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From the terrifying Jaws to Lincoln's recent portrait,
Steven Spielberg is one of the few directors to have a varied work.
He experienced all genres, from adventure to horror,
and even war films.
But who hides behind this director whose films have moved,
terrified and haunted the entire world?
That is what we are going to discover in this new episode of Direct'it.
When the young Steven discovered cinema, it was a revelation.
He himself says: "When I understood that
I could improve my life thanks to cinema,
this tiny medium,
I was extremely pleased with myself,
and with the opportunity to bring other people to this wonderful world."
Thanks to his short film Amblin', he ended up signing a contract with
Universal Studios.
He made for them various series episodes,
including one of the famous Colombo's inquiries.
He was then asked to make the TV film Duel,
broadcast on TV in 1971,
and then in the European dark rooms in 1973.
Duel, a criticism of machines reflecting the overturn of
our technological society, was a huge success.
Steven Spielberg's career was now launched.
Spielberg was offered numerous project possibilities.
He chose to work on Sugarland Express.
Unfortunately, this first feature film was not as successful as Duel.
The film however stressed one of the director's future recurrent theme:
the separation of a child from his parents.
The director then heard about a horror film project.
The job was assigned to Steven Spielberg, known for his enthousiasm.
Jaws started to chew.
Shooting on water was a real war against nature,
just like the heroes of the film, who have to fight the white shark
which terrifies the small coastal resort of Amity Island.
Thanks to a prestigious cast, a scenario inspired by Public Enemy,
a neo-classic staging, the film could only be good.
Plus, this film was the second collaboration between
the director and his inseparable musician double: John Williams.
His music was as terrifying as Spielberg's images.
But no one expected Jaws to be such a success:
it was the very first Hollywoodian blockbuster.
After Jaws, Spielberg could tackle any project.
He then made Close Encounters of the Third Kind
The film was released in 1977, the same year as Star Wars.
It was a huge success.
In 1979, the fourth feature film of Hollywood's new golden boy
was released: 1941.
The scenario, written by Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale
who later created Doc Brown and Marty McFly,
really pleased Spielberg.
However, the prank portrayed in the film
was considered by the spectators as foolish and humourless.
Spielberg received a big slap in the face from the critics and the public.
The film nevertheless provided a payback on the investment.
And thanks to this film, Spielberg met Kathleen Kennedy,
now the leader of LucasFilm LTD, who became his producer and confidant.
Lucas, then known throughout the world, offered Spielberg to make an adventure film.
Spielberg who wanted at the time to make a James Bond film,
just got "No" as the answer of the producers, because he was not English.
Lucas told him that the Raiders of the Lost Ark would outperform James Bond.
After Lawrence Kasdan and Lucas wrote the film,
the production process started.
Harrison Ford, Han Solo in Star Wars,
plays the hero who made him famous around the world:
Indiana Jones.
This was an overwhelming success.
After the shooting of the Raiders,
Spielberg was no longer looking for the Lost Ark.
He himself declared that he had nothing more to prove,
except to himself.
Thus, the director's future productions became far more intimist than they used to be,
but remained entertaining.
The theme of the separation of a child from his parents
came back in E.T. in 1982.
This event was to be found through the lonely child thematic,
seperated from his family in the outside world.
- No! - Calm down honey...
Mum, please, no!
- Please! - They'll destroy you, David!
No, I'm sorry I left, I'm sorry I cut your hair...
I'm sorry I hurt you... - I have to go.
I have to go! Please! Stop!
Mum, don't leave me! - I have to go now, David.
I must leave!
These films, more intimist, were all very successful.
The Color Purple, a film about racial segregation,
and Empire of the Sun, telling the story of a boy
separated from his parents who survives the Japanese invasion of China.
These films pave the way for Spielberg's future career.
His cinema then became more historical and darker.
After Jurassic Park, films like A.I., Minority Report and War of the Worlds,
signal the director's return to science-fiction.
The same issues emerge: childhood, separation,
but also a new one: premonition.
Characters are more seeing things than doing things.
Tom Cruise can't change his future in Minority Report,
and is powerless against the alien invasion in War of the Worlds.
However, this kind of science-fiction is not as enlightened as
it was in Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and not as chiaroscuro as in E.T.
The plots are dark, even very dark.
Films no longer have a simple happy end but are hopeful,
optimistic, after the dark and pessimistic situations
the characters faced during the whole film.
In 1993, two Spielberg films were released:
Jurassic Park, a pop-corn smelling film,
and Schindler's List.
The film is about the Jewish Holocaust,
prepared and executed by the Nazis from 1936 to 1945.
This subject was important to the director, himself Jewish.
The film is a reminder of the duty of memory,
and most of all a warning to ensure this never happens again.
The film was a success and led to the creation of the Shoah Foundation
which welcomes all the survivors and their testimony.
The director kept making historical films with Amistad in 1997,
little known, and then with Save Private Ryan in 1998.
Spielberg once more tells the story through the eyes of a character.
In Empire of the Sun, James Graham sees
the Japanese invasion in China,
the beginning of the Pacific war. In Schindler's list,
Oscar Schindler sees the Nazis carry out their plans to exterminate Jews.
And here, Captain Miller sees the allies arrive in France and the ravages of war in Europe.
Most of all, with this film, the director developped
a new cinematographic form to show war:
a really realistic form, which influenced the genre forever
and even other genres, like Malick's Thin Red Line
or HBO's mini series: Band of Brothers and The Pacific.
Spielberg, following up on his historical work,
started making portraits.
If we could say that each of his historical film is a portrait,
from then on, the context was not so important anymore.
The character became the only important element.
Since 2006, the director seems to be making a retrospective of his career.
He came back to historical films through the eyes of Eric Bana in Munich in 2006,
to adventure films with the fourth part of Indiana Jones in 2007,
to war films through children eyes in War Horse in 2011,
and finally to films where he can have fun and experiment,
with The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn in 2011.
Come one, you can't say it doesn't look like you.
Not bad! What do you think, Snowy?
What about you? What's your favorite Spielberg's film?
Did you know...?
Did you know that Steven Spielberg avoids going to the last day of shooting?
Indeed, at the end of the shooting of Jaws,
he was sure his team would throw him into the white shark's mouth
called Bruce.
His production company was named Amblin
as a reference to the amateur short film that launched his career.
Plus, he is the CEO of Dreamworks SKG.
News section.
Steven Spielberg is the chairman of this year's Cannes Film Festival.
His next film will be Robopocalypse,
an apocalyptical science-fiction film based on Daniel H. Wilson's novel.
It is about the revolution of robots who want to destroy humanity,
and which ends up in an apocalypse.
And let's go to the movies to rediscover Jurassic Park in 3D!
See you in two weeks!