sex, lies, and videotape

Theatrical Release Date: 1989 08 04 (USA)

UPC: 043396904897

Studio: Columbia TriStar

Summary: Steven Soderbergh kickstarted the independent film movement of the 1990s with this landmark drama about the tangled relationships among four people and a video camera. John (Peter Gallagher) is an unscrupulous, self-centered yuppie lawyer with a beautiful wife named Ann (Andie MacDowell). Ann feels secure and well provided-for in their relationship, but she has almost no interest in sex; she tells her therapist that she's more concerned about waste disposal. John, however, is still quite interested in sex and is having an affair with Ann's sister Cynthia (Laura San Giacomo), whose personality is fire to Ann's ice; sex is the one area in which she's been able to best her more successful sister, and she relishes her ability to seduce Ann's husband. Into this dysfunctional picture comes Graham (James Spader), a college friend of John's whom he hasn't seen in nine years. Graham has decided that talking about sex is more interesting than actually having sex, so he meets women and asks them discuss their desires and fantasies as he tapes them with a camcorder. A sensation at the Sundance Film Festival, the film made that festival a synonym for a new brand of low-budget indie dramas about contemporary life and relationships. Together with Quentin Tarantino's very different Pulp Fiction (1994), sex, lies, and videotape was one of the most influential movies for independent filmmaking of the 1990s. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Category: Drama

Awards: Best Screenplay – null Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama – null Best Supporting Actress – null Best Actress – Los Angeles Film Critics Association New Generation Award – Los Angeles Film Critics Association Best Original Screenplay – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Actor – Cannes Film Festival Palme d'Or – Cannes Film Festival Best Picture – National Board of Review Best Picture – Independent Spirit Awards Best Director – Independent Spirit Awards Best Actor – Independent Spirit Awards Best Actress – Independent Spirit Awards Best Supporting Actress – Independent Spirit Awards Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Moti – Hollywood Foreign Press Association Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama – Hollywood Foreign Press Association Best Screenplay – Hollywood Foreign Press Association Audience Award – Sundance Film Festival

Features: Theatrical trailer
Scene selections
Commentary by Steven Soderbergh

sex, lies, and videotape

Format: Digital Video Disc (DVD)

Release Date: 10/06/1998

Audio: DD4.0 Dolby Digital 4.0, DDS2.0 Dolby Digital w/ 4 channels

Language(s) English,Spanish,French

Subtitles: English,French,Spanish

Region: USA & territories, Canada

Lucia Bozzola

The feature debut by 26-year-old writer/director/editor Steven Soderbergh galvanized the independent film movement of the late '80s and '90s with its breakout success leading out of the Sundance Film Festival. Soderbergh's late twentysomethings are so alienated and sexually dysfunctional that voyeuristic, videotaping onanist Graham's professions of relative healthiness ring ironically true. In these warped lives, the mediating presence of the video camera becomes a means to self-awareness, yet human connection can happen only via a machine. Winner of the Audience Prize at Sundance, sex, lies and videotape commanded international attention by winning the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival (as well as the Best Actor prize for James Spader's subtle performance as Graham), setting the stage for the award-winning prominence of American independent cinema at the Cannes festival in subsequent years. Picked up and aggressively marketed by Miramax, sex, lies and videotape grossed 26 million dollars, raising the bar for an "indie" hit, establishing Miramax as the most prominent purveyor and savvy marketer of independent film, and refocusing attention on non-Hollywood product as a vital creative and entertainment alternative to blockbusters. ~ Lucia Bozzola, Rovi

Cast and Crew: Alexandra Root  Actor 
David Foil  Actor 
Earl Taylor  Actor 
Cliff Martinez  Composer (Music Score) 
Morgan Mason  Executive Producer 
Steven Soderbergh  Director 
Steven Soderbergh  Screenwriter 
Nancy Tenenbaum  Executive Producer 
Nancy Tenenbaum  Producer 
Nick Wechsler  Executive Producer 
James Spader  Actor 
Andie MacDowell  Actor 
Peter Gallagher  Actor 
Laura San Giacomo  Actor 
Ron Vawter  Actor 
Steven Brill  Actor 

Country: USA