The 76-year-old does not use his nightly dreams as a “psychoanalytic translation aid”. However, his daydreams sometimes scare him.
Hollywood doyen Steven Spielberg (76) does not like to deal with his own dreams. “I’m a dreamer, both asleep and awake. However, I never take my nightly dreams personally and do not use them as a psychoanalytic translation aid,” the director told the “Spiegel”.
He has “a lot of scary daydreams,” said the filmmaker. “What I dream at night doesn’t scare me, but what I dream during the day does. When we hit 100,000 Covid deaths in America, I thought about that film Steven Soderbergh made years ago, Contagion, and that life would now imitate art.”
Spielberg doesn’t think much of dream interpretation: “I have the feeling that I’m in good shape. I’ve never been to therapy either. The cinema is my psychiatrist. If I have a dream that isn’t pleasant, I try to stop it to forget as soon as possible.” You could spend the whole morning pondering what the dream of last night might have meant, Spielberg said in the “Spiegel” interview. “But then you can’t get anything done.”
Spielberg also expressed concern about growing anti-Semitism in the United States. “Anti-Semitism is on the rise, the last cycle probably started eight or nine years ago, which I have also been able to observe through my work with the Shoah Foundation. I am probably more afraid of anti-Semitism in this country today than I have ever been in had in my life.”
Born in Cincinnati in 1946, the son of Jewish parents, Spielberg became famous with the horror film “Jaws” and became a master of blockbuster cinema (“Raiders of the Lost Ark”, “ET – The Extra-Terrestrial”, “Jurassic Park”) Holocaust drama “Schindler’s List” won seven Oscars. His autobiographical film “The Fabelmans” is a tribute to his parents and nominated for seven Oscars. The ceremony is on March 12 in Los Angeles).
On Tuesday (February 21), Spielberg is to receive the Honorary Golden Bear for his life’s work at the Berlinale. (dpa)