Sex, Lies, and Videotape
Dir: Steven Soderbergh, 1989 (8*)Palm D’Or (Cannes)
James Spader, as Graham, currently jobless and alienated, connects with old friend John (Peter Gallagher), is an attorney having an affair with the sister (Laura San Giocomo), of his wife, Andie McDowell. The wife finds a friendship with Graham, and finds that he makes videotapes of women being interviewed about intimate subjects, in a kind of video therapy. All are changed by subsequent revelations. A slow, intellectual film, this is mostly conversation, which will bore some people, but enthrall others, hence the awards it received. Excellent filmmaking.
Traffic
Dir: Steven Soderbergh, 2000 (9*) Best Director Oscar
Based on a European tv miniseries, this rewrite tells several intertwined stories of people affected by drugs and smuggling. Michael Douglas is a Senator and anti-drug czar, whose daughter is dabbling in drugs, Benecio del Toro (Oscar for Supp Actor) is an anti-drug detective in Mexico, Catherine Zeta-Jones is the wife of a drug kingpin. The star is director Soderbergh, who uses color tinting to connect the different stories together visually, and wrote the script that is basically a flawless integration of all these stories. The film won every Oscar nomination it got except Best Picture, losing to Gladiator. 4 Oscars
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