Steven Spielberg
The Fabelmans

“When the horizon is high, it's interesting; when it's low, it's interesting. When it's in the center, it's fucking boring!”

Snow in the air. I can smell it immediately as I exit the cinema; the sounds are almost muffled, and I feel like taking it easy and heading home by the longer route. I get home and put on a vintage Miles record: the one from “‘Round About Midnight”, and I enjoy the vinyl as I jot down these few crooked lines before falling asleep on the sofa.

The fact is, I'd never have expected such a round, clean, and simple work from that crafty Spielberg, which exudes passion and doesn't smell of pretentiousness. I don't know, maybe I've become allergic to brainy films like “Tenet”, or perhaps it's this damned climate change melting me down. Maybe it's because I hadn't been to the cinema for months; maybe because, to conclude a crappy year like this, I simply needed a bit of beauty, and I found it where I wasn't looking, and it caught me off guard. Perhaps for all these reasons, yes, I'd watch it again! The big screen enhances Kaminski's cinematography; I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy the quality of the sound, Kahn and Broshar's elegant editing, and the acting of a cast led by Paul Dano and Michelle Williams. The images speak more than the dialogues.

When the quality is so high, I can clearly relive the scenes in my mind. I found myself in the one where the protagonist's grandmother dies: the desperate hug of the daughter holding her hand, the elegant and gentle zoom on the vein that finally stops pulsing, the silence and the sob breaking into a gasp.
The simplicity of a lightly improvised dance in front of the crackling fire with sparks flying in the air while the car headlights create a moment of sublime beauty.
The scene where the young protagonist is dealing with the amateur editing of the mountain vacation footage makes my arm hair stand up for its intensity. The incredulous, wide eyes, the trembling hands that make the images dance back and forth, with the cold and relentless ticking of the reel.

“The Fabelmans” masterfully intertwines passion and real life with a series of powerful scenes, alternating slower and more paced rhythms with more dynamic ones for a very gratifying experience. I would call it a coming-of-age film: Sammy grows up full of hope and energy, quickly learning to coexist with the suffering of his progressively troubled family, with integration difficulties, school bullying, first loves, and the duties of adulthood. Balancing between rationality and art, between school and cinema, he finally clings to his passion to embark on his path. Fifty-one years after “The Duel”, I feel that Sammy (Steven) still has something to say.