What We Learned from Steven Soderbergh’s 2014 Watch List
Curious what Steven Soderbergh did with his free time this year, now that he’s “retired?” In fact, he’s been keeping busy as a director of television (The Knick) and theater, as well as exec-producing the Magic Mike sequel. However, he did manage to squeeze in a lot of film and TV viewings, as well as a few books, all of which he recorded faithfully and published on his website this week. (h/t The Film Stage) Here, a few things we learned from reading over Soderbergh’s year in film and television.
- The first cut of Magic Mike XXL was finished a little over a month after filming began —at least, that’s what we assume from the fact that Soderbergh watched it for the first time on Nov. 6. He viewed the film five more times after that, so he and Channing Tatum’s butt are now very well-acquainted.
- Everyone binge-watches House of Cards. In fact, Soderbergh watched his own Cinemax series The Knick only after he plowed through all 13 episodes of Underwood scheming.
- The list says he celebrated Valentine’s Day with a viewing of Ice Castles. But which one?
- We get it, Soderbergh: You got to see Gone Girl before any of us. No need to rub it in by seeing it twice in one week.
- March is disasters-in-transportation month in the Soderbergh home! The director screened TWA 800, followed by Non-Stop and the 1974 cruise ship bomb thriller Juggernaut.
- In May, Soderbergh watched a movie called Mr. Kneff. As far as we can tell, there is no movie called Mr. Kneff, though Fred MacMurray’s character in Double Indemnity is named Walter Neff. Did Soderbergh secretly make a prequel about Walter Neff’s exciting life before he sold life insurance?
- It’s not summer until you watch Jaws (twice). Bonus points if Soderbergh was actually watching it on a porch in Martha’s Vineyard.
- Nobody loves a political thriller like Steven Soderbergh. Maybe it’s because he co-produced Citizenfour this year, but the director took in a whole lot of conspiracy flicks, including Day of the Jackal, The Conversation, Hitchcock’s Foreign Correspondent, Arlington Road and Parallax View.
- Then again, he also watched 2001: A Space Odyssey three times.
- The list mentions that Soderbergh watch Raiders of the Lost Ark in black-and-white? Because he wanted to, that’s why. (It was silent, too.)
- Soderbergh mourned the death of Mike Nichols in November by re-watching Carnal Knowledge (which he’d also screened in August) and The Graduate (which we’re just going to assume he’d seen before).
- In December, Soderbergh invented the perfect double-feature: Ida and Peter Pan Live!
- Soderbergh’s last film of 2014: Gaslight, the film about a husband who convinces his wife she’s slowly going mad. Surprisingly, he watched the 1940 British version, rather than the better-known 1944 film starring Ingrid Bergman. At least, that’s what he says. Maybe he’s just gaslighting us.
Image credits: AP Photo/Lionel Cironneau
