Amazon Prime Video is giving us many surprises at the film level this year. While it already released Babylon a few months ago, one of the best films of 2023 that went unnoticed by many, it has now renewed its catalog with another one that had better luck and that, without a doubt, is placed in the annual top: The Fabelman.
Directed by Steven Spielberg, the film that took home the Golden Globe and made it to the top of the Oscars – despite being beaten by the majestic Everything Everywhere All at Once– is an incredible gem that everyone should see at least once. But what makes this film so special?
Discover The Fabelmen, Spielberg’s most auteuristic film
The Fabelman is Steven Spielberg’s most personal film, and he has directed a staggering 37 films to date. But while most of his previous works explore themes that are also addressed here, such as fatherhood, obsession with a passion and young love, this time he has taken his own story directly as the basis for the story.
Together with Tony Kushner (co-author of Munich), Spielberg has brought to life the most significant film of his career. In it, he recounts his childhood as a Jew, the drama of his parents’ separation (his mother left his father for his father’s best friend) and his evolution with cinema. In the film we observe his skill with the camera from an early age, first with his sisters and then with his friends, with whom he created amazing short films to win medals as a member of the boy scouts.
However, the film doesn’t just celebrate cinema as a passion, as Spielberg repeatedly insists. It is his way of understanding life: how he forges friendships, initiates love affairs and wins the respect of others. Even how he comes to alter the lives of his family. Through one of his home movies, he discovers the relationship between his mother and his father’s best friend… and that’s when everything explodes.
After being warned that the love of his life could become his undoing, Spielberg narrates how he almost gives up on his dream of making movies. However, love always prevails, and young Fabelman, also known as Spielberg, knows he must fight for it.
This declaration of love for cinema did not come by chance at this time, when Spielberg is already 76 years old. Although he had been considering directing The Fabelmans for a long time, he didn’t want to do it until his parents passed away, as they had suffered enough. His mother didn’t pass away until 2017, at 97, and his father passed away in 2020, at 103. This longevity delayed the making of The Fabelmans… but, finally, Spielberg was able to shed his emotional burden and direct the film of a lifetime.
The Fabelman is arguably one of the best-directed films of recent years, without a single negative aspect in terms of its pacing, camera movements or performances. Each frame is a masterpiece in itself, and Spielberg has masterfully applied all the knowledge he has acquired throughout his journey as a filmmaker.
