The “gigantic flop” Steven Soderbergh calls his favourite movie
When it comes to independent cinema pioneers, the name Steven Soderbergh is well worth mentioning. His 1989 indie drama Sex, Lies, and Videotape introduced the world to the filmmaker, and he became the youngest solo director to win the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival.
He followed up with Kafka, King of the Hill and The Underneath before a Hollywood breakthrough arrived in 1998 with Out of Sight and the subsequent Erin Brockovich and Traffic. From there, Soderbergh established himself as one of the big players in cinema with movies like Ocean’s 11, Che and Magic Mike.
Soderbergh’s films have varied in subject and tone so often, but they’ve still managed to be considered some of the best moments in cinema in recent history. As for Soderbergh’s favourite movie, we might find his choice something of a surprise, but the reason for it is all to do with the closeness of his family.
In an interview with Out, Soderbergh once spoke of the 1953 American musical fantasy movie The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T. “Every Christmas we watched the same movie, The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T, which came out in ’53 and was a gigantic flop,” he said. “It’s a cult film. Dad would rent it and get a projector – that’s an indication of how invested he was in movies.”
Also featured in the interview was Soderbergh’s brother Charlie, who explained that the siblings’ parents saw the movie on their first date. The film tells of a boy who dreams of a fantasy world dominated by an evil piano tutor who captures children and makes them learn the instrument for eternity.
“It was a big deal in our family,” Charlie Soderbergh noted. “The lyrics to all the words and the set decorations are all by Dr. Seuss.” Steven then went on to discuss the performance of Hans Conried, who plays the piano tutor Dr. Terwilliker, saying he is “unbelievably hilarious.”
“It’s really smart and beautiful and hallucinatory,” the director added. “When you watch it now, you think, This was in a theatre 60 years ago? It’s really, really stunning.” Charlie also admitted that the film’s two main stars, Peter Lind Hayes and Mary Healy, represented their parents on screen and, according to Steven, even “looked similar” when they were younger.
See below the trailer for The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T, Steven Soderbergh’s favourite film.
