Verbatim Citation: April 2009

1989 | 100m | Col | USA | Drama

A sexually repressed woman's husband is having an affair with her sister. The arrival of a visitor with a rather unusual fetish changes everything.

DIRECTOR / WRITER
Steven Soderbergh

CAST
James Spader, Andie MacDowell, Peter Gallagher, Laura San Giacomo

OSCAR NOMINATION
Steven Soderbergh (screenplay)

CANNES FILM FESTIVAL
Steven Soderbergh (Golden Palm)
James Spader (actor)

REVIEW

"Electrifying… As writer, director and editor, [Soderbergh’s] control is mesmerizing. It's also more than a little creepy; as though Soderbergh were drawing us, a step at a time, into a warm pool where intimate secrets flowed back and forth as simply as currents of water."

-- Sheila Benson, Los Angeles Times

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

A character-driven, low budget film that proves you don't need millions of dollars to entertain an audience.
James Spader is so subtly beautiful, quiet and sensitive. I love the freedom and childlike openness of his character.
I enjoyed the naturalness of the conversation, and their awkwardness.
Apparently this was a break through film for contemporary independent production, much like the works of other directors Charles Burnett, Joel and Ethan Coan, Todd Haynes, Jim Jarmusch, David Lynch and John Sayles. The spirit of experimentation evident in American independant films of the late 1980s and early 1990s lives in in the films of Wes Anderson, Sofia Coppola, and french film and music director Michel Gondry.

{Scene 1 EXT. HIGHWAY -- DAY}

{Scene 2 INT. DOCTOR'S OFFICE -- DAY}

{Scene 3 INT. LAW OFFICE -- DAY}

{UNSCRIPTED}

{Scene 6 INT. CYNTHIA BISHOP'S APARTMENT -- DAY}

{Scene 10 INT. JOHN AND ANN MILLANEY'S HOUSE -- DAY}

The above scene where Ann and Graham first meet is truly entertaining. The long pauses, the embarrassed smiles. Although the blocking is quite static, when Graham returns from his first trip to the bathroom, calling it a "false alarm", the high angle shot calls attention to his strange behaviour. When Graham leaves for the bathroom a second time, and his strange behaviour is punctuated again by another high angle shot.

{Scene 11 INT. JOHN AND ANN MILLANEY'S HOUSE -- NIGHT, excerpt below}

GRAHAM
I wish I didn't have to live
someplace.

JOHN
(laughs)
What do you mean?

Graham thinks a moment, then puts his keyring with its single key onto the table.

GRAHAM
Well, see, right now I have this
one key, and I really like that.
Everything I own is in my car.
If I get an apartment, that's two
keys. If I get a job, maybe I
have to open and close once in
awhile, that's more keys. Or I
buy some stuff and I m worried
about getting ripped off, so I
get some locks, and that's more
keys. I just really like having
the one key. It's clean, you know?

Graham looks at the keyring before returning
it to his pocket.

{SCENE 15 INT. JOHN AND ANN MILLANEY'S HOUSE -- DAY}

{SCENE 16 INT. CAFÉ - DAY, excerpt below}

ANN
Can I tell you something personal?
I feel like I can. It's something
I couldn't tell John. Or wouldn't,
anyway.

GRAHAM
It's up to you. But I warn you,
if you tell me something personal,
I might do the same.

ANN
Okay. I think...I think sex is
overrated. I think people place
way too much importance on it.
And I think that stuff about women
wanting it just as bad is crap.
I m not saying women don't want
it, I just don't think they want
it for the reason men think they
do.
(smiles)
I'm getting confused.

Graham smiles.

ANN
Do you understand what I'm trying
to say?

GRAHAM
I think so. I remember reading
somewhere that men learn to love
what they're attracted to, whereas
women become more and more
attracted to the person they love.

ANN
Yes! Yes! I think that's very true.
Very.

Graham watches Ann take a sip of wine.

{UNSCRIPTED}

{Scene 19 INT. CYNTHIA BISHOP'S APARTMENT -- DAY}

The above scene keeps the two women separated in different room for an extended period of time, physicalizing the nature of their contrasting personalities.