USA drama
1989
color 101 min.
Director: Steven Soderbergh
CAV: out-of-print collectible
           3 discs, catalog # CC1216L
CLV: $49.95 - available
           1 disc, catalog # CC1217L
Every once in
a while some outlaw comes along to prove that movies can be something
else -- not just a weary procession of prepackaged product, but a
spectacular mode of personal expression. Steven Soderbergh is the
prodigy of 1989 who came up with sex, lies, and videotape, a
fascinating and low-budget expos of some very strange modern
relationships that won the Golden Palm (Best Film) and Best Actor
award for James Spader at the Cannes Film Festival. It turned out to
be one of the most successful and talked about films of the
year.Steven Soderbergh's writing and direction are frighteningly
accurate, and he is irreproachable in his love for his characters, all
of whom are none too lovable. In this premiere display of his
cinematic prowess he shows not just talent but a degree of personal
honesty rarely visible in film. Paying little attention to civilized
rules of cinema, and with a bit more than one million dollars, he has
somehow expressed all his hidden anxieties, and it's surprising how
much wisdom he displays while letting each character deal with the
unique quality of their misery. sex, lies, and videotape is an
amazingly brave film, especially when you compare its sexual values
against any other American movie. In most films, the characters have
lives around which their sex lives revolve. But in sex, lies, and
videotape, the characters have sex lives around which the rest of
their lives revolve. It's much closer to reality than most of us would
like to admit.
Graham, Ann, John, and Cynthia, the four main
characters, have got so many hang-ups that the film basically has no
protagonist. There's not a single character whose struggle we can
endorse whole-heartedly. Are we really expected to identify with the
woman who can't have an orgasm, or her sleazy husband who has nothing
but? Are we supposed to identify with the barmaid who is secretly
undermining her sister's marriage, or the guy who is only impotent in
front of other people? Though these individuals are all fascinating,
none of them are particularly appealing. We're left with nothing to
empathize with but the single thread they share in common, that life
is a whirlpool of compromises, full of pain and unique surprises. You
can walk out of this film feeling a little bit better about yourself;
after all, if these people can work out their problems, your problems
should be a snap.
The performances are all precise and masterful. As
Graham, James Spader radiates benign neurosis. In his previous roles
in Baby Boom, Less Than Zero, Wall Street, and
the underrated Jack's Back, he only scratched the surface of
the vulnerability he displays here. Similarly, Peter Gallagher's work
in The Idolmaker, Summer Lovers, and the vastly
underrated Dream Child didn't ever approach the ruthless
callousness he demonstrates as John.
But it's the women who are the
real surprises. Though her modeling career was thriving, Andie
MacDowell was sure that her acting career was over, when her entire
performance as Jane in Greystoke was redubbed by Glenn
Close. But after her astoundingly complex performance as Ann, she won
the L. A. Film Critics' Award as the Best Actress of the year and
immediately secured the leads in two more films. As her sister
Cynthia, Laura San Giacomo oozes sex and sarcasm, a deadly
combination. This is her first film, and with it she won the
L. A. Film Critics' Award for most promising newcomer, plus several
lead roles.
The plot is laid out immediately through monologues,
snappy guitar work, and incredibly clever editing. The marriage of
John and Ann Millaney is based on lies, and Graham's life is based on
truth and videotape -- which cannot lie.
Only in a world of AIDS
could Graham's problem make any sort of sense. There's a peculiar sort
of logic to a man who uses video instead of a rubber as a prophylactic
against the plague of the decade, where any sexual encounter may be
your last. He's a sick puppy, and by the end, he actually starts
mixing up the tenses in his sentences, confusing real time with
videotape time.
Audio edits take place moments before or after
visual edits, causing vocal overlaps that are curiously misleading. We
hear Ann's voice say, "Can I tell you something personal?" while we're
looking at her sister make love to her husband. For one brief moment,
it seems like Cynthia talking, but then the film cuts to Ann in a
restaurant with Graham, and we realized we've been tricked.
This
isn't a mistake, but a stylistic idiosyncrasy from a man in total
control of his artform. "You go through three phases trying to express
yourself in any art form" explains Soderbergh. "First, you
imitate. Next, you begin to document what you're thinking and feeling
and use the crafts you've learned through imitation. Then there's the
third phase: taking the emotions and feelings you've experienced --
which are autobiographical -- and creating a fictional story with
which to express them. That was the big leap for me, because
emotionally, sex, lies, and videotape is very autobiographical,
and yet nothing in the film actually occurred. And by being fictional
I was able to be clearer in what I was trying to get across."
What
Soderbergh gets across in sex, lies, and videotape is
relationships that are naturalistic and entirely believable, not to
mention entertaining. He's also remarkably perceptive for someone only
26 years old. How can Soderbergh already have such a deep
understanding of human nature and obsessive behavior? It takes a
peculiar sort of mind to come up with characters this uniquely
unhealthy. This is a film that should have been made by Nicholas Roeg
or Eric Rohmer, some wise old foreign craftsman looking back on his
personal life with years of perspective. Either sex, lies, and
videotape is a fluke and Soderbergh is madman, or we've got a lot
of interesting movies to look forward to from his overripe
brain.
-- MICHAEL
DARE
Credits
Director/Writer/Editor: Steven
Soderbergh
Producers: Robert Newmyer, John Hardy
Executive
Producers: Nancy Tenenbaum, Nick Wechsler, Morgan
Mason
Photography: Walt Lloyd
Casting: Deborah Aquila
Music:
Cliff Martinez
Art Direction: Joanne Schmidt
Sound: Paul
Ledford, Larry Blake
Transfer
This edition of sex,
lies, and videotape was transferred to digital videotape from a
35mm master interpositive. Winston (Ch. 35) was originally shot on
16mm film. Soderbergh's interview was shot in Hi-Band Video
8. Material shot in video is subject to slight flicker in the
laserdisc still-frame mode.