Soderbergh, Steven 1963–

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Soderbergh, Steven 1963–

(Peter Andrews, Mary Ann Bernard, Sam Lowry, Steven Andrew Soderbergh)

PERSONAL: Born January 14, 1963, in Atlanta, GA; son of Peter Andrew and Mary Ann (an educator; maiden name, Bernard) Soderbergh; married Betsy Brantley (an actor), December 1, 1989 (divorced, October, 1994), married Jules Asner, May 10, 2003; children: Sarah (first marriage). Education: Attended Louisiana State University.

ADDRESSES: Agent—Pat Dollard, United Talent Agency, 9560 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills, CA 90212.

CAREER: Screenwriter, film director, producer, and editor, and cinematographer. Began career doing odd jobs while writing scripts and directing short films,1980–85. Director of films, including: (and editor) Yes: 9012 (video), 1986; Winston, 1987; (and editor) sex, lies, and videotape, Miramax, 1989; Kafka, Miramax Films, 1991; "The Quite Room" episode for the television series Fallen Angels, 1993; (and editor) King of the Hill, Gramercy, 1993; (and cinematographer, as Peter Andrews) Schizopolis, Universal, 1996; Gray's Anatomy, 1996; Out of Sight, 1998; The Limey, 1999; Erin Brockovich, 2000; (and cinematographer, as Andrews) Traffic, 2000; (and cinematographer, as Peter Andrews) Ocean's 11, 2001; (and editor and cinematographer, as Andrews) Solaris, 2002; and (and cinematographer, as Andrews) Full Frontal, 2002. Director and producer or executive producer of films, including: (and screenwriter, as Mary Ann Bernard; and cinematographer, as Andrews) K Street (television series), 2003; (and cinematographer, as Andrews) Ocean's Twelve, 2004; Unscripted, (television series pilot), 2005; Che, 2005; Bubble, 2006; and The Good German, 2006. Producer or executive producer of Suture, 1993; The Daytrippers, 1996; Pleasantville, 1998; Who Is Bernard Tapie?, 2001; Tribute, 2001; Insomnia, 2002; Welcome to Collinwood, 2002; Far from Heaven, 2002; Nagoyqatsi, 2002; Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, 2002; Able Edwards, 2004; Criminal, 2004; Keane, 2004; The Big Empty, 2005; The Jacket, 2005; Syriana, 2005; Rumor Has It, 2005; Good Night, and Good Luck, 2005; Tishomingo Blues,2005; Niagra, 2005; A Scanner Darkly, 2006; and PU-239, 2006. Actor in films Schizopolis, 1996, Ocean's Eleven, 2001, and (voice) Waking Life, 2001.

MEMBER: Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, Directors Guild of America (first vice president, 2002).

AWARDS, HONORS: Palme d'Or, Cannes Film Festival, 1989, for sex, lies, and videotape; Academy Award nomination for Best Picture, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, 2000, for Erin Brockovich, 2001, for Traffic; Academy Award for best director, 2001, for Traffic.

WRITINGS:

SCREENPLAYS

(And director) Winston, 1987.

(And director and editor) sex, lies, and videotape (Miramax, 1989), published with journal, Harper & Row (New York, NY), 1990.

(And director and editor) King of the Hill (based on the novel by A.E. Hotchner), Gramercy, 1993.

(As Sam Lowry) The Underneath, Gramercy, 1995.

(And director and composer of film score) Schizopolis, Universal, 1996.

Nightwatch, Miramax/Dimension Films, 1998.

(As Mary Ann Bernard; and director, cinematographer as Peter Andrews, and editor) Solaris (based on a novel by Stanislaw Lem), Warner Independent Pictures, 2002.

(Under name Sam Lowry) Criminal, 2004.

(Under name Mary Ann Bernard; with others) "Equilibrium," Eros, 2004.

OTHER

(With Richard Lester) Getting Away with It; or, The Further Adventures of the Luckiest Bastard You Ever Saw, Faber (London, England), 2000.

SIDELIGHTS: Steven Soderbergh made a name for himself both as a screenwriter and a director with his1989 low-budget independent film sex, lies, and videotape. The film explores interpersonal relationships among four people. Ann is a model housewife who is sexually unfulfilled, and her husband, John, is having an affair with Ann's sister, Cynthia. When an old friend of John's from college named Graham appears on the scene, he begins to share with Ann videotapes he has made in which he has interviewed women about their sex lives. When Ann finally discovers the affair between her husband and sister, she agrees to make a videotape with Graham, who has earlier confessed to her that he can only be aroused while viewing the interview tapes.

A contributor to the International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers called the author's debut movie "quite simply a remarkably accomplished film." The contributor added, "In portraying a budding relationship between a man who is impotent … and a woman who finds that her husband and sister are having an affair behind her back, the writer/director manages to create neither low farce no soap-operatic psychodrama. Actually, the film is rather touchingly romantic, in a witty, gentle, unsoppy sort of way." Writing in the Journal of Film and Video, Alice Templeton noted that Soderbergh is able "to create a film that subtly exploits the pleasures of erotic fascination at the same time that it seriously explores the ethics of human relationships." Ralph Novak, writing in People, commented that Soderbergh "provocatively addresses our cultural obsession with sex" and added that the "movie represents a fresh, insightful way of looking at sex." In a review for Time, Richard Corliss commented that "this is not an 'adult film' in the X-rated sense; it is an adult film, 'patient and subtle,' in its creator's apt words."

In his screenplay for King of the Hill, which is based on a novel by A.E. Hotchner, Soderbergh tells the story of a boy growing up during the Great Depression in St. Louis. Although the film generally received good reviews, it was largely ignored by the general public. The story focuses on the boy's troubled family, which includes a mother suffering from tuberculosis and a father who neglects him and often leaves him in a run-down hotel while he conducts business. Writing in Time, Richard Schenkel noted that the film has "a tough core, and in a time when movies about the troubles of little boys are a sentimental subgenre and dysfunction is being too easily overcome, there is something exemplary about this smart little movie." Owen Glieberman, writing in Entertainment Weekly, called the film "a funny, tender, lyrical Depression-era fable that's perhaps the most magical coming-of-age film since The 400 Blows."

For his screenplay for The Underneath, Soderbergh decided to remake the 1948 film Criss Cross. The story revolves around a man who returns to his hometown and ends up staging a bank heist. In Entertainment Weekly, Gleiberman called the film "a snazzily contemporary film noir." Soderbergh, however, was not enamored with the effort, telling Gleiberman, "I allowed myself to get pulled into a place that was stagnant and uninteresting."

In Schizopolis, Soderbergh abandoned the typical screenplay and approach to film making to create a low-budget movie featuring dialogue some critics viewed as bordering on gibberish. Glieberman commented on the film, calling it a "series of madcap riffs on marriage, celebrity, the media, corporate fascism, and identity-crisis anxiety," and noing that it seems "pieced together from cinematic tropes influenced by everyone from Jean-Luc Godard to Richard Lester." The contributor to the International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers noted that Soderbergh "writes some ingenious dialogue for husband and wife in the form of summaries." In a review of the film for Entertainment Weekly, Mike D'Angelo called the effort "so relentlessly audacious you can't help but warm to it."

Soderbergh also wrote the screenplay for Solaris, which is based on a novel by Stanislaw Lem as well as an earlier science-fiction film of the same name. In the film, a psychotherapist named Kelvin is grieving over his wife's suicide. He is sent on a space mission to a satellite station whose inhabitants are monitoring the planet Solaris. Kelvin's goal is discover why the space station has stopped communicating with Earth. When he arrives, he finds that the surviving crewmembers are experiencing visitations from deceased love ones. Then Kelvin has a dream about his deceased wife only to wake up and find her on the space station with him. Film Comment contributor Amy Taubin noted that Soderbergh "puts us inside the mind of his protagonist and never lets us out" and added: "One understands that the space station is a metaphor for Kelvin's mind." Taubin also called the movie a "visually elegant, metaphysically unsettling head flick."

Soderbergh wrote and directed a segment titled "Equilibrium" for the film Eros. The story revolves around a session between advertising executive Nick Penrose and his therapist Dr. Pearl. David Rooney, writing in Variety, commented that the segment's "chief attraction is the sustained ricochet of wry comedy between" the two main characters as Nick recounts his troubles and neuroses. Entertainment Weekly contributor Lisa Schwarzbaum felt that the author's effort reveals an "inveterate gameplayer [who] strives for puckishness by choosing a jokey, peekaboo approach to the subject."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Authors and Artists for Young Adults, Volume 43, Thomson Gale (Detroit, MI), 2002.

Contemporary Theatre, Film, and Television, Volume 36, Thomson Gale (Detroit, MI), 2001.

Encyclopedia of World Biography Supplement, Volume 25, Thomson Gale (Detroit, MI), 2005.

International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers, Volume 2: Directors, 4th edition, St. James Press (Detroit, MI), 2000.

Kaufman, Anthony, Steven Soderbergh: Interviews, University Press of Mississippi (Jackson, MS), 2002.

Pierson, John, Spike, Mike, Slackers & Dykes: A Guided Tour across a Decade of American Independent Cinema, Hyperion (New York, NY), 1997, pp. 2, 127.

PERIODICALS

America, April 2, 2001, James S. Torrens, "A Harsh Light," p. 21.

Cincinnati Post, March 20, 2001.

Cineaste, summer, 2001, Richard Porton, review of Traffic, p. 41.

Critical Inquiry, winter, 1995, O.K. Werckmeister, "Kafka 007."

Daily News (Los Angeles, CA), September 9, 2001, "'Ocean's 11' a Project of the First Water," p. L3.

Economist, January 27, 2001, "Heavy 'Traffic,'" p. 2.

Entertainment Weekly, April 4, 1997, Owen Gleiberman, "A Wunderkind Grows Up," p. 66; November 14, 1997, Mike D'Angelo, review of Schizopolis, p. 100; October 15, 1999, Lisa Schwarzbaum, "British Invasion," p. 52; March 24, 2000, Owen Gleiberman, "Law of Appeal," p. 63; January 5, 2001, Owen Gleiberman, "The High Drama," p. 45; February 23, 2001, Steve Daly, "Steven Soderbergh: Erin Brockovich," p. 100, and "Steven Soderbergh: Traffic," p. 105; March 2, 2001, Steve Daly, "Dope and Glory," p. 20; December 6, 2002, Owen Gleiberman, review of Solaris, p. 69; April 15, 2005, Lisa Schwarzbaum, review of Eros, p. 59.

Esquire, August, 2002.

Film Comment, July-August, 1989, Harlan Jacobson, "Truth or Consequences," pp. 22-28; January, 2001, p. 26; November-December, 2002, Amy Taubin, review of Solaris, p. 22.

Financial Times, January 25, 2001, Martin Hoyle, "Weaving a Dazzling Canvas," p. 18.

Houston Chronicle, July 27, 2002.

Independent on Sunday (London, England), November 22, 1998.

Interview, July, 1998, Graham Fuller, "Sex, Lies, and Cops," p. 60.

Journal of Film and Video, summer, 1998, Alice Templeton, "The Confessing Animal in sex, lies, and videotape," p. 15.

Los Angeles, January, 2001, p. 82.

Los Angeles Times, March 17, 2000, Kenneth Turan, "Julia Roberts, and Director Steven Soderbergh Are at the Top of Their Game in This Irresistible, Satisfying Feminist Fairy Tale," p. F1.

Maclean's, September 25, 1989, Brian D. Johnson, review of sex, lies, and videotape, p. 61; May 28, 1990, Brian D. Johnson, review of sex, lies, and videotape, p. 49; February 10, 1992, Brian D. Johnson, "Nightmare in Prague," pp. 79-81; June 19, 1995, Brian D. Johnson, review of The Underneath, p. 62; October 18, 1999, Brian D. Johnson, "Romance on Automatic Pilot," p. 89.

Madison, September, 1999, p. 126.

Nation, September 4, 1989, Stuart Klawans, review of sex, lies, and videotape, p. 250; May 22, 1995, Stuart Klawans, review of The Underneath, p. 733; July 27, 1998, Stuart Klawans, review of Out of Sight, p. 35; November 1, 1999, Stuart Klawans, "Uneasy Riders," p. 35; February 5, 2001, Michael Massing, "The Reel Drug War," p. 5.

National Catholic Reporter, July 17, 1998, Joseph Cunneen, review of Out of Sight, p. 23.

National Review, November 10, 1989, John Simon, review of sex, lies, and videotape, p. 62; April 17, 2000, John Simon, "Miniskirted Crusader."

New Leader, October 2, 1989, John Morrone, review of sex, lies, and videotape, p. 20.

New Republic, September 4, 1989, Stanley Kauffmann, review of sex, lies, and videotape, p. 26; May 8, 1995, Stanley Kauffmann, review of The Underneath, p. 26; April 7, 1997, Stanley Kauffmann, review of Gray's Anatomy, p. 26.

Newsweek, August 2, 1993, David Gates, "Angels with Very Shady Faces," p. 63; June 29, 1998, David Ansen, "The Fugitive Falls in Love," p. 66; March 13, 2000, David Ansen, "A Trash-Talking Crusader," p. 60; January 8, 2001, David Ansen, "Soderbergh Keeps His Streak Alive," p. 62.

New York, February 3, 1992, David Denby, "The Wrong Man," pp. 51-52.

New York Times, July 23, 1989.

New York Times Magazine, 3 November 1991, Gabriel, Trip, "Steven Soderbergh: The Sequel," pp. 34-40, 83.

People, September 4, 1989, Ralph Novak, review of sex, lies, and videotape, p. 14; April 18, 2005, Tom Gliatto, review of Eros, p. 32.

Rolling Stone, May 18, 1989 Minsky, Terri, "Hot Phenom;" September 2, 1993, Peter Travers, review of King of the Hill, p. 70; April 12, 2001, p. 120.

San Francisco Chronicle, October 10, 1999, Ruthe Stein, "Soderbergh Still Roving after Big Success," p. 54.

Time, July 31, 1989, Richard Corliss, review of sex, lies, and videotape, p. 65; August 23, 1993, Richard Schickel, review of King of the Hill, p. 67; October 11, 1999, Richard Corliss, review of The Limey, p. 91; January 8, 2001, Jess Cagle, "Soderbergh's Choice," p. 62.

U.S. News & World Report, June 5, 1989, "A Cannes-Do American," p. 14.

Variety, May 27, 1996, Todd McCarthy, review of Schizopolis, p. 66; March 6, 2000, Todd McCarthy, review of Erin Brockovich, p. 32; January 29, 2001, Dave McNary, "Soderbergh Nails DGA Double in Kudos Derby," p. 16; September 27-October 3, 2004, David Rooney, review of Eros, p. 80.