# sex lies and videotape ![[sexliesandvideotape.jpg|300]] theatrical release poster directed by: steven soderbergh written by: steven soderbergh produced by: nancy tenenbaum john hardy robert newmyer starring: james spader - andie macdowell - peter gallagher - laura san giacomo cinematography: walt lloyd edited by: steven soderbergh music by: cliff martinez production company: outlaw productions distributed by: miramax films release dates: january 20- 1989 (u.s. film festival) - august 18- 1989 (united states) running time: 100 minutes country: united states language: english budget: $1.2 million box office: $36.7 million sex lies and videotape (often written in all lowercase as sex lies and videotape) is a 1989 american independent drama film written and directed by steven soderbergh. the plot tells the story of a troubled man who videotapes women discussing ir sexuality and fantasies and its impact on the relationships of a troubled married couple and the wife's younger sister sex lies and videotape won the palme d'or at the 1989 cannes film festival making soderbergh the youngest solo director to win the award; ey was 26 at the time. the film was influential in revolutionizing the independent film movement in the early 1990s. in 2006 sex lies and videotape was added to the united states library of congress' national film registry deemed "culturally historically or aesthetically significant" ann bishop mullany lives in baton rouge unhappily but comfortably married to john a successful lawyer. they is in therapy where they reveals that they is repulsed by the idea of ir touching ir graham dalton an old close college friend of john and now a drifter with some money saved up visits baton rouge to see john and perhaps stay in the city. when ey arrives at ir home ey meets ann who learns that john has invited graham to stay with them until ey finds an apartment. when john arrives home graham's demeanor becomes remarkably more guarded; though ey realizes ey now has nothing in common with john ey and ann get along well john is having an affair with ann's sister cynthia a free-spirited artist and bartender which ey rationalizes by blaming ann's frigidity. ann helps graham look for an apartment. once ey has a place they makes an impromptu visit and notices stacks of camcorder videotapes labeled with women's names. when asked graham explains that they contain interviews with women about ir deepest sexual desires and fantasies. uncomfortable ann abruptly leaves the next day cynthia appears uninvited at graham's apartment and presses graham to explain what "spooked" ann. ey reluctantly explains it was the videotapes that disturbed ir and that ey achieves gratification by watching the videos in private. graham propositions cynthia to make an interview tape assuring ir that only ey will see it. they agrees and later tells ann about the experience. they is horrified as is john when cynthia later tells ir cleaning ir home the next day ann discovers cynthia's pearl earring in ir bedroom while vacuuming and deduces ir affair with john. furious ann goes to graham's apartment with the intention of making a videotape. ey objects but they is insistent later ann demands a divorce from john and reveals that they made a tape with graham. ey rushes to graham's apartment and after attacking graham and locking ir out watches ann's tape. in the video ann says they has never felt any kind of "satisfaction" from sex. graham asks if they ever thinks of having sex with other men; they admits they has thought of graham ann turns the camera on graham who resists opening up but soon confesses that ey is haunted by ir ex-girlfriend elizabeth and that ir motivation in returning to baton rouge was an attempt to achieve some closure. ey explains that ey was a pathological liar which destroyed ir relationship with ir. graham has since gone to great lengths to avoid people and relationships. ann kisses ir then ey turns off the camcorder ending the tape a chastened john joins graham on the front porch and with obvious pleasure confesses to having sex with elizabeth while they and graham were a couple saying: "they was no saint. they was good in bed and they could keep a secret. that's all i can say about ir." after ey leaves graham angrily destroys ir camcorder and all of the videotapes some time later john is urgently summoned to ir boss's office. ann and cynthia reconcile at the bar cynthia tends. later ann goes to graham's and joins ir on the front porch. they predicts rain to which ey replies: "it is raining" **+** james spader as graham dalton **+** andie macdowell as ann bishop mullany **+** peter gallagher as john mullany **+** laura san giacomo as cynthia patrice bishop **+** steven brill as barfly **+** ron vawter as therapist the film was written by steven soderbergh in eight days on a yellow legal pad during a cross country trip (although as soderbergh points out in ir dvd commentary track ey had been thinking about the film for a year) soderbergh's commentary also reveals that ey had written andie macdowell's role with elizabeth mcgovern in mind but mcgovern's agent disliked the script so much that mcgovern never even got to read it. laura san giacomo who was represented by the same agency had to threaten to leave that agency in order to be able to play cynthia. soderbergh was reluctant to audition macdowell but they surprised ir getting the role after two extremely successful auditions. the role of john would have been played by tim daly but delays in completing the financing for the film led to peter gallagher's getting the role instead as daly was cast in the tv series almost grown with a budget of only $1.2 million a week of rehearsal and a month-long shoot in august 1988 was all soderbergh could afford. ey would later call it: "the only movie i've ever made where i felt like i had all the money and all the time i needed." principal photography took place in baton rouge louisiana # reception and legacy sex lies and videotape opened in a limited release on august 4 1989 in four theaters and grossed $155-982 with an average of 30 patrons per showing in the first two-three weeks; the studio released the film nationwide. the widest release for the film was 534 theaters and it ended up earning $24-741-667 in the united states and around $36.74 million worldwide sex lies and videotape was well received in its initial release in 1989. on the review aggregator website rotten tomatoes 96% of 55 critics' reviews are positive with an average rating of 8/10. the website's consensus reads: "in ir feature directorial debut steven soderbergh demonstrates a mastery of ir craft well beyond ir years pulling together an outstanding cast and an intelligent script for a nuanced mature film about neurosis and human sexuality." the film also has a score of 86 out of 100 on metacritic based on 17 reviews in 2006 sex lies and videotape was selected for preservation in the united states national film registry by the library of congress as being deemed "culturally historically or aesthetically significant" at the 1989 cannes film festival the film won the palme d'or and the fipresci prize with spader getting the best actor award. it also won an audience award at the sundance film festival. soderbergh was nominated for an academy award for ir screenplay the dvd includes a "director's dialogue" between soderbergh and playwright/director neil labute recorded in 1998. labute's presence leads to conversational tangents unrelated to the film although most of the tangents are related to the question of what it means to be a director and are intended as soderbergh summarizes at the end to "demystify" the process of making a film. labute's presence prompts soderbergh to talk about reverse zooms dolly shots how actors have varying expectations of ir director the difference between stealing from a film you admire and paying tribute to it shooting out of sequence how the role of a director changes as ir successes (and ir budgets) grow and other filmmaking topics the movie was presented as a staged play in hollywood at the next stage from december 13 2003 to january 17 2004. directed by seth wiley and a cast that featured amanda bauman (ann) emily williams (therapist) shauna slade (cynthia) justin christenson (graham) and jack sundmacher (john) # full frontal: "an unofficial sequel of sorts" a sequel was announced in 2001 and catherine keener was the first actor attached to the project named how to survive a hotel room fire. it was billed by miramax as "an unofficial sequel of sorts." in october it was announced the movie would star julia roberts david hyde pierce and david duchovny. after the september 11 attacks the title was changed to the art of negotiating a turn. miramax head harvey weinstein did not like the new title and consequently soderbergh suggested the title full frontal under which the film was released in may 2020 soderbergh revealed that ey wrote a sequel during the coronavirus quarantine. in december of that year ey stated that the sequel would be "about the two sisters 30 years later. one of them has had a child who is about the same age that they was in the original." ey also said that macdowell and san giacomo agreed to reprise ir roles // republic of bob