
One of mainstream cinema's most tirelessly inventive directors Steven Soderbergh delivers another big-budget stylistic experiment with THE GOOD GERMAN This time around Soderbergh's target is 1940s film noir Set in post-war Berlin the atmospheric thriller is based on the acclaimed novel by Joseph Kanon Frequent Soderbergh collaborator George Clooney plays Jake Geismer an American military journalist who has returned to Berlin for the Potsdam Peace Conference Jakes driver Tully (Tobey Maguire) appears innocent upon first glance but is in fact a major player in the corrupt Berlin underworld Hes also dating Jakes former flame Lena Brandt (Cate Blanchett) whose beauty continues to torment Jake When Tullys cadaver washes ashore one day Jake is shocked to discover that nobody wants to go public with the news As much as hed like to forget about Lena he cant Pretty soon hes risking his life to help her flee the country In shooting THE GOOD GERMAN Soderbergh employed many of the actual filmmaking techniques that were used in the 1940s black-&-white cinematography elaborately constructed sets wide master shots & a sweeping score The result is a film that looks & feels like it was made in a much earlier era yet which contains the graphic language & content of an early 21st-century production