CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va.- Steven Soderbergh is waiting for his possessions to appear. His bed. His books. Moving vans are on their way. Aside from the worn-out 1960 Rambler parked out front - the one he drove here from Los Angeles - he hasn't got much, except maybe all the stuff that's floating inside his head and some T-shirts.

``Subconsciously, as soon as I get out of Los Angeles, I think there's a subtle shift. I get a little more of the screw-it attitude. I do what I want to do - and that's worked well for me,`` says the 26-year-old film maker, whose film sex, lies, and videotape opens Wednesday at the Crossroads 8 in St. Petersburg and the University Collection in Tampa. There also will be a screening at 8 p.m. Monday at the Gulf Gate Cinema in Sarasota to benefit the Sarasota French Film Festival.

He'd been thinking about moving to Charlottesville even before January, before sex, lies, and videotape astounded the audiences at the U.S. Film Festival in Park City, Utah. He'd been thinking Charlottesville - where he once lived as a kid - before May, when he won first prize at the Cannes Film Festival and was besieged by journalists.