The mirror effect: What happens when filmmakers tell their own most intimate stories on screen

As Steven Spielberg shoots ‘The Fabelmans’, a movie about his own childhood and adolescence, Geoffrey Macnab looks back at the best autobiographical films and how successfully directors have distilled their innermost experiences

Spielberg on the set: it will be intriguing to see how the director captures his growing pains (Getty)

George Lucas did it with American Graffiti (1973), looking back at his teenage years, when he and other adolescent young bucks would cruise the streets of early 1960s Modesto, California, in their souped-up cars. They’d listen to rock and roll and try to pick up girls while fretting inwardly at what adult life might hold.

Now, towards the end of his career, as he approaches 75, Steven Spielberg is pulling the same trick, turning in on his own life for inspiration. This summer, Spielberg could have been directing the latest Indiana Jones movie. Instead, he has left that task to fellow director James Mangold while he begins work on The Fabelmans, based on his childhood and adolescence.

Books about him portray the young Spielberg as a Napoleon Dynamite-like kid, a mediocre student at his high school in Phoenix, Arizona. He didn’t excel either on the sports field or in the classroom. However, once he started making home movies, like his Second World War short Fighter Squad or his feature-length sci-fi adventure Firelight, his youthful genius and hustling skills were immediately apparent.