![]() ![]() Haskell’s main focus is Spielberg’s life story, with - as per the imperatives of the “Jewish Lives” series, under which this is published - a special focus on his relationship with Judaism. This is not only refreshingly honest, but it also frames much of what is to come next, particularly her criticisms of his early work, and promises a serious analysis to the reader, rather than a puff piece. Though she regards herself as a guarded admirer of his work, she plainly admits in the book’s introduction that the qualities that attract her to films - “brooding ambiguities, unresolved longings, things left unsaid, and the erotic transactions of men and women” - are largely absent from his work, and the emotions that he trades in - the “gnawing, liberating” anxieties of a male adolescent - tend to leave her cold. Haskell herself is also partial to classic Hollywood but doesn’t find much overlap between her own tastes and Spielberg’s. Working in a similar system a generation earlier, John Ford, Howard Hawks, Alfred Hitchcock, and the other usual suspects were able to forge distinctive styles and points of view like them, Spielberg learned from his time in the workaday trenches to make this classic style speak in his own tones while still obeying the craft’s traditions. ![]() Its style prized maximum clarity and economy of expression. In many ways, this resembled the kind of production environment that allowed classic-era directors, such as Spielberg’s beloved Victor Fleming, to flourish: the TV unit produced studio-bound, tightly scheduled, mass-produced entertainments designed to appeal to the broad mass of domestic audiences. Beginning in Universal’s film library in his very early 20s, he was eventually able to snag assignments working on the company’s nascent television unit. His style has aged better than many of his baby boomer contemporaries. To speak only of Spielberg’s influence and business triumphs is to considerably short-change his artistic achievements. A return to movie criticism from one of the great living practitioners of the form, Molly Haskell’s new book, Steven Spielberg: A Life in Films, seeks to remedy this remarkable oversight in cinema studies. The only indispensable volume is Joseph McBride’s massive biography (most recently revised in 2010) only a few others are even worth consulting. The most successful filmmaker of the last 40 years, Spielberg’s influence is felt not only in individual movies, but also in the very structure of Hollywood film production and distribution. THERE ARE PITIFULLY FEW critical works worth reading about Steven Spielberg.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |