Product Description

When a long lost college friend working on a very personal project moves back to town the relationships between a philandering husband his wife and his wifes sister are forever transformed in this smart and seductive comic original. Studio: Sony Pictures Home Ent Release Date: 08/31/2004 Starring: James Spader Peter Gallagher Run time: 100 minutes Rating: R Director: Steven Soderbergh

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #9022 in DVD
• Brand: Sony
• Released on: 1998-10-07
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Full Screen, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English, Spanish
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish, French
• Dubbed in: French
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 100 minutes

Amazon.com essential video
Winner of the Palm d'Or and Best Actor awards at the 1989 Cannes Film Festival, sex, lies, and videotape transformed the independent film industry and turned writer-director Steven Soderbergh into the envy of aspiring filmmakers everywhere. Sly, seductive, and coolly intelligent, the movie explores the sexual shenanigans and personal preoccupations of its four central characters, revolving around a selfish lawyer (Peter Gallagher) who responds to his wife by having an affair with her free-spirited sister (Laura San Giacomo). But when the lawyer's college roommate (James Spader) arrives for an unexpectedly extended visit, the neglected wife (Andie MacDowell) is surprisingly responsive to his seductive hobby of videotaping women as they describe their sexual fantasies. It's his way of compensating for impotence, but the curious wife considers this a sexual challenge, and Soderbergh turns sex, lies, and videotape into a fascinating chamber piece that puts a decidedly different spin on the consequences of infidelity. Balanced on a risky and finely tuned performance by Spader, the film delivers frisky passion and emotional intrigue, and yet much of its allure is found in the exchange of secrets and the hidden mysteries of sexual desire. --Jeff Shannon

Customer Reviews

Let's talk about sex...
One of the smartest and all around cleverest films I've had the pleasure of ever seeing; `Sex, Lies and Videotape' is a very moving and poignant study of the effect that sex has on our lives. Taking four individuals and placing them under scrutiny, Soderbergh's masterpiece single-handedly does what so many have attempted to do in the past; take sex out of the bedroom and place it in the living-room, where we all are forced to confront it.

Be aware though, despite the films rather graphic subject, the content here within is no where near as graphic as one might expect it to be. This is not an `adult film' but a study of adults; there is a difference.

The film tells the story of unhappily married couple Ann and John Mullany. In the opening scene we hear Ann telling her therapist that she believes John is having an affair because he no longer longs to touch her. She has found herself distanced from him and she wonders who he is sleeping with. The answer is Cynthia, Ann's flirtatious sister. Cynthia and John have been sleeping with one another for some time now, and Ann has only a suspicion but no hard evidence. The Graham walks into their lives. Graham is John's old college roommate who stops by for an extended visit. He brings with him his fetesh; videotape.

Not what you think.

Graham, being impotent, likes to videotape women talking about their fantasies and desires. He records their most intimate of secrets and uses them later for his own fantasies. The videotapes are a mask to hide the pain of his own failures with women, a way for him to stay guarded because commitment is something that terrifies him. The videotape is a way for Graham to experience love and lust without ever having to give of himself and so he exploits those he knows in an attempt to salvage the humanity he has left in himself. He is scorned and guilty and ashamed, and this plays heavily into why he feels it necessary to restrict himself of a woman's touch and rely wholly on the fantasies they cement for him on film.

This movie is so much deeper than `sex', believe me.

The film is elevated by some very strong performances; most notably by the female portion of the cast. Laura San Giacomo is astonishing as the deliciously despicable Cynthia. She oozes forth with this creamy seduction that captures her characters personality disorders marvelously. Andie MacDowell has found the perfect film for her form of acting. I said this before with `Four Weddings and a Funeral', where she was perfectly cast as the uninteresting girl you can't help but find interesting. MacDowell is one of those actresses who rarely excites you; but here she manages to use that sullen demeanor to create a woman ravaged by an unidentifiable pain. She doesn't understand why she feels so lost and so distant and it haunts her, and she bleeds that through with each passing scene. James Spader is effectively reserved, as he is almost always, and Peter Gallagher manages not to disgust me (I really dislike this guy for the most part) but as a whole this movie belongs to the women.

In the end I must recommend this movie. Sure, it is a little rough in some scenes so don't expect a PG film here; there is a rating system for a reason, but if you can appreciate film as an art form then you will find much to appreciate here. This is a thinking mans film for it exposes the highs and low of America's favorite pastime (okay, humanities favorite pastime) allowing us to finally understand why this `activity' is so vitally important.

Great film
Late in the movie, a character asks:

"What am I supposed to do? Am I supposed to recount all the points in my life leading up to this moment, and then hope that it's coherent; that it makes some sort of sense to you. It doesn't make any sense to me. You know, I was there. And I don't have the slightest idea who I am. And I'm supposed to be able to explain it to you..."

The film believes that open, sincere discussion can make us aware of the solutions to most of our lives' problems. But it's not necessarily something a therapist or even a husband and wife can always accomplish. Effective discussion probes into the depths of our minds. Effective discussion finds a way underneath the surface of our routine, everyday thoughts; reaches deep into our memories; and illuminates those choices/values that matter most, that best define who we are.

The topic the film talks most about is sex, as you probably guessed. But it goes deeper than that, too, into how we define ourselves, how we live our lives.

The film is enormously ambitious, and succeeds beautifully.

I will watch this one many more times.

A Strange Movie
While I am always amazed by Spader, this is a really strange movie. It is really more psychological than graphic and you sort of lose the point of the whole thing. It was like he would rather hear someone talk about it than DO it, which I really don't understand but guess different strokes... HB