Gray’s Anatomy

The American performance artist Spalding Gray, just over 50 years old, has made himself a name in the States through his humorous and, from the point of view of content, strong monologues. Gray's Anatomy is the third to be filmed after originally being performed on stage since 1993. With a cynical self-irony Gray makes fun of fear of doctors and hypochondria, at the same time as he has a dig at religious hypocrites and suspect faith healers. The plot revolves around Gray's discovery of a visual defect in his left eye. He pays a visit to some of New York's eye specialists who fully agree on one issue: his eye has to undergo a ''cutterage''. A nice and minor surgical operation, although Gray does not seem particular keen on it. As he is faithful to his upbringing within the Christian Science movement, where you would rather die than send for a doctor, instead he starts to search for more natural alternatives that can save him from the surgeon's knife. His feeling of desperation escalates and poor Gray tries everything from Indian sweat ceremonies to a visit to ''the Elvis Presley of psychic surgeons'' who apparently lives on the Philippine Islands. The beginning is repulsive. In some rather unpleasant interviews, reinforced by the image's black and white documentary feel, Spalding Gray's hardships are seen in the perspective of other people who have gone through similar experiences: i.e. had their eyes penetrated with various metallic objects, or filled with superglue etc. etc. Subsequently, Gray starts to tell his story, with a neurotic frenzy not unlike the one in Woody Allen's manic hypochondriac in Hannah and Her Sisters. Steven Soderbergh is an extraordinary audio-visual sparring partner. With an impressive inventiveness, he comments on and emphasizes the story without smothering its natural flow or stealing attention from its content. The groundwork of the picture is simple: Spalding Gray behind the desk with a microphone, a lamp and a glass of water. However, the background, the colours and the lights vary all the time and the camera is continuously moving in order to be able to cover Mr. Gray from every possible angle. To film an appearance of this particular kind without a live audience and with an exterior that is kept at a minimum may seem rather risky. But the combination of a Spalding Gray in great form and Steven Soderbergh's imagination proves that it is possible to achieve a lot with few means and a great talent.

Premiärstatus
Europeisk premiär: Medverkande
Spalding Gray: Producent
John Hardy: Manus
Spalding Gray & Renee Shafransky, based on their performance piece: Foto
Elliot Davis: Musik
Cliff Martinez: Talat språk
English