Steven Soderbergh has already made history as the youngest director to receive a Palme d'Or. He became the owner of this award at the age of 26. In addition, he was awarded an Oscar for his 2000 film Traffic. To date, Soderbergh has directed more than thirty films in various genres - from arthouse dramas to high-budget crime comedies.
Early years and early films
Stephen Soderbergh was born in January 1963. He spent his childhood in the state of Louisiana in the city of Baton Rouge, where his father (Peter Andrew Soderbergh) worked as a university dean.
Stephen, in his school years, in animation courses, began to create his own short films. After leaving school, Stephen tried to conquer Hollywood. But after working there for a while as a freelance editor, he moved back to Baton Rouge and began filming videos and TV commercials here.
In 1986, Stephen received a Grammy nomination for a documentary about one of the performances of the rock band Yes. This achievement brought Soderbergh some fame.
A year later, Soderbergh directed the short film "Winston" (1987), the main theme of which was the theme of sexual attraction between people. Winston helped Soderbergh attract investors to create his first feature film, Sex, Lies and Videos. This film was released in 1989 (its premiere took place at the Sundance independent film festival) and was able not only to appeal to critics, but also to collect an impressive $ 20 million box office (with a budget of 1.2 million). For Best Original Screenplay, the film was nominated for an Oscar. In addition, it was she who brought Stephen the Palme d'Or in Cannes.
Works by Soderbergh in the nineties and receiving an Oscar
His next picture "Kafka" (1991) was perceived ambiguously and, in general, was not as popular as "Sex, Lies and Video". After that, Soderbergh made several more full-length films - "King of the Hill" (1993), "There, Inside" (1995), "Grey's Anatomy" (1996).
An important milestone in Soderbergh's filmography is the arthouse comedy Schizopolis (1996). In this film, he acted not only as a director, but also as a scriptwriter, editor, cameraman and actor.
In 1998, Soderbergh began a creative collaboration with George Clooney and invited him to his action movie Out of Sight. Clooney played here the main character - the robber Jack Foley. And this is not the only superstar involved in this film - one of the heroines, for example, is played by the famous singer Jennifer Lopez.
The year 2000 was very significant for Soderberg. This year he released two of his films - "Erin Brockovich" and "Traffic". And both of them were nominated for an Oscar in the Best Director category. As a result, Soderbergh was given the statuette for Traffic.
Creativity of Soderbergh from 2001 to the present day
In 2001, one of the director's most commercially successful works was released on the big screens - the film "Ocean's 11", which tells the story of a daring robbery of several Las Vegas casinos. This film is replete with world-class movie stars - here you can see George Clooney (he plays Ocean), Julia Roberts, Casey Affleck, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, etc.
As a result, Ocean's 11 grossed approximately $ 450 million at the box office, which is more than five times the budget spent on filming.
Later, Soderbergh directed two sequels of this brilliant film - Ocean's 12 (2004) and Ocean's 13 (2007). It is believed that they even surpassed the first part in some way. And in general, the whole trilogy turned out to be very successful and fell in love with viewers all over the planet.
At the same time, Soderbergh directed a number of other films - Solaris (2002), In All Its Glory (2002), Bubble (2005), Good German (2006) and Call Girl (2007). The last three tapes became virtually a failure and did not collect a significant box office in the States and in the rest of the world.
Among the works of Soderbergh, dating back to the 2000s, it is worth noting the film "Che". This film is dedicated to the life of the legendary revolutionary Che Guevara and consists of two parts - "Argentinian" and "Partizan". The total running time of the picture is 268 minutes. The main role is played by the actor Benicio del Toro.
In this decade, Stephen also has a number of interesting projects. Among them, for example, the disaster film "Contagion" (2011), the action movie "Knockout" (2012), the biopic "Behind the Candelabra" (2013), the psychological thriller "Side Effect" (2013), the comedy "Logan's Luck" (2017).
Soderbergh's latest movie to be released is called High Flight. The world premiere of this sports drama took place on January 27, 2019. And in early February, she was shown to subscribers of the Netflix service. This drama tells the story of sports agent Ray, who, during a lockout (strike) in the NBA, draws his ward, a talented basketball player, into some dubious adventure.
Personal life
At the age of 26 (that is, in 1989) Steven Soderbergh first married - the film actress Betsy Brantley became his legal wife. But they did not live together for too long - only about five years, the divorce occurred in 1994. From this marriage, the filmmaker has a daughter, Sarah.
In 2003, Stephen's second wedding took place - with a TV presenter and former model Jules Esner. The couple still live together in New York. Soderbergh calls Jules his muse, who inspired him to create many female characters.
At the same time, Soderbergh, as reported by the media, has an illegitimate daughter from Australian Frances Anderson. The name of her daughter is Pearl, she was born in 2009.
