Soderbergh’s Filmmaking Style
Soderbergh’s visual style relies on wealthy urban settings, natural lighting, and fast-paced working environments.
His experimental style and tendency to reject mainstream conventions stems from his belief that “filmmakers are always, in essence, at the beginning of infinity … there is always another iteration … always will be.”
Soderbergh prefers sustained close-ups, tracking shots, jump cuts, experimental sequencing and frequently skips establishing shots in favor of audio and alternative visuals.
Many of his films are noted for a milieu of suspense through the usage of third-person vantage points and a variety of over-the-shoulder shots.
In Contagion (2011), he used a multi-narrative “hyperlink cinema” style, first established within the Ocean’s trilogy.
He is known for tracking aesthetic transitions with various colored washes, most notably yellow to symbolize open, socially acceptable situations while blue washes typically symbolize illegal or socially illicit endeavors.
Soderbergh use of montages reflects his belief that they are equally important devices of story-telling as dialogue.
Soderbergh criticism of Hollywood and the standards of studio filmmaking.
In Ocean’s Twelve (2004), he had actress Julia Roberts play the part of Tess, a character then forced to play a fictionalized version of Roberts.
During the production stages of The Girlfriend Experience (2009) he cast adult film star Sasha Grey in the lead role.
In Haywire (2011), Soderbergh cast and launched the film career of professional mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter Gina Carano.
Soderbergh’s Logan Lucky (2017) made reference to his trilogy to an “Ocean’s 7–11,” noting the trilogy’s influence on the Southern heist film.
Soderbergh’s films present suspenseful and ambient soundscapes by introducing audio before visuals in cut scenes, alerting the viewer of a sudden change in tone. His frequent collaborations with composers Cliff Martinez, David Holmes, and recently Thomas Newman, provide his films with “the thematic and sonic landscapes into which he inserts his characters.”
Cinema Vs. Movie Per Soderbergh
“The simplest way that I can describe it is that a movie is something you see, and cinema is something that’s made…. Cinema is a specificity of vision. It’s an approach in which everything matters. It’s the polar opposite of generic or arbitrary and the result is as unique as a signature or a fingerprint. It isn’t made by a committee, it isn’t made by a company, and it isn’t made by the audience.
Soderbergh’s early films were primarily filmed on Super 8 and 16 mm film formats.
He shot The Girlfriend Experience (2009) on a Red One camera, which has retailed for $17,500, a relatively inexpensive camera for a movie produced for $1.3 million.
Soderbergh filmed Unsane (2018) on an iPhone 7 Plus with its 4K digital camera using the app FiLMiC Pro. He shot with three rotating iPhones using a DJI stabiliser to hold the phone in place.
He filmed the entirety of 2019’s High Flying Bird on an iPhone 8.
His method of experimental filmmaking is rigorously conceived, like a mathematician working out an equation.
With actors, Soderbergh pursues a non-intrusive directorial style. “I try and make sure they’re OK, and when they’re in the zone, I leave them alone. I don’t get in their way.”
Many high-profile movie stars have established reoccurring collaboration with him
Themes
Soderbergh’s films often depict shifting personal identities, and forms of sexuality and materialism.
Soderbergh has explored the impact of capitalist economies on living an ethical life and the detractions associated with materialism. Money is central to many of his movies, serving as an obsession unrivaled by any other.
Starting with Out of Sight (1998), Soderbergh’s heist films explore themes of vengeance, characters on a mission, and the morality of crime.
“I’ve always had an attraction to caper movies, and certainly there are analogies to making a film. You have to put the right crew together, and if you lose, you go to movie jail,” he noted in 2017.
Top Films
Soderbergh listed his favorite films in order: The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T. (1953), All The President’s Men (1976), Annie Hall (1977), Citizen Kane (1941), The Conversation (1974), The Godfather (1972), The Godfather Part II (1974), Jaws (1975), The Last Picture Show (1971), Sunset Boulevard (1950) and The Third Man (1949).
His directorial debut, sex, lies, and videotape (1989), was influenced by Mike Nichols’ 1971 American dramedy Carnal Knowledge.
Peter Yates’ 1972 crime-comedy The Hot Rock inspired the tone of the Ocean’s films.
Soderbergh listed Costa-Gavras’s film, Z as an inspiration on his Traffic and
Soderbergh also cites Jean-Luc Godard as “a constant source of inspiration. Before I do anything, I go back and look at as many of his films as I can, as a reminder of what’s possible”.
Recurring collaborators
Soderbergh has worked with various actors, composers, and screenwriters throughout his filmmaking career.
His most prolific collaborators are George Clooney (who started Section Eight Productions with him and has appeared in six of his films), Matt Damon (his most frequent collaborator, who has appeared in 9 of his films), Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts, Don Cheadle, and Channing Tatum.
Other actors who have appeared in numerous Soderbergh films include Luis Guzmán, Jude Law, Ann Dowd, Joe Chrest, Benicio Del Toro, Elliott Gould, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Michael Fassbender, Michael Douglas and Albert Finney.
Among those who have won awards for their work with Soderbergh, Roberts won Best Actress Oscar for her lead in Erin Brockovich; Benicio del Toro also won Oscar for his work in Traffic, and later starred as the title role in Che.
Jerry Weintraub produced many of his films.
Composer Cliff Martinez has scored 11 Soderbergh films starting with Sex, Lies, and Videotape (1989) and ending with Kimi (2022).
Northern Irish composer David Holmes joined him in 1998 to score Out of Sight and rejoined him in scoring his Ocean’s trilogy.
Soderbergh rejected Holmes’ score for his 2006 film The Good German, but brought him back for subsequent movies, most recently Logan Lucky (2017).
Starting in 2000, composer Thomas Newman has worked on 4 Soderbergh films, most recently in 2020 with Let Them All Talk.
He also works with editor Stephen Mirrione and frequently collaborates with screenwriters Scott Z. Burns, Lem Dobbs, David Koepp and Ed Solomon.
Soderbergh is a vocal proponent of the preservation of artistic merit vis a vis Hollywood corporatism: “Cinema is under assault by the studios and with the full support of the audience.”
He no longer reads reviews of his movies. “After Traffic I just stopped completely. After winning the LA and New York film critics awards, I really felt like, this can only get worse”.
Soderbergh dislikes possessory credits, and prefers not to have his name front and center at the start of a film. “The fact that I’m not an identifiable brand is very freeing,” Soderbergh stated in 2009, “because people get tired of brands and they switch brands. I’ve never had desire to be out in front of anything, which is why I don’t take a possessory credit.”
He often takes cinematography credits on his feature films under the alias Peter Andrews, the given name of his father, and editing credits under Mary Ann Bernard, that of his mother.
Soderbergh married actress Betsy Brantley in 1989; the couple had a daughter together before their 1994 divorce.
He has been married to Jules Asner since 2003, whom he often credits for influencing his female characters.
He has a daughter, born in 2010, with a woman in Australia, where he was working during a separation from Asner.
Soderbergh lives in New York City.
His 2023 web series Command Z was filmed inside his own home.
Filmography
Year Film Distributor
1989 Sex, Lies, and Videotape, Miramax Films
1991 Kafka
1993 King of the Hill, Gramercy Pictures
1995 The Underneath
1996
Schizopolis Northern Arts
Gray’s Anatomy IFC Films
1998 Out of Sight Universal Pictures
1999 The Limey Artisan Entertainment
2000
Erin Brockovich Universal Pictures / Columbia Pictures
Traffic USA Films / Initial Entertainment Group
2001 Ocean’s Eleven Warner Bros. Pictures
2002
Full Frontal Miramax Films
Solaris 20th Century Fox
2004
Ocean’s Twelve Warner Bros. Pictures
2005
Bubble Magnolia Pictures
2006
The Good German Warner Bros. Pictures
2007 Ocean’s Thirteen
2008
Che: Part One
Che: Part Two IFC Films / Wild Bunch
2009
The Girlfriend Experience, Magnolia Pictures
The Informant! Warner
2011
Contagion
Haywire Relativity Media
2012 Magic Mike Warner/ FilmNation Entertainment
2013 Side Effects Open Road Films / FilmNation Entertainment
Behind the Candelabra HBO Films
2017 Logan Lucky Fingerprint Releasing / Bleecker Street
2018 Unsane Fingerprint Releasing / Bleecker Street / 20th Century Fox
2019
High Flying Bird Netflix
The Laundromat
2020 Let Them All Talk Warner/ HBO Max
2021 No Sudden Move
2022 Kimi
2023 Magic Mike’s Last Dance Warner
2024 Presence Neon
2025
Black Bag Focus Features / Universal Pictures
The Christophers TBA
