Script To Screen: “Sex, Lies, andVideotape”

Anybody who cares about the indie film world should hold the 1989 movie Sex, Lies, and Videotape in high esteem. During the 80s when the Diller-Esiner-Katzenberg regime at Paramount instituted severe top down control of the filmmaking process, emulated at other studios resulting in… well… 80s movies, along came writer-director Steven Soderbergh with a little $2M film about interesting characters doing interesting things in interesting ways. The movie was a hit, grossing $24M, winning the Palme D’Or Award at the Cannes Film Festival, and ushered in a great run of independent filmmaking.

Setup: Ann, a sexually repressed wife, goes to visit Graham, a long-time friend of Ann’s husband who has drifted into their lives, carrying his own sexual baggage.

21 INT. GRAHAM'S APARTMENT -- DAY

On a television monitor we see images originating
from an 8mm Video deck. Graham sits naked in a sheet-
covered chair facing the screen. He watches the tape,
which is footage of himself interviewing a girl about
her sexual preferences. The photography on the tape
is handheld, relentless. As the questions get more
detailed, Graham becomes more aroused.
There is a knock on Graham's door. He calmly shuts
off the videotape player and stands, wrapping the
sheet around himself.

GRAHAM
It's open.
Graham walks into the bedroom to put on some clothes.
Ann opens the door and walks into the apartment.

ANN
Hi!

GRAHAM
(off)
Ann. Hello.

ANN
Are you in the middle of something?

GRAHAM
(off)
Nothing I can't finish later.

ANN
(looks)
I just wanted to see how the place
looked furnished.

GRAHAM
(Off)
Not much to see, I'm afraid. I'm
sort of cultivating a minimalist
vibe.

ANN
Somehow I imagined books. I thought
you would have like a whole lot
of books and be reading all the
time.
Graham enters.

GRAHAM
I do read a lot. But I check
everything out of the library.
Graham picks up an Anais Nin diary and opens it to
show Ann the library sleeve inside.

GRAHAM
Cheaper that way. And cuts down
on the clutter.
Ann walks to the table where the video gear is set
up. Graham watches her closely. She looks into a
large box of 8mm videotapes. On the side of each tape
is a label. The labels look like this:

DONNA / 11 DEC 86 / 1:07:36

And so on. There are thirty or forty tapes, total.

ANN
What are these?

GRAHAM
Videotapes.

ANN
(smiles)
I can see that. What are they?
Graham exhales.

GRAHAM
It's a personal project I'm working
on.

ANN
What kind of personal project?

GRAHAM
Oh, just a personal project like
anyone else's personal project.
Mine's just a little more personal.

ANN
Who's Donna?

GRAHAM
Donna?

ANN
Donna. On this tape it says
"Donna".

GRAHAM
(thinking)
Donna was a girl I knew in Florida.

ANN
You went out with her?

GRAHAM
Not really.
Ann looks in the box again.

ANN
How come all these are girl's
names?
Graham thinks for a moment.

GRAHAM
Because I enjoy interviewing women
more than men.

ANN
All of these are interviews?

GRAHAM
Yes.

ANN
Can we look at one?

GRAHAM
No.

ANN
Why not?

GRAHAM
Because I promised each subject
that no one would look at the tape
except me.
Ann looks at Graham for a long moment, then back at
the tapes.

ANN
What...what are these interviews
about?

GRAHAM
The...interviews are about sex,
Ann.

ANN
About sex?

GRAHAM
Yes.

ANN
What about sex?

GRAHAM
Everything about sex.

ANN
Like what?

GRAHAM
Like what they've done, what they
do, what they don't do, what they
want to do but are afraid to ask
for, what they won't do even if
asked. Anything I can think of.

ANN
You just ask them questions?

GRAHAM
Yes.

ANN
And they just answer them?

GRAHAM
Mostly. Sometimes they do things.

ANN
To you?

GRAHAM
No, not to me, for me, for the
camera.

ANN
(stunned)
I don't ...why...why do you do
this?

GRAHAM
I'm sorry this came up.

ANN
This is just...so...

GRAHAM
Maybe you want to go.

ANN
Yes, I do.
Ann nods and absently heads for the door. She gives
Graham a puzzled look before leaving.

Here is the scene in the movie:

There’s so much emotional subtext at work in this scene, even the little bit of business where Ann spills some tea (not in the script), suggesting visually how ‘off balanced’ the discovery of the subject of Graham’s “personal project.”

I’ve always looked at the band Nirvana as the music version of Sex, Lies, and Videotape. They emerged from the bland, prepackaged mess that was 80s music, recording their first album in 1989, the same year SLV was released.

It’s an item of faith for me: Whenever movies, TV, and music become too routinized, too formulaic, too pablum because of dictates coming from corporate overlords, artists will rise up from the masses and rattle our culture’s cage.

If you haven’t seen Sex, Lies and Videotape, you should.

And just because I can:

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