Six Movies That Are (Not So) Secretly About Their Directors
Jon Favreau's 'Chef' is the latest in a long line of motion picture selfies.
Schizopolis (Steven Soderbergh, 1996)
“I can make sense out of yesterday. Can you understand the power of that?”
Those familiar with Steven Soderbergh — a filmmaker who can go from a blockbuster like Ocean’s Eleven (2001) to the ultra-low budget Bubble (2005), who will live-tweet an original novel, and re-edits other people’s feature films when the mood takes him — may find it hard to believe that this creatively-driven filmmaker ever hit a wall. But after hitting it big at Cannes with his 1989 debut Sex, Lies And Videotape, Soderbergh’s follow-ups — namely Kafka (1991), King Of The Hill (1993), and The Underneath (1995) — failed to make a cultural or financial impact.
So Soderbergh shook himself up, making a largely-improvised, experimental film with himself starring as a confused and disaffected office worker, and his ex-wife as his character’s own unsatisfied wife. It’s insane, hilarious, must-see stuff, and it clearly did the trick. His next film, Out Of Sight (1998), was a cultural and commercial hit, and he’s never looked back. This is the film to see if you want to understand Soderbergh.