Edition: U.S. / Global

FILM; Sketching, For a Change, On Screen

By Elvis Mitchell
Published: July 28, 2002

STEVEN SODERBERGH shot to prominence in 1989, when a small, intimate film he had written and directed, ''Sex, Lies and Videotape,'' became a runaway hit. Its success helped to establish the box-office viability of independent films and also to propel a fledgling New York-based film distributor, Miramax, into the major leagues.

Today, Mr. Soderbergh is an Oscar-winning Hollywood director with hits like ''Erin Brockovich,'' ''Traffic,'' ''Ocean's Eleven'' to his credit. And Harvey Weinstein, the co-chairman of Miramax, is an industry powerhouse. But their current project, ''Full Frontal,'' which brings them together for the first time since ''Sex, Lies,'' is something of a throwback to that earlier film: small, cheap, quickly shot. Mr. Soderbergh calls it an ''unauthorized sequel,'' although none of the original film's characters are in it, and it is set in Los Angeles instead of Baton Rouge, La.

The main similarity to ''Sex, Lies'' is in how the film shifts between at least two levels of reality, one shot on film and the other with hand-held video cameras. The ''film'' parts of ''Full Frontal,'' which opens on Friday, are scenes from ''Rendezvous,'' the movie-within-a-movie that is being shot with two Hollywood stars, played by Julia Roberts and Blair Underwood, in the lead roles. The video parts of ''Full Frontal'' follow them and five of their friends (including David Duchovny, David Hyde Pierce and Catherine Keener) through their off-screen lives for 24 hours.

Mr. Soderbergh shot ''Full Frontal'' in 18 days, for $2 million, right after he finished the big-budget ''Ocean's Eleven.'' He recently spoke by telephone with Elvis Mitchell of The New York Times about the change in gears. Here are excerpts from the conversation.

ELVIS MITCHELL: Where does the title come from?

STEVEN SODERBERGH: The title was an attempt to excite Harvey Weinstein. He liked the first title we had, which we changed because it didn't seem as funny after Sept. 11 -- ''How to Survive a Hotel Room Fire.'' And then I came up with another title, ''The Art of Negotiating a Turn,'' which Harvey said was the worst title he'd ever heard in his life. And I thought, ''O.K., my challenge now is to come up with something that will make him levitate.'' So a week later I called back and said, ''I'm going to call it 'Full Frontal.' And he said, ''Now, that's one of the better titles I've heard.'' So it's a naked, transparent marketing ploy.

MITCHELL: And what does it mean now in the context of the movie?

SODERBERGH: Two things: One, it doesn't necessarily mean nudity. It could mean lobotomy. But I guess it didn't seem totally inappropriate because to me it connoted a certain emotional proximity. Like trying to strip things down, make them raw.

MITCHELL: And how do you respond to the question: What is the movie about?

SODERBERGH: Oh, the same as I always do. Our efforts to connect. I mean, it was really that simple.

MITCHELL: But is it about connecting on a number of levels?

SODERBERGH: Yeah. Including issues of an audience and its attempts to connect with a movie, and where aesthetics come into play in trying to forge that connection. And making people think about why do they connect with certain films and not with others, and what do they believe on screen and what do they not.

MITCHELL: Why did you think you wanted to do something like this now? Is this something that was floating around in your head for a while -- this script and this particular project?

SODERBERGH: Yeah. I mean, I'd been talking to the writer for a while. But it really, to my mind, was kind of bound to ''Ocean's Eleven.'' I really felt like I couldn't do one without doing the other.

MITCHELL: It also comes after ''Erin Brockovich'' and ''Traffic,'' and it's pretty different from those movies, too. They are so much motivated by storytelling. And this, strictly speaking, is not. It feels anecdotal, like the movies of the French New Wave.

SODERBERGH: Well, right, exactly. I mean that was our hope . You look at that Godard period of '59 to '67, and you admire his ability to sketch. And I think you can get too caught up in this idea that every movie you make has to be a mural. And I really felt like I'd been doing that, and I felt like I needed to afford myself the opportunity to sketch -- where things aren't, you know, so weighted by expectation or budget.

It's not that I view the movie as incidental. It's just I liked the idea of having the freedom to write with the camera, in a way. And in an environment that seems safe, because of the scale of the project and the way it would be made. It's a fun way to work; it's an interesting way to work. It's sort of an irresponsible way to work if you're doing a movie on any other scale than this.

MITCHELL: Did making ''Full Frontal'' change how you think about actors on camera?

SODERBERGH: No. It only confirmed what I've always believed, which is that giving them responsibility is an exciting and fruitful way to work. There's a difference between letting them do whatever they want and giving them a responsibility.

MITCHELL: And when do you think you first did that -- give them responsibility?