Beginning in March 2010, Steven Soderbergh decided to document his cultural diet for the year, noting down everything he watched and read, the results of which have just been made public. Taking in almost a hundred movies, 50 books and several tv shows, Soderbergh also found time to finish shooting two movies, Haywire and Contagion. Put’s us to shame, right?
The list, which is also dated and organised was given to Studio 360′s Kurt Anderson and reveals busy viewing days, possible favourites and no less than 20 viewings of his new film Haywire, 5 of The Social Network (none of the other Oscar noms get a look in!), and several Raiders of The Lost Ark, in black and white! And if he sticks to his retirement plans in the near future, god knows how large this list may grow.
Here is the list of just the movies he devoured and in the order he watched them;
Haywire
Primer
Exit Through the Gift Shop
All the President’s Men
Panic Room
Dune
Please Give
The Godfather
The Special Relationship
The Godfather Part 2
The Tall Target
The Social Network
The Room
The Day of the Jackal
In Cold Blood
Jaws
The Shark Is Still Working
Cloverfield
Rebecca
To Catch a Thief
Inception
Tiptoes
Salt
A Prophet
The White Ribbon
His Way
Catfish
Thrilla in Manilla
Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work
The King of Kong
Alien
Risky Business
State and Main
Splice
Predators
Smash His Camera
Enter the Void
Jagged Edge
Animal Kingdom
Michael Clayton
The French Connection
Five Easy Pieces
Somewhere
Apocalypse Now
Fair Game
I’m Still Here
Up the Sandbox
Miller’s Crossing
True Grit
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Tiny Furniture
The Fighter
Inside Job
Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps
The Cranes Are Flying
Funeral in Berlin
The Ipcress File
Black Swan
Days of Wine and Roses
Chimes at Midnight
The King of Marvin Gardens
End of the Road
Buried
The Killing
The Knack
The Right Stuff
Deception
The Birds
Rififi
The Navigator
Last Tango in Paris
The Spirit of the Beehive
The Perils of Priscilla
Rodeo
The Sweet Smell of Success
Stay Hungry
The Hill
Se7en
Eraserhead
The Anderson Tapes
Contagion
Malice
Network
The Goodbye Girl
The World of Henry Orient
Idiocracy
Antichrist
Wattstax
Billion Dollar Brain
Report to the Commissioner
Ugetsu
Sanjo the Bailiff
If you fancy looking at the exhaustive list,which contains all movies, dates, books plus a helpful little syllabus for aspiring filmmakers, you can download it here.
Want to write about the stuff you're passionate about and have your work read by an audience of over 10 million a month? Click here to become a contributor.
7 Comments
Honestly not impressed. I easily watched more than that in the past year (80 on netflix instant alone) as a high honor student and 3 sport varsity athlete. Well done don’t get me wrong andi hope to get to see your 2 film, but I found this anticlimactic
Seeing as how your spelling, punctuation, and grammar are pretty unimpressive, maybe you should knock off on the Netflix and attend class more often, there, Joe Varsity.
I dont think he was necassarily trying to impress anyone.
Yay! Good to see ‘Idiocracy’ on his list, hope he liked it… that film is a terrifying and prophetic warning of things to come… it’s also pretty funny.
Ewww….Can’t believe he watched Splice. That was a horrible movie!
State and Main! Go you Huskies!
Is this a joke? This is just the common stuff that everyone watched anyway already as teenagers, plus some more recent stuff. Obviously he watches favourite movies over and over, which I understand. But, gosh, I’d rather use the time to discover new stuff instead of watching The Godfather another 20 times.
Besides, I’d expect a much wider interest from a director. He should watch more world cinema and not 95% American productions. But this explains why his movies aren’t really breaking new borders. They’re just well directed, but nothing special. After seeing his movie list, it is no surprise though. Because how could he know, if he doesn’t get any inspiration outside Hollywood.