Films nominated for the award Oscar 2023 is here Fabelmanswork to which Steven Spielberg he is very attached, because it says a lot about him, about his youth, his love of cinema, and also about his family. In his film, which he defines as “the most personal” and “the most emotionally difficult”, the famous filmmaker who made history mixes fiction with real details to give viewers the opportunity to experience an exciting, moving and exciting adventure.

“The story is directly inspired by my memories,” he emphasized during the film’s presentation at Berlinale 2023. Seeing “the scenery recreating my childhood home” was a surreal and powerful experience for the seventh art artist, who admitted to often wandering from room to room alone with a lump in my throat during filming.

History of the Fabelmans

Fabelmans explores Spielberg’s early teen years growing up in the 1940s and 1950s through the eyes of Sammy Fableman. A boy raised at the end of World War II, Sammy lives in Arizona with his parents and three younger siblings. His father Bert is a computer engineer and his mother Mitzi is a pianist. After a night at the movies, Sammy is fascinated by the art; the movie helps him make sense of his dysfunctional family and the world. Sammy’s dedication to filmmaking helps him make sense of critical moments in his life and find his way to Hollywood, his destiny.

How the film was born … in a pandemic

Fabelmans was a project that Spielberg had kept in a drawer since 1999 and was originally called I will be at home. Years later, the director brought it to life, renaming it to Fabelmans. The story, his brainchild, was co-written for the screen with a Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright. Tony Kushner who also collaborated with Spielberg on his previous films. Munich, Lincoln AND West Side Storyof which he is also a co-author.

Preliminary work for Fabelmans began in October 2020 at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown and filming began in July 2021 in Los Angeles while the pandemic was still ongoing.

Catchy soundtrack signed by John Williams.

WITH Fabelmans, Steven Spielberg and John Williams celebrate their 28th collaboration. It will also be the last as John Williams announced his retirement as a film composer in June 2022. For this very intimate film, the director needed a longtime friend who could understand the film’s melancholy dimension and turn it into music.

The final part of the film especially impressed Steven Spielberg. “This is one of the best things John has ever written for one of my films. For him, it was a great way to end his career as a composer, ”the director shared at a press conference.

Michelle Williams and Paul Dano

Spielberg dedicated Fabelmans to their deceased parents, Leah Adler AND Arnold Spielbergwho are played in the film Michelle Williams AND Paul Dano. Paul Dano plays Sammy’s father, Bert Fabelman. Paul Dano also stars in Batman, Little Miss Sunshine, There Will Be Blood AND Swiss army man. Michelle Williams “looks like my mother, that’s all I can say,” Spielberg said. The actress became an obvious choice for him as soon as he saw her in the film. Blue Valentine In 2010.

“There was something about her that reminded me of my mother, and not just because she likes short pixie haircuts. I completely trusted my instincts and hoped she liked the script.” Spielberg intentionally didn’t research his history until 2021 for fear that he might hurt his parents. After her mother died in 2017 and her father in 2020, she decided to continue this project.

Other cast and special cameo

The story of a legend requires an exhaustive and legendary cast. And so it is for Fabelmans. The creators have assembled an ensemble cast starring Gabriel LaBelle, Michelle Williams, Paul Dano, Mateo Zorion Francis-Deford, Seth Rogen, Judd Hirsch and Ginny Berlin. Gabriel Bateman, Julia Butters, Robin Bartlett, Keely Karsten, Oakes Figley, Nicholas Cantu, Sofia Kopera, Chloe East and Birdie Borria also star, along with Kalama Epstein, Jan Hoag, Greg Grunberg, Brinley Marum, James Urbaniak, Chandler Lovell and Alina. Brace in various roles.

The director is also part of the team. David Lynchone of Spielberg’s contemporaries, in their first collaboration, who plays the character John Ford. LaBelle makes his debut as 16-year-old Sammy Feibelman, the eldest of the Fabelman boys, while Francis-Deford plays the younger Sammy. Seth Rogen plays Benny Lowy, the children’s best friend, colleague and honorary uncle, Hirsch plays Uncle Boris, Mitzi’s distant uncle, and Berlin appears as Sammy’s paternal grandmother. Sammy’s younger sisters are played by Butters as Reggie, Karsten as Natalie, and Koper as Lisa.

Other roles have Birdy Borria as young Reggie, Bartlett as Sammy’s maternal grandmother, Tina Schildkraut, Figley like bully sammyChad ThomasBateman as Sammy’s friend, a Boy Scout who helps him with his film projects, Cantu as another Boy Scout member and Sammy’s friend, Rechner as Logan Hall, East as Sherwood, Escobar as Sal, Hadari as Family Relative, Epstein as as Barry, Hoag as Nona. , Lovel as René, Grunberg as Bernie Fane, Marum as Janet Benedict, Urbaniak as the principal and Brace as young Natalie.

Meaning of the movie title

Idea for a surname Fabelman came from screenwriter Tony Kushner, inspired by Spielberg’s translation. “Shpil is Yiddish for a speech or a play,” Kushner said. “So I wanted to find something in that sense. I thought of the German word fabel, which I have always liked and which means a fairy tale or a story. And since the film is heavily inspired by Steven’s life, but has fictional elements, I thought Fabelman was perfect for that,” he added.