In January 2013, Poitras - recipient of the 2012 MacArthur Genius Fellowship and co-recipient of the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service - was several years into making a film about surveillance in the post-9/11 era when she started receiving encrypted e-mails from someone identifying himself as “citizen four," who was ready to blow the whistle on the massive covert surveillance programs run by the NSA and other intelligence agencies.
In June 2013, she and Greenwald flew to Hong Kong for the first of many meetings with the man who turned out to be Snowden. She brought her camera with her. The film that resulted from this series of tense encounters is absolutely sui generis in the history of cinema: a 100% real-life thriller unfolding minute by minute before our eyes.
“I almost ruined the take when she said her first lines as Mellie Logan,” says Steven Soderbergh. I said, ‘Who are you thinking of?’ And she said, ‘Oh, a friend in West Virginia.’
The Informant! (2009) Dir. Steven Soderbergh, Cin. Steven Soderbergh
“Paranoid is what people who are trying to take advantage call you in a effort to get you to drop your guard. I read that the other day in an in-flight magazine.”
8 Women (2002, François Ozon) Æon Flux (2005, Karyn Kusama) A Bay of Blood (1971, Mario Bava) Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (2004, Beeban Kidron) Castle in the Sky (1986, Hayao Miyazaki) Chloe (2009, Atom Egoyan) Contagion (2011, Steven Soderbergh) Damsels in Distress (2011, Whit Stillman) Dom Hemingway (2013, Richard Shepard) Endless Love (1981, Franco Zeffirelli) Here Now (2015, Gregg Araki) (Short) Horse Girl (2020, Jeff Baena) In a Year with 13 Moons (1978, Rainer Werner Fassbinder) India Song (1975, Marguerite Duras) Kiki’s Delivery Service (1989, Hayao Miyazaki) Little Women (1994, Gillian Armstrong) Lourdes (2009, Jessica Hausner) Madame X: An Absolute Ruler (1978, Ulrike Ottinger & Tabea Blumenschein) Music and Lyrics (2007, Marc Lawrence) Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984, Hayao Miyazaki) Our Daily Bread (1934, King Vidor) Porco Rosso (1992, Hayao Miyazaki) School’s Out (2018, Sébastien Marnier) St. Trinian’s (2007, Barnaby Thompson & Oliver Parker) St. Trinian’s 2: The Legend of Fritton’s Gold (2009, Barnaby Thompson & Oliver Parker) Talledega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (2006, Adam McKay) The Crush (1993, Alan Shapiro) The Fish Child (2009, Lucía Puenzo) The Flying Luna Clipper (1987, Ikko Ono) The Holiday (2006, Nancy Meyers) The Tale of the Princess Kaguya (2013, Isao Takahata) The Toxic Avenger (1984, Lloyd Kaufman & Michael Herz) Whiskey Tango Foxtrot (2016, Glenn Ficarra & John Requa) White Bird in a Blizzard (2014, Gregg Araki)
- Things are getting too complicated. - No… they’re gettin’ real simple.
‘Sex, Lies, and Videotape’ (1989) is a rare American film I could refer as a 'French’ one. Because of simply complicated drama of relationships and dialogues, dialogues, dialogues. Young Steven Soderbergh directed “culturally, historically, aesthetically significant" independent film which commercial success was surprisingly outstanding.
