The first movie that blew Steven Soderbergh away: “I can still feel the goosebumps”
Every director has that one film that profoundly impacted them, igniting their passion and revealing the true power of cinema. For many, it’s iconic works like Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey or Federico Fellini’s 8½—masterpieces often created by the directors who inspire their favourites.
But for Steven Soderbergh, it’s something more unexpected that brings the director right back to the teenage wonder of really experiencing film for the first time: The Beatles 1964 feature film A Hard Day’s Night. Talking to The Guardian, he discusses how the film had him “wide-eyed and blown away by what [I] was seeing for the first time.”
Released at the height of Beatlemania, A Hard Day’s Night follows John, George, Paul and Ringo through 36 hours of their life as they prepare for a television performance. Initially intended as a low-budget exploitation film to push the soundtrack album and milk the band for all they were worth, A Hard Day’s Night was a huge critical success. Drawing inspiration from British kitchen sink realism and French New Wave, it was shot in black and white using a cinema verite style.
While a film about the biggest pop group of its era might seem trivial to modern audiences with decades of cinematic evolution since, its impact remains undeniable. Revered for its innovation and cultural significance, it continues to be celebrated as a landmark achievement in film history.
For Soderbergh, it remains just as influential as when he first saw it, “I can still feel the goosebumps I had the day I saw [it],” he said.
And taking it a step further, it seems his joyous experience of the film is one of the things that keeps him going as a filmmaker. When asked if he was bored of filmmaking, he added, “I still feel like I did when I was 17 – that’s the age when you see the ‘best thing you’ve ever seen’. So that’s how I still make my movies, channelling the spirit of that teenager…”
Interviewed at a time when he was on the brink of taking a break from filmmaking, Soderbergh makes it clear that it’s not films that have bored him, but the inability to get certain types of film – like A Hard Day’s Night – made. He added: “It’s so hard to get anything like that sanctioned now, that’s what pisses me off. I’m not bored, but I am frustrated.”
Having a varied career that began with him being the youngest single recipient of the Palme d’Or and went on to see him make beloved blockbusters like the Ocean’s trilogy, Soderbergh sought something different from film around this time. Something that would blow him and his audiences away just like his teenage self. But whether he found it is up for discussion.
Never Miss A Beat
The Far Out Beatles Newsletter
All the latest stories about The Beatles from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.