Steven Soderbergh: Interviews (Conversations with Filmmakers (Paperbacks))

Rating:
Summary: Something for Fans
Review: This volume collects selected interviews covering Mr. Soderbergh's career from his first feature film through his Oscar win for "Traffic." Most of the interviews are brief, and the book an easy read; however, most readers will find it unsatisfying and even tedious. The main problem is the amount of repetition across interviews. I doubt that's the fault of either the editor or Mr. Soderbergh--probably the nature of the beast. The journalists tended to ask the same sorts of questions, and of course, Mr. Soderbergh has the same answer each time. To be sure, thought-provoking hints about the filmmaker's ideas, methods, and aesthetics occasionally surface, along with a few technical details, but there are no deep insights into the artist or his work. Still, fans of Mr. Soderbergh's work will find the collection informative enough to spend an hour or so with it. The general reader, though, would do better to pick up Mr. Soderbergh's own books--his published screenplay-with-journal for "sex, lies, and videotape" or his "Getting Away with It, Or: The Further Adventures of the Luckiest Bastard You Ever Saw," a series of conversations with filmmaker Richard Lester interwoven with more of Mr. Soderbergh's journals. Better yet, just watch the films.