sex lies and videotape Circumstances of Production Soderbergh

sex, lies, and videotape Circumstances of Production

Soderbergh and the Road to sex, lies, and videotape • Early 1980 s: Soderbergh traveled back and forth between Los Angeles and home town of Baton Rouge, LA, attempting to work in industry; works in TV documentary short production, post-production firm, spec script writing • 1985: Directs Yes: 9012 Live concert film for band, Yes • 1987: Completes Winston, a short film that Soderbergh calls “version of sex, lies, and videotape, the story of a woman who creates an imaginary life for herself so she can keep a man who was after her at a distance” (Steven Soderbergh: Interviews 19) • Late 1987: Soderbergh writes sex, lies, and videotape script over eight-day move from Baton Rouge to Los Angeles, while reflecting upon desire to change his behavior, which he parallels to John’s

Autobiographical Content “I was involved in a relationship with a woman in which I was deceptive and mentally manipulative. I got involved with a number of other women simultaneously. . . Another six months of this behavior—this went on for the better part of a year —and I would have been, bare minimum, alcoholic and, going on from there, mentally screwed up. . I just became somebody that, if I knew them, I would hate” (Interview in Connoisseur 10/1991, reprinted in Biskind, Down and Dirty Pictures 40).

Financing and Shooting • Early 1988: Soderbergh gives script to his agent, who markets to producers Robert Newmyer (Outlaw Productions) and Nancy Tenenbaum (Overseas Entertainment) who negotiate $1. 2 million deal with RCA/Columbia Home Video and Virgin for domestic and foreign video rights • Producers took on task of selling theatrical distribution rights if RCA/Columbia passed on “first look” deal • Shooting lasts 30 days, with Soderbergh rewriting some dialogue to fit characters and improvisations actors had developed during

Screening and Reception • 1/1989: film premieres at U. S. Film Festival (Sundance) • Screens at American Film Market; Miramax purchases distribution rights for $1 million, and markets film as “quality indie” production • Film screens at Cannes, where it wins Palm d’Or • Opens May 1989 in U. S. on 350 screens, then expands nationwide (“platform” release) • Film grosses $24 million domestically • sex, lies, and videotape’s success prompts investment in similar psychologically oriented films Image Source: Senses of Cinema

Screening Elements • Editing, particularly crosscutting between spaces and times, with or without sound bridges • Camera movement, particularly tracking and zooms • Implicit meanings/themes: Gender relations, honesty and dishonesty, technology and selfdiscovery and self-revelation • Symptomatic meanings: sex and relationships in the post-AIDS era, contemporary “yuppie” life