Steven Soderbegh Revealed the Four Films He Wouldn't Re-Edit

For some filmmakers, a film is never quite finished — even when it’s initially released in theaters. George Lucas revisited Star Wars so that Greedo shot first, to the frustration of many viewers, while his peer Francis Ford Coppola made substantial changes to The Godfather Part III and The Cotton Club to greater critical acclaim. Steven Soderbergh is a generation younger than Lucas and Coppola, but he too has gone back to revisit and reimagine some of his older films, most recently 1991’s Kafka, which screened last year in a new iteration, re-titled Mr. Kneff.

While Soderbergh has recut some of his films, he recently made it clear that he doesn’t feel the need to do that for his entire filmography. The Hollywood Reporter relayed the comments the filmmaker made at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival — which included a candid look at the four films he wouldn’t revisit at all if given the opportunity.

“Out of Sight, I was really happy with. The Informant! I was really happy with, Behind the Candelabra I was really happy with,” Soderbergh said at the festival. “Those are three where I don’t know what I would do differently.”

Each of those received generally positive reviews, unlike the fourth film he named. “I was just talking a little while ago in an interview about a film that turned out exactly the way I had in my mind, but that people really hated: The Good German,” Soderbergh added. “I wouldn’t change anything about it. It’s just people just don’t like it.”

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The whole interview is well worth checking out, and Soderbergh also revealed that he had another project in the works in which he would revisit his past work.

“One of the things that I’ve been working on is creating a box set of seven films, the rights of which have come back to me. These aren’t the hits. These are like the B-sides,” he said. “It’s stuff like Kafka, Mr. Kneff, Schizopolis, Gray’s Anatomy, Bubble, The Girlfriend Experience and Full Frontal. It’s an unusual group. But I’ve spent the last three years remastering, in some cases re-cutting.” It’s one for fans of Soderbergh’s work to keep an eye on.