Thirty years ago today at the Cannes Festival the closing film got a ten-minute ovation, its director later commenting that “this was the best welcome I’ve ever gotten in my life.” The film was E.T. and the words were by Steven Spielberg. E.T. was a personal film, Elliot’s room is based on Spielberg’s own when he was growing up, and the character of E.T. is a fully-realized version of an imaginary friend a traumatized Spielberg had conjured