|
|
Special Features
 |
| Sasha Grey-The Girlfriend Experience | Joseph Belanger
March 2010
Movie Entertainment
Dinner and a movie followed by drinks back at your place is a scenario not too unfamiliar to most of us. But most of us are probably not accustomed to paying $2000 an hour for the privilege of keeping our date’s company, or more specifically what those in the business call, THE GIRLFRIEND EXPERIENCE. That particular experience is now the subject of a Steven Soderbergh film of the same name.
“GFE describes an escort that recreates the exact emotional and physical environment that you would get from having an actual girlfriend,” Soderbergh tells me when we meet at the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival in New York City, where the film premiered its final cut. “They know all about you. They have read everything you’ve read; they’ve seen all the movies you’ve seen. It is literally like renting a relationship by the hour.”
For an increasingly more detached dating world, this hassle-free option - were it not for the high price tag - almost seems appealing.
The Academy Award winning director toggles back and forth between big budget crowd pleasers, like the OCEAN’S 11 series and films like this one, that focus more on non-professional actors in situations they can relate to with little more than a rough outline to get through each scene. Shot over a period of 16 days in October 2008 for a budget of under $2 million, THE GIRLFRIEND EXPERIENCE features adult film star, Sasha Grey (of SASHA GREY’S ANATOMY fame) as our heroine, Chelsea. Soderbergh first discovered Grey when casually flipping through a magazine in Los Angeles. “I had never really heard anybody in the porn industry talk about themselves like that. She didn’t hit all these markers that usually people who go into that industry hit and I was surprised and intrigued.”
THE GIRLFRIEND EXPERIENCE is certainly a unique one that captures the tone of the times faster than one would think possible. Given that the film focuses on redefining our understanding of transactions and commodities against an impeccably pristine upper class Manhattan backdrop, it only stands to reason that the men Chelsea does business with have nothing but the economy on their minds. “When things get tough, what do you get rid of first?” Soderbergh quips. We all have to make those hard decisions and even the oldest trade in history suffers when the markets crash. “It just ended up being organic that all of this was going on while we were making a movie about this subject. It lent another layer to scenes that wouldn’t have been there otherwise.”
As for Soderbergh himself, he is staying one step ahead of the economy by already diving into his next feature, KNOCKOUT, starring Ewan McGregor, Channing Tatum and Michael Douglas. With a whack more directing projects at various stages of production, when is one of today’s few auteur filmmakers going to take a well-deserved break? “What’s going to happen is at a certain point, I will just stop. I don’t have two speeds; I’ll just stop.” Here’s hoping he doesn’t switch gears any time soon.
|
|
|
|