With "Erin Brockovich" and "Traffic", Steven Soderbergh created movie history at the 2001 Oscars by becoming the first director to gain both double best director and double best picture nominations in the same year. Refusing to rest on his laurels, the director has followed his success with an experimental double barrel. First there was "Solaris", and now comes "Full Frontal", a $2 million experimental fusion of DV and 35mm which stars Julia Roberts, Catherine Keener, and Blair Underwood.
Catherine Keener said "Full Frontal" reminded her of working on student films. Did it take you back?
Yeah [laughing]. If you had watched us working, you'd have felt the same. The crew was six or seven people, we were moving very fast. There's no money, and the days are very challenging. The good news is: the people that are there are the people who just love the job of making movies.
A typical reaction to the film is that it's self-indulgent to a certain extent...
Personally, I don't know how you can make a $2 million movie in 18 days and be accused of being indulgent. If I'd made this movie for $20 million, maybe I'd feel differently. There's nothing that feels autobiographical to me - it's a film that has two characters in it that happen to be actors. It's sort of a snapshot of a specific place at a specific time. I think ten years from now, you can look at the movie and go, "That's what it felt like to be in LA in the year 2002."
Why did you use such a poor grade of video? On the big screen it's even a lower grade than Dogme films...
I don't know. I like it.
It must have been an aesthetic choice. Why did you like it?
I think it looks beautiful. I think it looks like a colour Xerox, and it's got this kind of George Seurat quality that I find very arresting. Most people don't - most people find it ugly. But I loved the way it cut with the 35mm film. I mean, I wanted those cuts to be shocking and really abrupt, so I was pushing it really far.
So the film was a chance to cut loose?
Yes. I'm a pragmatist, ultimately. If you're not going to take chances on a $2 million film, when are you going to take chances? This was literally an opportunity for me to try a lot of different ideas, both technical and theoretical. Some people may really reject them. That's fine. It's not a normal movie, it doesn't have any of the sort of signposts or handrails that you normally have to pull you through a movie. It's going to be a very profitable movie for Miramax, who paid for it. So, as far as I'm concerned, everybody wins.
