Steven Soderbergh, Haywire, porn: why dissecting a body is easier than you thought
The most prominent newspaper in Brazil published today an interview with Steven Soderbergh about his upcoming movie*. For being a director who has worked with Robert Downey Jr. (and survived), Soderbergh always has my attention. I particularly like him. I like his style, his films, his silences; but, mostly, I like the way he sees the world, with scalpels for eyes: he dissects society with lenses and does not focus on the putrid and fetid things he finds, leaving them aside but keeping us utterly aware of the horrid reality by our side while making us look at what he wants us to perceive. Yes, I am a Soderbergh fan. No, I am not the biggest fan there is. And, after this interview, I might rethink my position.
In his new film, Haywire (2012) Soderbergh’s proposal is to place yet another leading role on a non-actress performer. For this movie, he casted Gina Carano - a former MMA American champion - for the role of a spy who works for the government and gets betrayed by it, turning the plot into a cat-and-mouse routine. However, the interview published today - and I could not find it in an English version, unfortunately - casts Soderbergh into a completely different light to my eyes, mostly because of the following excerpt:
- Action films nowadays seem to be like porn movies, in which you just stay there waiting for the next fight, what is left does not matter. I wanted to do something more realistic in this genre. (my translation)
Can it be one of my favorite directors has been, all this time, hinting prejudice towards pornography and the movie industry without me noticing? Of course the whole Sasha Grey incident made me aware of Soderbergh 's ability - and disposition - to discuss the porn movie industry under the frame of mainstream movies; however, nothing hit me as bluntly as that statement, and for two reasons.
One, and most primarily, because it made me uncomfortable to see Soderbergh belittle porn movies for their whole structure. Alas, nobody here is judging Erin Brockovich (2000) for its legal purposes, nor qualifying Che (2008) for its historic accuracy. However, Soderbergh thinks it is okay to rank a porn movie under any other movie format based on its lack of plot. Porn for porn's sake equals art for art's sake, dear Soderbergh; and only this way will it be as true and meaningful as art can be.
Secondly, and this only hit me while I was conjuring up this article, who wants to see plot on porn films? Let's face it; no one is watching porn for the articles! We watch it because we want to see sex, not because we are interested in a story. Now, if the film has got a good plot, that is a major plus: hence the success of Portrait of a Call Girl. But to think that by comparing action movies to porn movies is, in any way, to belittle the action industry, think again, Soderbergh: plotless porn is much more able to succeed in attaining its goals than any psychological distress slash deep philosophical gunnery dispute will ever be able to. I am sorry you do not see it this way.
So, please, rethink your comparison, Mr. Soderbergh. Or, better, do not compare. Apples and bananas together make a better fruit salad than different sorts of grapes would. Throw in a little porn start or MMA fighter or two, and you might have the most superb desert.
PS: On a personal note, Mr. Soderbergh, I loved Heywire. Almost as much as I loved Dana Vespoli’s Lesbian Ass Worship #2. It is just a matter of point of view, I guess.
* Read the interview, in Portuguese, here: http://oglobo.globo.com/cultura/steven-soderbergh-tenta-evitar-cliches-de-filmes-de-acao-4009312
- Published February 19, 2012