Steven Soderbergh

by Anthony Kaufman

  In the later films, many of which he did not write himself, Soderbergh is even less clearly visible in his characters, and his interest in their stories becomes more symbolic. For example, The Good German and Che have little to do with his own life, but he recognizes issues that are familiar to him, such as the characters’ doomed desire to control their world. “It is a frustration that I feel myself strongly in life, the frustration that all is not as I would like it to be,” he says in 2007, adding, “Making movies is a great outlet for the desire for control.”

  Moving further away from his own personal life, in fact, marks a significant turn for the filmmaker. “That was the real turning point for me,” he tells Michael Sragow. “I wasn’t interested in making films about me anymore, and my take on things. I thought, ‘I’ve got to get out of the house!’” Or as he puts it to Dennis Lim, “Schizopolis was about detonating that house, blowing it up and putting myself in a position where I couldn’t go back anymore.” Soderbergh’s primary interest, then, and much of the content of the interviews, moves away from character and more to issues of craft.

  One paramount technical interest for Soderbergh is editing. Soderbergh’s fascination with the manipulation of time, and breaking the conventions of linear storytelling is a reoccurring motif in this collection. The discussions with Positif’s Michel Ciment and Hubert Niogret about King of the Hill and The Underneath provide for some of the more in-depth investigations into Soderbergh’s editing concerns. These discussions also keenly anticipate some of the work that Soderbergh accomplishes years later on Out of Sight, The Limey, The Girlfriend Experience, and Side Effects. “Our minds are totally nonlinear,” he tells the Positif editors in 1995. “It seemed interesting to try to express that in film. I had been dreaming of making a film where there would be no end to the dialogue, where the last sentence in a scene would lead to the first sentence of the next scene. It would have been like one uninterrupted conversation that would cut across the three temporal levels, a verbal flow analogous to the interior monologue.”

  By the time Soderbergh gets to The Limey—a film he calls “Get Carter made by Alain Resnais”—his editing dreams have come to fruition. “I was trying to get a sense of how your mind sifts through things,” Soderbergh tells Sheila Johnston in Sight and Sound in 1999. When I asked Soderbergh about his edit of The Limey later that year, he added his intention was “to go and shoot a bunch of stuff and then go in and just rip it apart.”

  This desire to rip things apart is also an ever-evolving concern for Soderbergh. Freedom—in shooting, in editing, in subject matter—may be the strongest theme of Soderbergh’s work as a filmmaker. Continually, he strives to find ways to loosen himself up, free himself from inhibitions, abandoning rehearsals and rigid structures for more spontaneous results. Early on, he prides himself on his quick shooting method on sex, lies (“for most of the emotionally charged shots, we never went beyond three or four takes”) and criticizes his slow and “somnambulant” work on The Underneath. For his preferred working methods, Soderbergh always returns to both Schizopolis (as the “exhilarating” model of filmmaking with which he was most satisfied), and Lester (who championed a more open method of filmmaking, as Soderbergh says, “tossing things off, instead of being labored about what you do”).

  In our conversation about Traffic, his ideas about freedom crystallize into a technique he loosely defines as “controlled anarchy.” “What you’re hoping for is a series of orchestrated accidents,” he explains. “It’s scarier in a way, because you’re not sure if something good is going to happen, but you just have to believe that the parachute will open.” Soderbergh admits that this open approach is radically different from his shooting techniques when just starting out—a movement away from control to a kind of chaos; and, as he says, “to reinsert a sense of play in the films.”

  Ironically, one of the ways Soderbergh achieves this goal is through a series of rules and restrictions that become readily apparent over this volume. For The Good German, he limits himself to the kinds of camera set-ups that were used in the era of Classic Hollywood in which the film is set. For Che, he restricts his use of close-ups. On the epidemic thriller Contagion, he never shoots handheld and only uses available light. On his action film Haywire, he doesn’t use stunt doubles or music over the fights. And on Side Effects, he has strict guidelines about when to move the camera. “I find that those kinds of restrictions are helpful,” he says.

  As Soderbergh’s own career has evolved—and the comparisons have shifted from Woody Allen to John Huston—the concerns and career shifts indicated in these interviews provide not only a glimpse into one of America’s masters of the craft, but a look at the profound changes in the U.S. film industry. When sex, lies, and videotape was acquired by Miramax in 1989, that company was still a modest independent, coming off releases like Lizzie Borden’s Working Girls and Errol Morris’s documentary The Thin Blue Line. Soderbergh was discovered at the U.S.A. Film Festival, a small event for domestic independent filmmakers to showcase their work. Now, of course, the festival has been renamed Sundance, where multi-million-dollar deals go down each year and thousands of journalists converge on its Park City locale to catch the next big thing.

  As the changes in the film industry evolved over the last decade, Soderbergh’s role within that industry also changed. Soderbergh credits his move to Hollywood as much to his own personal interests as to the general evolution of the film industry. “It’s not surprising when you consider that the independent movement, or whatever you want to call it, has been swallowed up by the studios,” he says, “so it seems inevitable that I’d be some sort of hybrid.”

  A craftsman with a love for American movies, Soderbergh is similar to many of his contemporaries (Spike Lee, Gus Van Sant, Ang Lee, Spike Jonze) in that he became swept up in Hollywood’s co-option of independent film. But even Soderbergh’s biggest films, while still indebted to the Hollywood system, remain very much independent, reinventing and revitalizing the forms. “I’ve always had one foot in and one foot out of Hollywood,” Soderbergh tells Sheila Johnston, an idea that is reiterated throughout this book.

  With Soderbergh’s partnership with Solaris star George Clooney, and the formation of their production company Section Eight in 2000, you can see the filmmaker’s more formalized effort to resurrect that “Golden Age” of Hollywood in the late 1960s and 1970s—which saw the releases of such distinctive Soderbergh influences mentioned in this book as The Last Picture Show, The Graduate, The French Connection, Rosemary’s Baby, and Bound for Glory—and his desire, as he tells Michael Sragow, “to see if we can get back to that period we all liked in American cinema twenty-five years ago.”

  Soderbergh’s attempts to revolutionize the industry also extend to his early adoption of cutting-edge distribution strategies such as video-on-demand and theatrical day-and-date releasing (on Bubble and The Girlfriend Experience). In his embrace of such new technologies, Soderbergh foresaw what would be a seismic shift in the consumption of indie films. As he tells Mike Fleming in 2013, “For a certain kind of movie, the traditional theatrical model is almost impossible.”

  Soderbergh may not have successfully achieved his dream of remaking the film industry, choosing to walk away from a Studio System that he has since frequently criticized for its reliance on franchises, test-marketing and group-think, but he has left behind a bold, skillful, and electic body of work that stands as a beacon for what is possible—even within the constraints of an arguably moribund movie industry.

  Per the guidelines of the Conversations with Filmmakers series, the interviews in this collection are unedited from their original publications and ordered chronologically (perhaps Soderbergh would object to the strict timeline) according to when the interviews were conducted, not publication date. Though repetition is bound to occur from interview to interview, plentiful nuances emerge from one to the next. The first two interviews that focus on sex, lies, and videotape, for instance, tackle Soderbergh’s splash on
to the film scene from surprisingly different angles, from the irreverent, near tabloid-style exposé of Rolling Stone after the film’s Park City premiere, to the serious interrogations of Michel Ciment and Hubert Niogret at the film’s Cannes debut. I have tried in this introduction to contextualize the many themes that run through the interviews included here, but by no means is this examination exhaustive.

  I must give special thanks to Paula Willoquet and Isadora Nicholas for their excellent French translations of the Positif interviews, all of which are invaluable to this collection, offering the most comprehensive conversations with Soderbergh I could find; it was the only publication, for instance, that spent a good deal of time with the budding director upon the release of his underrated Kafka. Also, I’d like to thank Soderbergh himself for supplying me with certain biographical facts and chronological clarifications. And a final thanks to my wife, Ariel Rogers, and my son, Senya, whose contributions to everything I do cannot be measured in words, and who have helped me to—quoting Soderbergh’s words—“reinsert a sense of play” in my own life.

  AK

  Note

  1. Scott Collins, “The Funk of Steven Soderbergh: His First Film, sex, lies, and videotape, Put Him on Top of Hollywood’s Hill. He Predicted Then That It Was All Downhill from There. Why Was He Right?,” Los Angeles Times, February 6, 1997.

  Chronology

  1963

  Born on January 14, 1963, in Atlanta, Georgia. His father is Peter Soderbergh, an education professor (died February 1998); his mother is a former parapsychologist. He is the fifth of six children. In April, the family moves to Austin, Texas.

  1967

  Family moves to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

  1973

  Family moves to Charlottesville, Virginia.

  1976

  Family moves to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where his father is the Dean of Education at Louisiana State University and enrolls Soderbergh in an animation class at Louisiana State University. Frustrated with the animation process, he uses the equipment to make Super-8 live-action films, often collaborating with friends on their films as well.

  1978

  Makes Passages, a short film about dreams starring his younger brother and brother-in-law.

  1979

  Parents separate. Makes short film Janitor, a homage to Taxi Driver and The Conversation.

  1980

  Makes the short Skoal, a black and white film about his impressions of high school. After graduating in the summer of 1980, a former instructor hires Soderbergh as an editor in Los Angeles on an NBC game show called Games People Play. Writes untitled spec screenplay about high school.

  1981

  After the show is canceled, Soderbergh works in Los Angeles in varying capacities, ranging from a cue-card holder, a game-show scorekeeper, and a freelance editor. Moves back to Baton Rouge and works at a video arcade, giving out tokens, and makes Rapid Eye Movement, a short film about his time spent in Los Angeles. Writes spec screenplay Gumshoe (comedy).

  1983

  Gets a job at a video production house, shooting and editing industrial videos. Soderbergh’s parents officially divorce on his twentieth birthday. Writes spec screenplay Putting on Airs (comedy).

  1984

  Introduced to the musical group, Yes. He is hired to direct a thirty-minute documentary of the band’s concert tour for their album 90125. In the fall, he is hired to shoot a concert film for Yes, to be called 9012LIVE.

  1985

  9012LIVE is completed.

  1986

  9012LIVE nominated for a Grammy for Best Long-Form Music Video. Writes spec screenplays Crosstalk (family comedy), State of Mind (thriller set in New Orleans), and Proof Positive (a re-telling of The Return of Martin Guerre set in the U.S. during WWI).

  1987

  Writes Dead from the Neck Up, a slapstick comedy which never gets produced. In December, while moving to Los Angeles in his 1963 Buick Electra 225, Soderbergh begins formulating the idea for sex, lies, and videotape and writes the first draft of the screenplay in eight days.

  1988

  Shoots sex, lies, and videotape in Louisiana in thirty days.

  1989

  In January, sex, lies, and videotape world premieres at the U.S. Film Festival (Sundance) in Park City, Utah. In May, Soderbergh travels to Cannes with the film and wins the Palme d’Or. He begins planning several projects: an adaptation of The Last Ship, based on a novel by William Brinkley, to be executive produced by Sydney Pollack for Universal Studios; King of the Hill, an adaptation from A. E. Hotchner’s memoir; and a film about Franz Kafka from a screenplay by Lem Dobbs. Soderbergh marries Betsy Brantley, an actress, and moves to Virginia.

  1990

  Nominated for an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay for sex, lies, and videotape. (Dead Poet’s Society wins.) Later that year, he directs Kafka in Prague, starring Jeremy Irons as the Czech writer.

  1993

  Directs “The Quiet Room,” a thirty-minute film for a Showtime noir series called Fallen Angels. Soderbergh goes to Cannes with King of the Hill.

  1994

  Executive produces Suture. Begins production on The Underneath, an update of 1949 film, Criss Cross, for Universal. In October, Soderbergh and Betsy Brantley are divorced. Directs “Professional Man” for the Showtime noir series Fallen Angels.

  1995

  Produces Greg Motolla’s The Daytrippers and writes, directs, acts, and shoots Schizopolis. Afterwards, he directs Gray’s Anatomy, a film of Spalding Gray’s monologue. He co-writes the screenplay for Nightwatch, and works on scripts for Mimic and an unproduced Henry Selick film called Toots and the Upside Down House.

  1997

  Soderbergh directs Out of Sight for Universal, starring George Clooney and Jennifer Lopez. Also produces Gary Ross’s Pleasantville.

  1998

  Directs The Limey for Artisan. Soderbergh wins a Best Director award for Out of Sight from the National Society of Film Critics.

  1999

  Directs Erin Brockovich for Universal, starring Julia Roberts as the housewife turned legal crusader who helps to win a massive direct-action lawsuit.

  2000

  Soderbergh announces a planned remake of Ocean’s 11, to star George Clooney, with whom he founds the production company Section Eight. After a month in release, Erin Brockovich breaks the $100 million mark at the U.S. box office in mid-April. Just a week before, Soderbergh begins production on Traffic for USA Films, starring Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones, after initial deal with Fox Searchlight falls through. The New York Film Critics Circle awards Traffic Best Picture and Soderbergh Best Director.

  2001

  Soderbergh is nominated for two Golden Globes, two Director’s Guild awards, and two Oscars for his directing work on Traffic and Erin Brockovich. Begins shooting Ocean’s Eleven. Wins Best Director Oscar for Traffic. Announces his next film after Ocean’s Eleven, which grosses more than $100 million after three weeks in release, will be the low-budget Full Frontal, an “unofficial sequel to sex, lies, and videotape.” Also executive produces Christopher Nolan’s Insomnia, Todd Haynes’s Far from Heaven, and Welcome to Colinwood.

  2002

  Directs Solaris, an adaptation of Stanislaw Lem’s classic sc-fi novel, and executive produces George Clooney’s Confessions of a Dangerous Mind and the documentary Naqoyqatsi.

  2003

  Develops and directs ten-episode Washington D.C. series K Street for HBO. Directs “Equilibrium,” a short film that is part of the omnibus feature Eros. Produces Criminal.

  2004

  Develops cable TV series Unscripted, which shows for ten episodes on HBO the following year. Directs Ocean’s Twelve, the sequel to Ocean’s Eleven, which earns more than $100 million after four weeks in release. Executive produces The Jacket, Able Edwards, Stephen Gaghan’s Oscar winner Syriana, Lodge Kerrigan’s Keane, Rumor Has It, and Williams Greeves’ experimental documentary Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take 2½.

  2005

 
Soderbergh serves as executive producer on George Clooney’s Good Night and Good Luck and the HBO feature Pu-239, and announces he will direct a documentary about actor Spalding Gray, the subject of Gray’s Anatomy, who committed suicide the previous year. In April, shoots experimental digital-video movie Bubble. In the fall, directs The Good German for Warner Bros. Also executive produces Richard Linklater’s long-in-the-works A Scanner Darkly.

  2006

  Makes experimental digital short film Building No. 7. Shoots Ocean’s Thirteen in the summer, and works as executive producer on the films I’m Not There, Michael Clayton, and Wind Chill. Soderbergh announces plans to close down Section Eight.

  2007

  Shoots parts one and two of Che (The Argentine and Guerrilla) back-to-back in the summer.

  2008

  Soderbergh shoots The Informant! with Matt Damon, and The Girlfriend Experience, starring pornstar Sasha Grey.

  2009

  After Soderbergh is close to shooting an adaptation of Michael Lewis’s baseball book Moneyball for Columbia Pictures, the studio puts the film into “limited turnaround” due to creative differences, ultimately replacing him with Bennett Miller. Soderbergh completes his Spalding Gray documentary And Everything Is Going Fine. Also acts as producer on Solitary Man, directed by Ocean’s Thirteen writers Brian Koppelman and David Levien, and executive producer on the documentary Playground: The Child Sex Trade in America and Lodge Kerrigan’s Rebecca H. (Return to the Dogs). Later that year, in Australia, while directing Cate Blanchett and Andrew Upton in the Sydney Theatre Company production of Tot Mom, a mixed-media play Soderbergh created, he also shoots an improvised film called The Last Time I Saw Michael Gregg with many of the same actors.