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Conversations With Filmmakers Series
Steven Soderbergh: Interviews
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 Soderbergh: 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.
Steven Soderbergh: 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.
- GenresFilm
171 pages, Paperback
First published February 14, 2002
62 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
September 27, 2007
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
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
August 12, 2014
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.
August 17, 2024
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.
Otherwise, it's always a pleasure to read Soderbergh talk about film.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews