21.3.2018 Studenti del Machiavelli incontrano Steven Spielberg

Il 21.3.2018, presso la redazione centrale di Repubblica a Roma, la 4 E e la 4 H incontrano il regista americano, premio Oscar, Steven Spielberg, in visita a Roma per ricevere il David alla Carriera, Life Achievement Award, alla 62esima edizione dei premi.

In preparazione all’incontro, gli studenti

 hanno visto in anteprima l’ultimo film del regista, Ready Player One, il 19.3, in lingua originale, in una saletta privata messa a disposizione dalla produzione
 si sono documentati sul regista (storia e filmografia), sul romanzo Ready Player One di Ernest Cline da cui il film è tratto, sul film stesso
 hanno riflettuto e dibattuto in classe sui dati raccolti
 hanno prodotto un centinaio di domande in inglese che sono state inviate agli organizzatori dell’evento il giorno prima dell’intervista effettuata il 21.3 dal direttore di Repubblica, Mario Calabresi, e dall’attore Frank Matano.

Il link all’intervista completa è qui

Referente dell’iniziativa, Prof.ssa Antonella di Scanno

Alcuni degli elaborati relativi all’evento realizzati dagli alunni

(L’attore Frank Matano, che ha co-condotto l’intervista a Mr. Spielberg, saluta gli alunni dopo l’intervista stessa)

AN HOUR WITH STEVEN SPIELBERG

 

When Steven Spielberg enters the room you can literally hear the sound of people holding their breath, not knowing if they should clap or say hi or even wave at him.

He sits down on his seat, with perfectly placed pillows on it, and waves friendly at everyone around him.

 

“Do you speak a little bit of English?” he asks us smiling, leaning forward, and the tension is gone.

 

When interviewers Frank Matano and Mario Calabresi ask him why he decided to make this film, the award winning director is quick to tell us that what stole his heart while reading Ernest Cline’s bestseller Ready Player One, was the fact that it told the story of a parallel universe in which five teenagers become friends while never meeting each other in real life until a a challenge bigger than them brings them together in the real world.

When asked about how he decides which films to make, he answers that it’s always the stories that pick him, not the other way around, and there have been times when they didn’t turn out to be the luckiest movies but, with a laugh and a shoulder shrug, he tells us that he’s proud of them anyways.

As the interview goes on, we learn that Steven Spielberg doesn’t believe in rules when it comes to social networks. He thinks we, as individuals, have the right to determine when it’s time for us to take a break from technology… although he does tell his kids to turn off the tv or stop playing video games from time to time. He then proceeds to say that he’s actually addicted to his phone, making everyone giggle when he confesses that a few minutes earlier he had to give it to his publicist out of fear that it would start ringing during the interview.

 

I: “How do you feel before a premiere or when a movie of yours has to come out?”

S.S.: “They have to rest the film away from my fingers.”

 

Letting a movie go is like giving up your child for adoption after years spent together, says Spielberg, and he probably would’ve kept many of his best films for himself if it wasn’t for the studio’s need to release the motion pictures.

Sometimes, he adds, is best to just put the movie down and leave it alone before looking for a new story to tell the world.

 

I: “In the movie, we see a lot of references to the 80’s. What are your best memories of those years? Beside your movies.”

S.S.: “Oh, beside my movies? So I can leave them out, okay, ha!”

 

Spielberg smiles remembering his favorite arcade games, like Pac-man, and with that he begins listing out the reasons that make the 80’s so great.

There were no crisis, America was strangely calm and the music was amazing, just like the style of those years. Ernest Cline’s “Ready Player One” is an open invitation to go back to the way life was during the 80’s, using nostalgia as a way to touch people’s hearts.

 

I: “I have a picture of you, Scorsese, Coppola, Lucas and De Palma: the Movie Brats.”

S.S.: “Yeah, that’s what they call us.”

 

The said picture shows the five sitting around a table at what seems to be a fancy occasion. Matano asks him to reveal to us which one of them was drunk at the time that picture was taken and, after a few seconds of denying that any of them were, our guest is asked to give a nickname to each of his four friends.

 

S.S: “Oh well… Coppola: Godfather. Absolutely. Scorsese would be Fast Demon. ‘Cause he’s fast, he thinks fast, he speaks fast, he even moves fast! He’s a speedster. George Lucas is a… Comedian. And De Palma: Split-screen. He would like this nickname, have you ever seen any of his movies? He’d be like: Steve got me!”

 

Talking about Henry Thomas (who played Elliot in his hit movie “E.T.”), Spielberg says there’s not a guide to direct child actors. At the time, he set up an audition with a camera rolling and caught Elliot’s natural reaction to an improvised reading of the script. The kid got the job right away.

To explain why his movies often tell the story of outsiders kids, Spielberg says that those characters are just like him. Using Elliot as an example, Spielberg confesses that he used to be a clumsy, geeky kid, and was labeled “weird” by many of his peers when he was younger. They made fun of him, they used to ask themselves: what’s up with that kid making films? Mostly because he used to always walk around with a camera in hand.

 

I: “Well, they should see you now.”

S.S.: “They probably paid a lot of money to see me, yeah!”

 

Spielberg takes a few minutes to thank Italy, and open borders, for the amazing directors that changed the movie industry: Fellini, Coppola, Tarantino, Scorsese. He also mentions actors like De Niro, Al Pacino…

His relationship with Italy has been one of the best so far, between his daughter studying in Florence and his friends getting married there, and he also mentions how he thinks Rome is truly respectful of its own beauty and history.

His love for the eternal city feels just about right, considering that he’s being honored with the David prize for Life Achievement tonight (21-03-2018).

As we get to the end of this amazing experience, Spielberg unexpectedly stands up and begins thanking every single one of the teens in the studio, shaking their hands one by one and even exchanging a few words with them.

I’m lucky enough to hold his hands and tell him how honored I am for this opportunity and his smile grows bigger than ever while he looks into my eyes.

Steven Spielberg is truly one of the most kind and down to earth people you’ll meet on this planet in the course of your life, if you’ll ever be lucky enough to meet him at all!

We were, and we thank the universe for that.

 

Make sure to hit theaters on March 28 to go see “Ready Player One”, Spielberg’s latest masterpiece.

 

Alessia Antognelli, classe 4E, liceo linguistico N. Machiavelli

bozza articolo intervista Spielberg Ludovica Lo Cascio

Anteprima

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INTERVISTA AL REGISTA STEVEN SPIELBERG

Il 21 marzo 2018 il famoso regista Steven Spielberg, in occasione dell’uscita del suo nuovo film tratto dal romanzo “Ready Player One”, ha partecipato all’intervista, presso la redazione di “La Repubblica”, del direttore Mario Calabresi e dello youtuber, comico e attore italiano Frank Matano.

 

Spielberg ha parlato molto dei social media e della tecnologia, analizzandone la nostra dipendenza: “Lo vedo a casa, i miei figli invitano gli amici, si guardano un attimo e poi sono su Instagram o Snapchat.”

 

Infatti, Spielberg stesso ha affermato di essere dipendente dal suo smartphone e che da piccolo non ha mai smesso di giocare ai videogiochi, ma, ritenendo l’universo di Oasis (la realtà virtuale del suo film) non così tanto lontano dal presente, afferma anche che non si può stare sempre connessi: con queste parole, il regista ha voluto trasmettere l’importanza del contatto visivo con i propri coetanei, cercando di utilizzare liberamente i social media, ma “lasciandoci governare dai valori per gestirli”.

 

Oltre a domande inerenti al suo nuovo film, il regista si è raccontato personalmente, parlando della sua amicizia nei “Movie Brats”, ovvero i cinque amici del cinema degli anni ’70, tra i quali lo stesso Steven Spielberg: Francis Ford Coppola, denominato da Spielberg “il Padrino”; Martin Scorsese, “un demone velocissimo”; George Lucas, “un comico”; Brian De Palma, lo “split screen”. Spielberg ha inoltre ricordato la sua amicizia con Stanley Kubrick, in merito anche al riferimento scenografico del film “The Shining” all’interno di “Ready Player One”.

 

Il regista è stato anche intervistato sul rapporto con i suoi film, parlandone come fosse un padre che racconta del proprio figlio: “sono i film che scelgono me”, mettendo, poi, se stesso in ogni scena, ed è per questo che ritiene difficile far uscire un proprio film proprio come un padre, che deve lasciar andare il proprio figlio.

 

Noi della classe quarta sez. E abbiamo avuto l’opportunità di assistere come pubblico all’intervista, che, personalmente, mi è piaciuta molto: ascoltare le belle parole di Spielberg dal vivo mi ha emozionato tanto, proprio come il fatto stesso di stare per la prima volta all’interno di un piccolo studio televisivo pieno di luci, telecamere e tecnici.

 

Il momento che mi è piaciuto, però, è stato quando, alla fine dell’intervista, Spielberg si è alzato per stringerci la mano inaspettatamente: non ci siamo detti moltissimo, ma i nostri sguardi si sono parlati eccome; ed è stato proprio in quel momento che ho capito l’importanza del contatto visivo di cui aveva parlato precedentemente questo grande regista.

 

Maria Panatta

 

READY PLAYER ONE De Marzi

Anteprima

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