Director Steven Soderbergh, whose last movie (Ocean's Twelve) made $363,531,634 one year and a half ago, has just released "Bubble", the first opus of a six film ambitious project, recovering his independency.
Shot in three weeks with digital cameras, only released in the Landmark theater chain, on the HDNet Movies cable TV network and on Jan. 31 on DVD, Bubble is a UFO in the movie production landscape. With no A-list actors, the film was cast on site with non-proffessionals, the only Hollywoodian link is its director's last name.
Time Magazine of Jan. 23rd titled its article about the movie: "Let the Revolution Begin." And Manohla Dargis from The New York Times said: "creative experimentation has periodically liberated Mr. Soderbergh from the prison of commercial mainstream filmmaking."
Even if Soderbergh's prison is more than desirable, the fact that he wants to get out of it demonstrates the growing differences between cinema and its industry. I mean, what does it mean to forget about Pitt, Clooney and Damon in order to go and shoot some John Smiths on the Ohio-West Virginia border? It's like leaving your condo in Gramercy to share a studio in Hoboken! Why would you do that?
Well, I think the only reason is that over in Hoboken or in any place you have not been before, no one knows you, and nobody cares about you; you can truly be yourself. This is independancy, when nobody cares.
The result is worth it. It is a very slow movie which takes time to show empty rooms, the research of the perfect frame, the way that Andrei Tarkovski liked it. (Soderbergh is known to admire Tarkovski since he did a remake of Solaris)
Bubble is a film that is not on the rush to push plot points; the climax and the last kiss. Bubble is a movie without any kisses, barely a smile, two tears though very discreet. Bubble is a documentary on a made up reality, it's simply beautifull.
And because it's beautifull, nobody is going to like it. Its independance from big studio production made it possible to shoot without any external pressure. It is almost a present, a gift from a well-known director whose passion is still alive.
