Steven Soderbergh - Interviews - Conversations with Filmmakers

Kaufman, Anthony (edited by)

ISBN 10: 1578064295 / ISBN 13: 9781578064298

Published by University Press of Mississippi, Jackson, Mississippi, 2001

About this Item

A Fine unmarked copy. xxix + 171 pages. Steven Soderbergh's cinema-making star blazed with Sex, Lies and Videotape, sputtered with The Underneath, and flared again with Erin Brockovich and Traffic. Charting this writer-director-producer's surprising career, these conversations with Soderbergh reveal him to be as self-effacing and light-hearted in his later, more established years as he was when he was starting out. Unfazed by the glitz and power of Hollywood and unafraid to get his hands dirty and pick up the camera himself, he remains at heart a truly independent filmmaker. 50 Size: 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall.

Seller Inventory # 009421

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Steven Soderbergh - Interviews - Conversations with Filmmakers
• Publisher: University Press of Mississippi, Jackson, Mississippi
• Publication Date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1578064295
• ISBN 13: 9781578064298
• Binding: Soft Cover
• Condition: Fine
• Dust Jacket Condition: No Jacket
• Seller catalogs:
  • Theatre / Acting / Cinema / Plays

About this title

Synopsis

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 US 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.

About the Author

Anthony Kaufman is assistant professor at the New School and a film journalist. He has written for the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Village Voice, Slate, Variety, Wall Street Journal, and other publications.