Steven Soderbergh‘s collected works resist easy classification. He’s an Oscar winner, an actors director who’s guided some of the biggest names in Hollywood to their best performances, but he’s also an experimentalist who pushes the boundaries with an easy familiarity of film and its capabilities
The $60 million budget for the newly released Contagion contrasts strongly with the shoestring approach to his 2005 film, Bubble. His first feature sex, lies and videotape brought him instant acclaim in 1989, and he’s managed to inspire every reaction from enthrallment to fascination to bewilderment ever since. In 2000 Soderbergh became the first winning director nominated for two different films (Erin Brockovich and Traffic) in the same year by the Academy Awards, the Golden Globes and the Directors’ Guild of America
Soderbergh is often the cinematographer and editor on his films, using the names Peter Andrews and Mary Ann Bernard respectively. They are the name of his father and his mother. Steven Soderbergh also often scripts his own work. In 2000 he founded Section Eight Productions with George Clooney, but closed it in 2006 when Soderbergh decided he wanted to concentrate on directing. In March 2011 it was reported that Soderbergh intended to retire from film-making in order to concentrate on painting, but he has recently denied this, saying that he just wants to take a sabbatical
Director: Steven Soderbergh
Cast: James Spader, Andie MacDowell, Peter Gallagher, Laura San Giacomo, Ron Vawter, Steven Brill, Alexandra Root, Earl T. Taylor, David Foil
Year: 1989
sex, lies and videotape is not a graphic exploration of the subject but rather a film that looks at the part sex plays in relationships. sex, lies and videotape won an Audience Award at Sundance, and is generally credited with refreshing the independent film-making scene in America at the end of the 80s. At Cannes the film took the Palme d’Or and James Spader picked up the award for Best Actor. Spader plays George, a man whose constant companion is a video camera. Soon after arriving on a visit to his friend John - Peter Gallagher - in Baton Rouge, he asks John’s wife, Ann - Andie MacDowell - Do you like being married? Well, not really. Ann is elegant and her home is perfectly presented, but her marriage and her life seem hollow. She is attracted to George, but he is limited by his own personal problems
George can only connect with women by voyeuristically making videotapes of them talking about their relationships. Meanwhile, Ann’s earthier younger sister, Cynthia – played by a fabulous Laura San Giacomi - is unconstrained by any kind of inhibitions, and is having a torrid affair with her sister’s smooth but sleazy husband. All four actors are excellent – it’s Andie MacDowell’s best ever performance by some distance – and a clever, restrained, finely nuanced first film from Steven Soderbergh
Director: Steven Soderbergh
Cast: Jesse Bradford, Jeroen Krabbé, Lisa Eichhorn, Karen Allen, Spalding Gray, Elizabeth McGovern, Cameron Boyd, Adrien Brody, Joe Chrest, John McConnell, Amber Benson, Kristin Griffith, Chris Samples, Peggy Freisen, Katherine Heigl
Year: 1993
King of the Hill is based on a memoir by A.E. Hotchner, and is set in a seedy hotel during the Depression. Jesse Bradford plays the twelve-year-old Aaron Hurlander whose family has fallen on hard times. His younger brother is sent to live with relatives, leaving Aaron feeling isolated without his contemporary. His sick mother is admitted to a sanatorium, and his father finally gets a job as a traveling salesman. Aaron is left to fend for himself in the Empire Hotel, where the neighbours struggle to stay one step ahead of the rent collector
The subject matter of King of the Hill could be mawkish and sentimental, but Soderbergh deploys an intelligent realism while foregrounding the characters’ resilience. Aaron learns how to survive, living on his wits and, just as in life, there are touches of humour that lighten the struggle. Enriched by a talented performance from Jesse Bradford, King of the Hill is a coming-of-age film that impresses because of its fundamental honesty and empathy
5. The Limey
http://youtu.be/0h_iD1us304
Director: Steven Soderbergh
Cast: Terence Stamp, Lesley Ann Warren, Luis Guzmán, Barry Newman, Joe Dallesandro, Nicky Katt, Peter Fonda, Amelia Heinle, Melissa George, William Lucking, Matthew Kimbrough, John Robotham, Steve Heinze, Nancy Lenehan, Wayne Pére
Year: 1999
The Limey opens with a voice coming out of the darkness: Tell me about Jenny. Terence Stamp is Wilson, a man recently released from prison. He is searching for answers about the death of the daughter he hadn’t seen for nine years. The plot of The Limey is pedestrian rather than full of suspense – it’s the cinematic technique of this film that’s exciting. Soderbergh uses a non- linear style, with flashbacks, flash-forwards and jump-cuts, to follow Wilson’s journey to America in his quest. There are inserts from Ken Loach’s classic 60s film Poor Cow, in which Stamp’s character is also called Wilson
The difficulties of language, memory, and connecting with the past are underlined by the cockney rhyming slang Wilson uses, which is hard for the Americans he meets to understand. Another great 60s icon, Peter Fonda, plays the antagonist, Valentine. The performances, particularly Stamp’s, are spot on, and Soderbergh is at the top of his game here. The story of The Limey is standard revenge, but the style is all Soderbergh, ensuring that the film is an expressive diary of one man’s journey towards self-discovery
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