Steven Soderbergh: Interviews

Conversations With Filmmakers Series

by Anthony Kaufman (Editor)

Steven Soderbergh's cinema-making star has blazed with sex, lies, and videotape , sputtered with The Underneath , and flared again with the acclaimed movie Traffic . Steven Interviews charts the rise and fall and rise of the writer-director-producer's surprising career from 1989 to 2001. From his "flavor of the month" status with his debut film sex, lies, and videotape to his Academy Award-winning feature Traffic , Soderbergh's road to success is fraught with ups and downs. On each and every film, the book details such experiences as his creative crisis surrounding his fourth film, The Underneath , and his rejuvenation with the ultra-low budget free-style Schizopolis , and the mainstream achievements that followed with Erin Brockovich and Traffic . Spanning twelve years, these conversations reveal Soderbergh (b. 1963) to be as self-effacing and lighthearted in his later more established years as he was when just starting out. He comes across as a man undaunted by the glitz and power of Hollywood, remaining, above all, a truly independent filmmaker unafraid to get his hands dirty and pick up the camera himself. Not only do the interviews provide a glimpse into the filmmaker's aesthetics, but they also offer a history of the U.S. independent film movement in the late 1980s and 1990s--the explosion of "independent films," studios and film festivals, and the Hollywood co-optation of such talents, Soderbergh included. The collection also reveals the increasingly blurred boundaries between independent and mainstream and Soderbergh's commitment to revitalizing cinema from inside the system.

Genres: Film

171 pages, Hardcover

First published February 14, 2002

Reviews

[Joy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I went to Barnes and Noble to get a book on grant writing since I saw on TV how you can apply for a bogus documentary grant and get $10,000. I got this book instead because I really liked Soderbergh's movie Schizopolis. He also directed Traffic and Eric Brokovich and the Oceans 11, 12 movies, which were fine.
Anyway, he's a funny guy and the interviews are pretty interesting about the whole filmmaker process.
I'm not going to read this whole book. I just wanted to read what he had to say about Schizopolis

[Drew Raley · Rating 4 out of 5]

The cumulative effect is the gradual understanding that Soderbergh is very ambitious, a self-starter, and an aesthete with actually very little on his mind. The Gestalt of all of his work is that of a love of Helvetica, an ambiguous/indulgent relationship to actors, and the pursuit of work as an act of self-improvement. Soderbergh looked like he could have been The One, but he settled on being Sydney Pollack, which is okay, but middle-brow is middle-brow in any font.

[Mike Jozic · Rating 3 out of 5]

This would get four stars if every interview anyone has ever published didn't start with a reference to sex, lies, and videotape or how Soderbergh was responsible for creating the indie film sensation.

Otherwise, it's always a pleasure to read Soderbergh talk about film.