Andrew Steven Soderbergh (Atlanta, Georgia, 14 January 1963) is a film producer, screenwriter, cinematographer, editor, and film director American. Won Academy Award for best director at 2000 film Traffic.
Biography
Early years and early
Soderbergh is parents of Swedish descent (the original surname, Söderberg, was changed to Soderbergh when the family moved to United States). A child, his family moved from Atlanta to Baton Rouge (Louisiana), where his father became Dean of education at Louisiana State University (LSU). There he discovered the filming as a teenager, directing short films with Super 8 mm film and equipment provided by University students. Soderbergh attended high school at Louisiana State University Laboratory School, an institution conducted by the University. While still in high school, Soderbergh attended a class of animation film in college and began to perform short 16 mm second-hand equipment. Instead of responding to LSU, Soderbergh he tried his luck in Hollywood of graduating from high school. He began working as a scorer in a programme of games and eventually found a job as a freelance film editor. His big chance came when he directed the video the band Yes 9012 Live concert in 1985, which was nominated for the Grammy Awards.
Sex, Lies, and Videotape
It was not until that Soderbergh again Baton Rouge when conceived the idea of Sex, Lies, and Videotape (in Spanish sex, lies and video or sex, lies and videotape), wrote in eight days. The film won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes International Film Festival, and became a commercial success worldwide and contributed greatly to the revolution of independent cinema of the 1990s. The film critic Roger Ebert felt Soderbergh “generation Sundance Kid poster.”
Working from 1993 to 1998
Sex, Lies, and Videotape was followed by a series of low profile films that had little success at the box office: Kafta, a biopic that mixes made real and fiction Kafka (mainly the Castle and the process), written by Lem Dobbs and starring Jeremy Irons as Franz Kafka; King of the Hill, the era of the Great depression; critically acclaimed drama Underneath, a remake of Robert Siodmak, Criss Cross; 1949 and Schizopolis, a comedy which he starred, wrote, composed, filmed and directed.
Its commercial failure ended in 1998 with Out of Sight, an adaptation of a novel by Elmore Leonard, scripted by Scott Frank starring George Clooney and Jennifer Lopez.[ 6 ] The film was praised by critics, though he had only a moderate box office success. Served to reaffirm the Soderbergh potential, as well as initiate artistic lucrative partnership Clooney Soderbergh.
More success: 1999 and 2000
Soderbergh continued success Out of Sight making another crime, The Limey, from an original screenplay of Lem Dobbs comedy starring actors’ veterans such as Terence Stamp and Peter Fonda. The film was well received, but not so much as Erin Brockovich (2000), written by Susannah Grant and starring Julia Roberts in the role of a single mother facing the industry in litigation. For this role as Julia Roberts won the Academy Award for best actress in 2000. Later that same year, Soderbergh released his most ambitious project to date, Traffic (with a 147 minutes footage, the film had 135 dialogues in 8 different cities), a social drama written by Stephen Gaghan.
Traffic became his most acclaimed film from Sex, Lies, and Videotape and earned him an Academy Award for best director in 2000. That same year by Erin Brockovich was also nominated. It is the only director who has been nominated in the same year for Best Director for two different films at the Academy Awards, Golden Globes and the Directors Guild of America awards. It was the first time that this happened at the Academy in 60 years.
Work from 2000 to 2007
Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Matt Damon, Andy Garcia, Julia Roberts and Soderbergh in December 2001
Ocean’s eleven, with a cast of stars and a striking aesthetics, is the highest grossing film Soderbergh to date, having won more than $183 million. The protagonist of the movie, George Clooney, also appeared in the film of 2002 Solaris, this being the third time that Clooney Soderbergh work together in a film. In the same year, Soderbergh made Full front, which was filmed mostly in video digital in a makeshift style removes the barrier between the performances of the actors are like characters and when are portraying fictional versions of themselves. The title is a reference to when an actor or actress appears completely naked on the screen (“full frontal nudity”)
In the same style of Full Frontal, Soderbergh’s next project was K Street (2003), a television series of 10 chapters on politicians who co-produced alongside Clooney. The series was notable for being partially improvised as well as being produced in the five days before the transmission of each episode to take advantage of the recent events in the fictional narrative. Real politicians both appeared in cameo appearances as well as versions of themselves, similar to the protagonists, James Carville and his wife Mary Matalin. The program caused controversy in 2004 when Carville gave the Howard Dean candidate phrase Democratic primary elections to during a filming Dean then used in a debate.
Ocean’s Twelve, the sequel to Ocean’s eleven, was his next film, released in 2004. The good German, a romantic drama starring Cate Blanchett and George Clooney, It was released in late 2006. Ocean’s Thirteen, the sixth collaboration of Clooney and Soderbergh, It was released in June 2007.
Recent work
In 2006, Soderbergh surprised with Bubble, a film with a budget of $1.6 million starring a cast of non-professional actors. Appeared in selected cinemas and HDNet simultaneously and four days later was released on DVD. Industry leaders noted carefully as this happened due to the implications that its unusual programme premiere could have with future films.[ 8 ] [ 9 ] Cinemas, owners who have recently suffered declines in the number of spectators, not well receive calls films “day-and-date”.[ 10 ] The President and CEO of the National Association of Theatre Owners, John Fithian indirectly said that the premiere of the film was “the greatest threat to the viability of the industry of cinema today.”[ Soderbergh response to these criticisms was: “I don’t think that this will destroy the experience of going to the movies more the option to order food to carry has destroyed the restaurant business”. However, the film was little success at the box office as the home video market.[ 12 ] Despite this, Soderbergh has contract five movies more with the same type of Premiere (day-and-date).
In 2007, Soderbergh and Tony Gilroy contributed in a commentary for the revival of the third man by Criterion Collection DVD. In 2008 he directed two films about Che Guevara: Che: El Argentino and Che: guerrilla, both starring Benicio del Toro.
In 2008, Soderbergh filmed The Girlfriend Experience in New York. The film starring Sasha Grey pornographic actress.[ 13 ] September 18, 2009, premiered The Informant!, a movie based on the story Mark Whitacre (played by Matt Damon), an Executive who worked with the FBI to reveal a case of price manipulation.
Soderbergh is currently working on a musical in 3D based on the life of Cleopatra. Catherine Zeta-Jones is in negotiations to play the main role and it is expected that the band Guided by Voices is dependent on the music. Soderbergh planned to begin filming in April 2009.
Style management and collaborations with actors
“Always I’ve brought with them”, says Soderbergh on actors, “always try to be sure that they are well, and when they are on the set left them alone.” “Not I get in their way.”[ 16 ] His style of directing nonintrusive has made that big movie stars have played several of his films. Julia Roberts had supporting roles in Ocean’s eleven and Ocean’s Twelve Full Frontal and also won a Academy Award for best actress for his starring role in Erin Brokovich. Benicio del Toro, who also won a Academy Award for best supporting actor for his work on Traffic, guerrilla place. Luis Guzmán (Out of Sight, The Limey and Traffic) and Don Cheadle (Out of Sight, Traffic, Ocean’s eleven, Ocean’s Twelve and Ocean’s Thirteen) are other usual actors in the Filmography of Soderbergh. However, the actor who has starred in no fewer than 6 Soderbergh films is George Clooney, who is co-owner of the company production Section Eight Productions. The company produced hits Far from Heaven, Insomnia and Syriana, as well as the films directed by Clooney Confessions of a Dangerous Mind and good night and good luck.
Soderbergh often acts as its own director of photography under the pseudonym Peter Andrews and occasionally as its own editor under the alias Mary Ann Bernard. While filming Traffic, Soderbergh wanted to be credited as “Photo Editor” and Director. However, the Writers Guild of America would not allow another credit ahead of the writer. As Soderbergh didn’t want his name was used more than once, adopted the pseudonym Peter Andrews, the first and second name of his father.
Filmography
Director
* And Everything is Going Fine (2010)
* The Informant! (2009)
* The Girlfriend Experience (2009)
* Che (2008)
* Life Interrupted (2007)
* Ocean’s Thirteen (2007)
* The good German (2006)
* Building No.7 (2006)
* Bubble (2005)
* Ocean’s Twelve (2004)
* Eros (2004, segment Equilibrium)
* Solaris (2002)
* Full Frontal (2002)
* Ocean’s eleven (2001)
* Traffic (2000)
* Erin Brockovich (2000)
* The Limey (1999)
* Out of Sight (1998)
* Schizopolis (1996, also actor and composer)
* Gray’s Anatomy (1996)
* Underneath (1995)
* King of the Hill (1993)
* Kafka (1991)
* Sex, Lies, and Videotape (1989, also sound editor)
Screenwriter
* Eros (2004, segment Equilibrium)
* Solaris (2002)
* NightWatch (1997)
* Schizopolis (1996)
* Underneath (1995)
* King of the Hill (1993)
* Sex, Lies, and Videotape (1989)
Director of photography
* Ocean’s Thirteen (2007)
* The good German (2006)
* Bubble (2005)
* Eros (2004, segment Equilibrium)
* Ocean’s Twelve (2004)
* Solaris (2002)
* Full Frontal (2002)
* Ocean’s eleven (2001)
* Traffic (2000)
* Schizopolis (1996)
Editor
* The good German (2006)
* Bubble (2005)
* Eros (2004, segment Equilibrium)
* Solaris (2002)
* King of the Hill (1993)
* Kafka (1991)
* Sex, Lies, and Videotape (1989)
Producer
* The jacket (2005)
* Good night and good luck (2005)
* Syriana (2005)
* Criminal (2004)
* Keane (2004)
* Naqoyqatsi (2002)
* Welcome to Collinwood (2002)
* Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002)
* Far from Heaven (2002)
* Pleasantville (1998)
* The Daytrippers (1996)
* Suture (1994)
Awards
Óscar
Year Category Film Result
2000 Best director Traffic Winner
2000 Best director Erin Brockovich Candidate
1989 Best original screenplay Sex, lies and video tapes Candidate
[Edit] Golden Globe Awards
Year Category Film Result
2001 Best director Erin Brockovich Candidate
2001 Best director Traffic Candidate
1989 Best screenplay Sex, lies and video tapes Candidate
BAFTA Awards
Year Category Film Result
2000 Best director Erin Brockovich Candidate
2000 Best director Traffic Candidate
1990 Best original screenplay Sex, lies and video tapes Candidate
