Patrick Murtha
Reader
Prompted by the imminent release of Steven Spielberg’s The Fabelmans, here is an interesting piece about the current wave of autobiographical coming-of-age films - a form that of course has a precedent literary pedigree. Novelists tend to do this FIRST, while film directors are waiting until well into their careers, when they have more power to make what they want.
https://www.vox.com/culture/23354839/memoir-autobiography-movies-fabelmans-bardo-spielberg
Re Spielberg: I watched the first airing of Duel as a 13-year-old in 1971, and was knocked off my chair. I immediately registered: This is not some semi-anonymous network production. SOMEONE made this. There is a sensibility here. And it was the first time I ever had that sensation watching American television.
You can just imagine the executives’ phone calls the next morning: “Who is this kid Spielberg?”
https://www.vox.com/culture/23354839/memoir-autobiography-movies-fabelmans-bardo-spielberg
Re Spielberg: I watched the first airing of Duel as a 13-year-old in 1971, and was knocked off my chair. I immediately registered: This is not some semi-anonymous network production. SOMEONE made this. There is a sensibility here. And it was the first time I ever had that sensation watching American television.
You can just imagine the executives’ phone calls the next morning: “Who is this kid Spielberg?”
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