After announcing last year that he would no longer be directing feature films, Steven Soderbergh has not exactly retired to Florida for an extended siesta. Since then, he’s involved himself in a number of interesting projects, including directing an entire season of turn-of-the-century medical drama The Knick for Cinemax, publishing a novella on Twitter, and uploading video projects on his website, Extension 765.
The most recent of these videos is a black and white re-edit of Raiders, which you can watch on his site, accompanied by nothing but Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’s score for The Social Network. Soderbergh explains that he created the version as an exercise to challenge himself and viewers “to think only about staging” and consider “how you always know where you are” while watching the film. He further clarifies, “That’s high level visual math shit.”
Face…off.
If this piques your interest, Soderbergh has a few more film re-edits on his site, including a cut-up comparison of the Hitchcock and Van Sant versions of Psycho, as well as a trimmed-down version of the coulda-been-a-classic Heaven’s Gate, which he calls “The Butcher’s Cut.” However, if you’re not in a particularly scholarly mood, the Renaissance Man has also recently spearheaded an endorsement campaign for a Bolivian liquor called Singani 63, which he is now importing. How’s that retirement going, Steve?
(via the AV Club)
