The movie that devastated Steven Spielberg: “Very close to breaking my heart”
He might be the most commercially successful director ever to step behind the camera, and he’s enjoyed more success than most filmmakers could ever dream of, but Steven Spielberg hasn’t been without criticism during his illustrious time in the cinematic spotlight.
The biggest recurring issue people tend to have with his work is that he’s regularly prone to ladling on the schmaltz a little too thick. Spielberg is an emotional guy; his films reflect that heart-on-the-sleeve approach, and it’s his natural instinct to drench many of his features in a syrupy layer of sentimentality sweet enough to rot anybody’s teeth.
As far as bugbears go, it’s a minor one, all things considered. And thanks to his bulletproof status as the highest-grossing director of all time who’s spent half a century reiterating that he knows better than most how to lure a crowd to their local multiplex, Spielberg has absolutely no inclinations to change that approach when it’s impossible to say it’s been detrimental in any way, shape, or form.
Titles like Munich, Lincoln, and Amistad have shown that he’s completely aware his signature sentimental side can be scaled back when the story calls for it; it’s just that he doesn’t think it’s called for very often. With that in mind, it’s not unfeasible to think even a mildly arresting narrative could have the three-time Academy Award winner on the verge of tears, which has been the case once or twice.
Still, a gut-punching historical drama had a bigger impact than most, leaving Spielberg on the verge of emotional devastation. “Son of Saul came very close to breaking my heart,” he told Film Ink. “I saw it very late. I saw the movie, and then I met the director, László Nemes, at the Academy Awards luncheon with all the nominees. I asked if he would come over to my office so we could have some private time. We had a two-hour chat about a week later, and that was the film that touched me the most.”
Nominated for the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival and the winner of the Oscar for ‘Best International Feature’, Son of Saul is a truly haunting film. Set in Auschwitz in October 1944, the narrative follows a day and a half in the life of Géza Röhrig’s Saul Ausländer, merging real history with fictional drama to craft a compelling, often grotesque, but equally despairing and captivating tale.
It’s not a million miles away from Spielberg’s Schindler’s List, and given his own personal connections to that particular moment in time, it was always going to strike a chord, so much so, in fact, that he felt compelled to make a point of sitting down one-on-one with Nemes.
