"before we figured out what the algorithm was"

Film The few of you who've been reading this for a while may remember the old Scene Unseen series from back in 2004 and this short piece about the entertainingly confrontational audio commentary on Steven Soderbergh's film The Limey. Now on the eve of his retirement, Soderbergh explains to The AV Club the film's editing process which turned a film that didn't work into something which I think we can all agree is something of a classic:

"It was shot and cut chronologically. It was written that way, and it was done that way, and it didn’t work. I’m not saying that’s the script’s fault. I’m just saying it didn’t work. It had to be rethought from frame one. And before we figured out what the algorithm was, I thought we were in trouble. I remember the day—God, this would be January 1999 — Out of Sight had just won the National Society Of Film Critics awards for picture, director, and screenplay, and I got a call from Stacey Sher, one of the producers, going, “I’ve got great news, it was just announced that blah blah blah.” And I remember thinking, “I really don’t care. I would trade that for one edit that would work.”

Later in the interview he talks about poor reception for The Good German, which, with its mimicing of ancient film artifice is probably an interesting film to revisit in the wake of The Artist.