Tuesday, September 19, 2023

Quotations from Vital Speeches of the Day: #6 – Steven Spielberg on how I Am Not Finished!


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On February 22, 2023 Steven Spielberg accepted an honorary Golden Bear award for lifetime achievement at the Berlindale International Film Festival. He gave a speech titled I Am Not Finished! It was published in the April 2023 issue of Vital Speeches of the Day magazine on pages 91 and 92. Steven said that:

 

“….Time is really just a trick of the mind, and it’s a trick of the light. I’ve been directing a long time – six decades [sic] – but it feels to me like I directed Duel and Jaws last year. At 76 I know a lot more about moviemaking than I did when I was 25, and I directed my first feature film at 25. But the anxieties and the uncertainties and the fears that tormented me as I began shooting Duel have stayed vivid for 50 years, as if no time has passed.

 

….Now I also feel a little alarmed to be told I’ve lived a lifetime, because I’m not finished.

 

I’m not finished. I want to keep working, I want to keep learning and discovering and scaring the shit out of myself, and sometimes the shit out of you. I’ve got to get back to some of those earlier scarier movies, but that’s another story.

 

As long as there’s joy in it for me, and as long as my audience can find joy and other human values in my films, I’m reluctant to ever say that’s a wrap. I’d like to beat Manoel de Olivera’s record and direct my last film when I’m 106.”

 

There is another article by Ben Dalton at ScreenDaily on February 22, 2023 titled Steven Spielberg delivers memorable Berlin speech – read the full transcript.

 

I added the 1971 date to an image of the tank truck and car from Duel at Wikimedia Commons.

 


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