Out of Sight

365 Films

Entry #100

Out Of Sight (1998)

Directed by Steven Soderbergh

Because I planned all along i.e. just realized that this was my 100^th entry, I figured it would be best to select a film that was nothing less than a milestone in my love affair with the medium.  Steven Soderbergh’s Out of Sight was, is and remains to this day, a summer movie anomaly.  It has all the hallmarks of a universally accessible blockbuster (even though it most certainly was not one at the time of its release) along with containing an intriguing variety of art-film flourishes.  In fact, Out of Sight was when I first learned about filmmaking terms like lens flare, jump cut, and freeze-frame (freeze frame is pretty self-explanatory but I had never seen it utilized as effectively before).  I can remember so vividly what an undeniable visual knock out the film was for me.  The cinematography rendering each location and each character practically it’s own body temperature to be playfully fluctuated by Mr. Soderbergh and his screenwriter, Scott Frank.  Another fact worth pointing out is that I was completely unaware as to who Mr. Soderbergh was or the notion that this was some sort of return from the wilderness for him.  I had not seen, nor was the least bit familiar with his breakthrough film Sex, Lies, and Videotape nor had I seen any of the follow-ups that failed to register the same kind of unadulterated wide-spread appreciation.  It makes sense in retrospect because Out of Sight burns with an intensity of a filmmaker who has something to prove.  An intensity it should be stated that we have Schizopolis to thank for, but once again that is a topic for another blog entry.  As such, Out of Sight introduced me to the then radical notion that art house and Hollywood could mix and that one need not be the clichéd pointy headed, goatee-scratching intellectual to appreciate a filmmaker’s stylistic flourishes.  So enraptured was I with the film that I began devouring interview and article after interview and article about its director and was astonished with how down to earth and matter of fact he was about the whole thing.  He didn’t come off like a larger than life showbiz time, nor could I simply perceive him as an out of touch egg head.  He was somehow all of those things at once and none of them at the same time.  That effect is very similar to the spell cast by Out of Sight.  In the middle of it, it seems to glide along as gracefully and weightlessly as a world champion figure skater and it is only when it concludes do you realize how masterfully it has just executed it’s tale of lonely hearts and missed connections.  All told in an incredibly fluid cinematic style and with a pair of leads that have a romantic chemistry yet to be matched by any modern day equivalent.  Out of Sight is a summer movie that actually deserves to be called one and as it happens, it’s pretty damn funny too.  In other words, it’s a keeper regardless of what season it is.  Oh, I almost forgot, for those of you who have seen the Delaware College of Art and Design Summer camp film that I helped create back in 2002 will see how heavily indebted all of my "original" filmmaking ideas were to Out of Sight.  I hope we don't get sued for admitting that.