusic 1245 Posted February 1 Share Posted February 1 18 minutes ago, Holko said: He told it multiple times in interviews years before and the scene was pretty close to it. I see. Well, I don't generally watch interviews so I didn't know.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Naïve Old Fart 7510 Posted February 1 Share Posted February 1 Does it have the bit where he's evicted from the film set, by Hitchcock? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thor 5792 Posted February 1 Share Posted February 1 2 minutes ago, Naïve Old Fart said: Does it have the bit where he's evicted from the film set, by Hitchcock? Much too late, alas. I'd love to see a FABELMANS 2 where we get to see some of the early industry beginnings. Won't happen, of course, but one can dream. Was happy to see the Ford scene, as I -- too -- have heard it many times over the years. Having Lynch (one of my other favourite directors) portray him was extra bonus, of course. bruce marshall and Naïve Old Fart 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick1Ø66 3404 Posted February 1 Share Posted February 1 So since Williams scored the Spielberg biopic, will Spielberg direct the Williams biopic? Seems only fair. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thor 5792 Posted February 1 Share Posted February 1 1 minute ago, Nick1Ø66 said: So since Williams scored the Spielberg biopic, will Spielberg direct the Williams biopic? Seems only fair. Yes, but apparently Laurent Bouzerau will. Nick1Ø66 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AC1 3800 Posted February 1 Share Posted February 1 Watched the rest of the movie. Sam's girlfriend (who thinks Jesus is sexy) was great and for some reason the highlight of the second half. All in all, I loved the lighthearted tone. It also reminded me of the filmmaking of the 70s'. Kaminski's camera work never draws attention to itself. It's all about the characters. And yes, the score fits the scenes like a glove. My favorite piece, one that worked very well in the movie, is Concerto in D minor (Bach). So yes, finally a good Spielberg movie but probably not one that I'm going to want to watch again any time soon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrbellamy 5622 Posted February 1 Share Posted February 1 4 hours ago, Thor said: Much too late, alas. I'd love to see a FABELMANS 2 where we get to see some of the early industry beginnings. Won't happen, of course, but one can dream. Was happy to see the Ford scene, as I -- too -- have heard it many times over the years. Having Lynch (one of my other favourite directors) portray him was extra bonus, of course. Along with looking and sounding very much like Ford, Lynch is such perfect casting because he is maybe #1 on the list of directors that a 20-year-old self-serious, aspiring filmmaker would be the most scared shitless to meet today. Holko and Disco Stu 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leeallen01 2003 Posted February 3 Share Posted February 3 Just seen it. Very charming love of cinema showcased throughout. Adored the scenes of him making his childhood films, and when he showed them to his family and others. You can see the awe in the performances as the art and power of cinema are on show. A very personal story of his parents not in the usual sentimental Spielberg way, but more honest and complex. And that final shot was just...perfect. Not Mr. Big 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crocodile 6853 Posted February 8 Share Posted February 8 Just watched it at the local cinema. While not perfect, it is definitely one of the strongest things Spielberg has done in recent years. At least it feels like he means it and that is quite something. The film is also cinematically more engaging than many of his other dramas. I can question some stuff here and there but was otherwise with it. Subtle Williams scores speaks of the inner feelings and demons. Good stuff. Karol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Not Mr. Big 4047 Posted February 8 Share Posted February 8 Shouldn't the thread title be "Old Spielberg Movie: The Fabelmans" now? Brando 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tallguy 1514 Posted February 9 Share Posted February 9 Good grief! How quickly do you think things get old? If it was a baby it might not even be sleeping through the night yet! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom 3372 Posted February 9 Share Posted February 9 2 hours ago, Tallguy said: Good grief! How quickly do you think things get old? If it was a baby it might not even be sleeping through the night yet! Remind me not to eat dairy products at your house. Brando 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tallguy 1514 Posted February 9 Share Posted February 9 13 hours ago, Tom said: Remind me not to eat dairy products at your house. Are you saying films age like fine milk? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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