FOR THOSE WHO FANCY A BIT OF A CHALLANGE : "SEX, LIES AND VIDEOTAPE"

Ok folks, so here’s the deal. What we have right here is a historical film in its own right. Sex, lies and videotape not only made director Stephen Soderbergh’s career, it also put the Sundance film festival where it made its gala performance on the cultural map. I was shown a clip of this one in one of my classes and was intrigued by it. Naturally the clip was by no means enough to give one an appropriate idea of the film in general, but the taste it left in my mouth was pretty ok. So I hunted it out and watched it a couple of days later. The exercise was supposed to be purely educational; I meant to watch it with the lecture and my class notes still fresh in my mind. All I can say is, I am so glad I was feeling so enterprising…
Now, I know the title basically makes the thing sound like a cheap porn movie, but it’s actually pretty good at summing up the whole story. It is about sex, lies and videotape. John and Ann are in many ways your common or garden suburban couple. John is a lawyer, he is successful and a bit egocentric; he is also having a passionate affair (nothing unusual so far) with his extroverted and saucy sister in law Cynthia. Ann, his wife, is woman with problems. Although she is basically a very good person, she has serious problems with sex on many levels. This is linked to the problems in her marriage; but the relationship between the three of them is a lot more complicated than it first looks. Nevertheless, the little triangle carry on through day to day life somehow until Graham, an old college buddy of John’s moves to town and asks to stay with John and Ann for a couple of weeks. The thing nobody really knows about Graham is that he has problems of his own and he has embarked on a very personal project to work through them… As Cynthia, Ann and John also become a part of this project, all four lives and relationships will be changed forever…
I’m in a conundrum as I write about this film, I don’t want to give too much away, on the other hand it’s pretty hard to express the effect and the emotion contained in the film without giving stuff away. Sex is always a touchy issue isn’t it? I mean yes, we’re all very liberated, we talk about it so freely and all that these days, but even so when it comes to serious problems and hang-ups, it’s not that simple. Now kindly recall that this film was actually made 20 years ago, when talking about these things were even harder and there were many more social taboos. Soderbergh struck a blow right to the heart of yuppie culture, a typical, dysfunctional, suburban couple with the house and the car and the prestige and the problems that no one can bring themselves to speak about. He then presents a solution to the problem. It is an unorthodox solution, it is bizarre and since the consequence of it is that you end up facing yourself and your own fears it is not easy to implement but ultimately it is a solution and basically in the end almost everyone is happy. It is a very honest film that doesn’t pull its punches at all. When it was over I was so overcome by it, I had to throw myself out onto the doorstep with a completely unscheduled cigarette to pull myself together. But did I regret watching it? Heck no…