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Features: DVD, Widescreen, Aspect Ratio 1.85:1, Dolby Surround Sound, Director's Commentary, French, Spanish, Dubbed & Subtitled
With smoldering sensuality and biting humor, the surprising relationship between the three title subjects is revealed in sex, lies, and videotape, the most-talked about erotic comedy of the decade. James Spader (Stargate) ran away with the Best Actor prize at the Cannes Film Festival for his brilliantly understated and seductive performance as Graham, a long-lost college friend who drifts back into town and into the lives of John, a self-involved philanderer, his angelic wife, Ann, and her saucy sister, Cynthia. One by one, each is drawn into the very "personal project" Graham is working on, leaving the relationships between them forever transformed. A monumental debut effort from first-time feature director Steven Soderbergh, this comic original includes riveting performances by Peter Gallagher (The Player), Andie MacDowell (Michael) and Laura San Giacomo (TV's "Just Shoot Me").
"Two thumbs up!" Siskel & Ebert
"Dazzling, high-spirited, hilarious and scorchingly erotic!" Peter Travers, Rolling Stone
"...wry, highly watchable..." Desson Howe, Washington Post
"...intriguing, exceptionally well-acted..." Leonard Maltin's Movie & Video Guide
Editor's Note
Steven Soderbergh explodes onto the scene with this provocative, intelligent drama about infidelity and voyeurism. Ann Milaney (Andie MacDowell) lives in a comfortable Louisiana home with her lawyer husband, John (Peter Gallagher). She spends her days fretting over the insurmountable problems of the world and her own unfocused sense of melancholy. Although she doesn't know it, she has a good reason to be upset: John is having a torrid affair with her younger, more extroverted sister, Cynthia (the sexy Laura San Giacomo). When Graham Dalton (James Spader), an old college pal of John's, comes to visit, all three are momentarily distracted from personal problems and intrigues as they scrutinize the odd outsider. Ann soon discovers that Graham has some strange habits and problems of his own. Plagued by impotency since the calamitous breakup of his last relationship, the young drifter finds sexual gratification by videotaping women willing to talk about their sexual past and fantasies in front of the camera. A chain of attraction and jealousy develops as the four interconnect in several varied pairings, culminating with Ann's decision to become Graham's latest subject. Soderbergh's highly influential debut independent feature plays like a dangerous thriller that builds in tension until everyone's secrets are bitterly exposed.
Plot Summary
For a young, impotent man, watching taped interviews of women talk about their sexual habits is his only physical pleasure. When his friend's wife discovers her husband's affair with her sister, she insists on being interviewed on tape--an act that will ensure the breakup of her marriage. Steven Soderbergh's taut drama, which contains stirring performances by the film's four leads, is widely considered the grandparent of the independent film insurrection.
| Features | Interactive Menus | | Scene Selection | | English Subtitles | | Spanish Subtitles | | French Subtitles | | French Track | | Theatrical Trailer | | Commentary By Director Stephen Soderbergh | | Widescreen & Full Screen Versions | | English 4-Channel & 2-Channel Dolby Digital | | Spanish Track |
| Entertainment Reviews
 | Sex, Lies, and Videotape - DVD Review By: Christopher Null - filmcritic.com DVD Reviews Published on: 11/6/2009 9:42 PM | |
Steven Soderbergh didn't just launch the whole movies-with-all-lowercase-titles craze (as it's commonly written), he also launched the '90s rebirth of independent cinema with this singular effort. Mostly a chatty drama about sex in various levels of perversion, the film's momentum comes from the sudden arrival of a sexually dysfunctional James Spader, who throws a wrench into the lives of the other three principals -- a married couple and the wife's sister, engaged in a sad love triangle. Earnestly acted and expertly directed by Soderbergh in his major directorial debut, the film is a piece for film students and cinema fans alike....read the full review |
| Technical Info
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Release Information
| | Studio: Columbia Tri-Star |
| Release Date: 8/31/2004 |
| Running Time: 100 minutes |
| Original Release Date: 1989 | | Catalog ID: 90489 | | UPC: 00043396904897 | | Number of Discs: 1 |
Audio & Video
| | Original Language: English | | Available Audio Tracks: English [CC], English, French Dubbed, Spanish Dubbed | | Available Subtitles: English, French, Spanish | | Video: Color |
Aspect Ratio | | 1.85:1/4:3 |
| Cast & Crew
| Awards |
Oscar (1990) | | | Steven Soderbergh, Nominee, Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly For The Screen | |
Cannes Film Festival (1989) |  | James Spader, Winner, Best Actor | | | Steven Soderbergh, Nominee, Golden Palm | |
Golden Globe (1990) | | | Andie MacDowell, Nominee, Best Performance By An Actress In A Motion Picture-Drama | | | Laura San Giacomo, Nominee, Best Supporting Actress In A Motion Picture | | | Steven Soderbergh, Nominee, Best Motion Picture Screenplay | |
Independent Spirit (1990) | | Steven Soderbergh, Winner, Best Director | | Andie MacDowell, Winner, Best Female Lead | | Laura San Giacomo, Winner, Best Supporting Female | | | James Spader, Nominee, Best Male Lead | |
British Academy Awards (1990) | | | Laura San GIacomo, Nominee, Best Actress In A Supporting Role | | | James Spader, Nominee, Best Original Screenplay |
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| | Professional Reviews | Rolling Stone
"...A dazzling feature debut, Steven Soderbergh proves himself a writer and director of uncommon gifts....A movie of prodigious power and feeling that is also high-spirited, hilarious and scorchingly erotic..." 08/24/1989 p.38Entertainment Weekly
"...Spare..." -- Rating: A- 01/08/1999 pp.68-9 New York Times
"...A film whose enormous authority and intelligence extend to every detail....One of the freshest American films of the decade..." 08/04/1989 p.C12 New York Times
Included in the New York Times "10 Best Films of 1989" List 12/24/1989 p.II, 11 Variety
"...SEX, LIES AND VIDEOTAPE is one of the best American independent films in quite a long while, a sexy, nuanced, beautifully controlled examination of how a quartet of people are defined by their erotic impulses and inhibitions..." 02/01/989 Film Comment
"...A stunning first film..." 07/01/1989 p.67-9 Premiere
"Steven Soderbergh's uncompromisingly arty view of bourgeois indiscretion won prizes at Cannes and Sundance and galvanized the American independent film movement." 12/01/2003 p.14 |
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5
